Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-05-21
WHOLE NO 399.

statute book. then ask him whit right he
has to cull the proceedings IN the Sims case
Illegal and deny the legal right of the Mnr-
shal aud Judge TO return n slave under the
slave law, ns he did in his letter Of April 4th?
II he was bound by that law, SO were they.
Aud when. knowing tlInt LAW was on the
statue book, lac accepted seat in the 32d
Congress, he must have seen TINT Murshnls
would be conslilulionally bound to executo
| II, and he consiitutionnliy bound to pny them
for SO doing. Could nn nnti-slavery MN
assume such an office.
| Alr. Manu- may chose either horn Of the
! dilemma he prefers. One theory leads him
to anarchy: the other into the jaws of the
| Fugitive Slave Law.
Mr. Mann Ike all Free SoiIers. is con-
etanily telling us what the Supreme Court
is not, mud what Congress is not; about
which nInlicrs we n AXE no inquiry. | will
again state to him lie question we do wish
answered. According to the theory which
ho mud they prefer, there are three great CO.
ordinate powers in this government: tho
President, Congress, aud the Supreme Court
each entitled TO cOusirue the Constitution.
Now, Congress, one of these great powers,
hns enacted tho Fugitive Slave Law; il has
been approved hy the President, another or
these great powers; SO far as il has ever
come before any Justice of the Supreme
Court, it has been declared constitutional
Here, thcn, is law, sanctioned by two OF
the three great powers, and, to say the least,
unqucstioued hy the third. Now, while il
stands thus on the statute book, do Free Soil
members OF Congress mean TO obey il in
good filth, by appointing officers To execute
it, paying them, and susInning them in their
| duty? II so, how do they reconcile all this
with their nnli-sluvery professions that TO re-
turn slaves to master is sin lf they do
not mean TO act in such good fifth, is not
| government resolved into anarchy, where
| each man does what seems right in bis own
eyes? And whnt use will there he in tho
repeal of this Law, and in enuciing MIR.
Alnnn's hoasted panHcen, JURY TRIAL. IL sub
segment Congresses are at liberty, on this
theory, to leave the new law disobeyed p
What becomes Of his theory, that tho Presi.
dent and Congress are great co ordinate pow
ers, authorised 10 cOnstrue tho Constitution,
IT, when they hare construed IL and enacted
accordingly, nobody is legally bound 10 obey?
lie tells us members OF Congress ore not
bound to Obey the Fugitive Slave Law, aud
Letter of April 4th) that no Judge or Mar
sliul Inns amy legal right to do any act under
~ aud again (.eIier of April l9lh,) lhut it
Senator Sumner should confirm a man,
snspcct will execute IL, lao would be guilty.
Here. then, according 10 his iheory is n law
which nohody is legally hound 20 obey -
Now, will MIR. Mann please answer the
uboye four questions?
] quoted Mr.. Mann's assertion, that tles
cisOn of the Supreme Court was the law
of the land until il is set nsde lie evodes
this 10y nlnking il apply only TO citizens, and
not TO Legislators. might reply that legis-
lators are in the same condition us citizens,
so lar MS appointing officers and voting pay
for the execution of existing laws are con
ccrncd. But must remind him that ho
spoke the word MS n Legislator TO Legislators.
| When quoted his speeches before, rs TO
! Free Soiers, lac claimed That should make
! this distinction. Ii It is trne of those ex-
! tracts, il is of this. No man has right TO
| play thus lust aud lose with his renders.--
| But, let Free SOiers take note, he now nl-
! lows that citizens are subordinate 10 decision
! Of the Supreme Court. To he sure, lie adds,
| lerecpt Ia cases Of oOnscience.1 But MIR.
Mann is lawyer enough 10 know that tho
parcnthesis is inhdmissiblc. Government,
having enHc;ed law, cannot take notice Of
! the conscientious scrnpes of cilizens--
These have place in religion, where tho
| right of private Judgment is allowcd; but
make 10 difference IN mnn's legal 0biigd-
| lions, though, of course, they do in his moral
! obligations.
! MIR. Mann says, because government is
| n necessity, we tint j., Free Soilers take
| part IN those departments of il which in.
yolve no violation of the Higher Law
! MIR. Sumner sits, Free Soler, in tho
Senate of the United States. lie will noi
say, in the face of thai Senate aud the coun-
try, ,hut it is his purpose never TO aid, during
J his whole six yenrs in appointing amy Judge
! or Marshal or District Attorney of the Unit
ed States. Yet he knows that, il he does 90
aid, the Judges, Mnrslinls aud Attorneys
whom he shall appoint will be constitutions
ally hound, according TO the law, as settled,
al present, both by Congress and ihe Supreme
Court, 10 return fugitive slaves. This, then,
according TO Mr.. Mann, is n department
| which involves 40 violation Of the Higher
Law!
Mr.. Mann himself, MS Representative, has
sworn 10 uphold this Government, aud has
doue 50. lie voted, hc tells US, for tho ap-
preparation bills. lie says Up. 2l2)-' The
appropriation ill is one ON which the work.
| ing aud even Tie continuance Of The Govern
| nleRt depend. Without it, the machinery OF
the state must ccnse to move.' What, then,
is this Government which he has spent ihe
last four years in upholding? Ii is a Gov
ernmeut which, he says, in his published
volume of Speeches, secures TO the slave
! holder the right 10 follow and retake his tiy-
! ing slave. Dissolve the Union, and not only
| will this right cease, and the hunted mother
find refuge in any one of the Northern
States; but, Mr.. Mann says, (p. $780, ot the
end of thirty years, there will he 10 slave in
all their 1.-The Souihernl borders
Ii is II Government which encourages
slOveholding, by giving, in its ihree-filihs
slave bnsis of representation, additional po-
itical power to the stakeholder for every
slave that lac can contriYe to buy or breed.
| IL is n Government which encourages and
| nrotacta tLa otaval,ol,Ia. a,,d o.,.l,a. ,ho