Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-01-21
For the National Era.
THE LEGAL TENURE OF SLAVERY.
oeMMENcEMENT oFcoL0NIAL SLAVERY II
LEGAL oxTIHUED.
To tie Friends Of Amsrican Liberty.

LEGAL--CoxTIHUED.
To tie Friends Of American Liberty
The whole force of this decision lies in the
principle involved, that a-slave however legally
enslayed) becomes free the instant he touches
the soil Of country in which Slavery is not
expressly established by positive law. And
this was precisely the condition of the Colonies
when slaves were first introduced into them,
and for q long time afterwards, so that the
slaves whether legally or illegally imported,
whether under the British flag or any foreign
flag. were legally FREQ the moment they were
landed in the Colonies. When sold, they were
illegally sold when held, and 80 long as held,
they were illegally held and, in the language
Of Judge Mathews Of Louisiana, could not
legally be reduced to Slavery.
In proof of this, ii is sufficient to notice the
indsputable facts that there can be no Slavery
under the reign Of English Common Law, las
has been decided in England) --that the Colo
MES were always under the control of English
Common Law--and that, ut the beginning OF
Colonial Slavery, and for long time after
wards, there were no Colonial enactments on
the subject of Slavery. II has never been pre-
tended that Slavery in the Colonies was ever
established by any enactments Of the Mother
Country.
It is therefore certain, that the first sales Of
slaves in the Colonies were illegal sales-that
the first purchases were illegal purchases
that the first slaveholding in the Colonies was
illegal slaveholding, without the slightest
shadow or pretence of authority, either from the
Colonial Governments or the Government of
Great Britain So that if the present slave
holders have no legal claim to their slaves ex-
cept that which they !" Inherited" from their
fathers in the early times of the Colonies, they
have precisely no legal claim at all. II they
have any other claims, they must bring them
forward, and show aOhen, a0here, hoao, and By
achon,, the legal tenure in slave property YVES
established and upon what it is founded. |
have already quoted the Common Law maxims,
that Where the foundation is weak, the struc-
ture fallsn-that what is invalid from the
beginning, cannot be made valid by length of
timen Also, the decision of a Southern Judge,
that prescription is never pleadable to claim
for freedom" tt may be well, in this place. to
state more at length this righteous decision, in
which Judge Porter said:
1.-THE defendant pleaded the general Issue
and prescription off man be FREE, no
matter how long he may have been HELD by
not be thereby changed, nor can he be reduc-
count of the TIME he may be held in servi-
tuden-Delpene u.s. Devise, IA Martins Louis
lana Rep, $50. Same principle in the case Of
Metayer us. Metayer Jan. T., 1919, s Louisi-
ana Rep, 16. (Wheeler's Law of Slavery, D.
1887 Also, in Vaughan Us. Phoebe, Jan. L.,
1927, Martin and Yerger's Tenn. Rep, /
wheeler pp 395-104) "Judge Crabb said,
the law of limitations would be no barr Ii e.
to the slaves claim to freedom )-Goodelps
american Slave Code,n PIP. 1866.
IL was on the basis of this established prin-
ciple, that Solomon Northup HELD as slave
for twelve years. and several times bought and
Sold was given up to his friends and restored
to freedom, as soon as conclusive proof was
produced that he was originally free, and had
been unlawfully ensaved. As soon as the mas
ter and his attorney discovered the suffciency
of the evidence to establish this fact, they saw
it would he Of no use to itigste the claim, even
in q slave State. This incident so highly hon.
orable to the South, could never have taken
place but for the Southern sanction Of the prin-
ciple for which contend But the principle,
fully carried out, would iberate every Ameri-
can slave, rs well as Solomon Northup and
others. For all the American slaves, or their
ancestors, were illegally ensaved, in the be
ginning. and 200 years differs nothing from IL
"
slave, so far as the principle is concerned. And
tits obedience to the true principle that we
admire in the particular applications Of il Just
mentioned. The extent the magnitude, and
the long continuance Of injuries, only enhance
the obligation Of redres sing them. The long
or Solomon Northnp was unlawfully held in
Slavery the greater the legal obligation Of lib
Grating him. And IL his children had suffered
with him, or after him. the obligation would
have been greater still. Let the South give up
all its unlawfully manacled freemen, and de-
serve the applause Of mankind.
aWhen Slavery was first introduced into the
country says Spooner, "there were no laws
at all on the subject. Men bought slaves Of
the slave traders, as they would have bought
horscs, and held them, and compelled them to
labor, as they would have done horses-that is
by brute force. By common consent Of the
white race, this practice was tolerated without
any law. At length, slaves had in this way
become 50 numerous that some regulations be
came necessary, and the Colonial Government
began 10 pass statutes which assumed the exist
ence Of slaves. although no laws defining vho
might he made slaves, had ever been enact
edn-Spooner, p. 81.
In another connection, shall prove oil this
and much more, by the testimony Of Southern
statesmen and judges. shall prove that up
TO the present fims no statutes have been enact
ed that legalize Slavery. My present purpose
is only to show that il was not legalized at the
beginning Of the practice Of ssyeholding and
that no attempts were made in that direction
TIL long afterwards. | choose TO pursue the
investigation chronoloeically, and step by step,
showing, at each stage Of the history, that
isgalized Slavery had not then commenced It's
existence.
Slavery had existed in Virginia fifty yearr,
and in Maryland thirty-one years, before any
statutes were enacted attempting TO show who
we're slaves. In North Carolina no such law
was passed prior to the Revolutions The
earliest statute Of this character in South Carroll
ma, was passed in l740, about seventy years after
the FIRST settlement Of the Colony, into which
slaves were introduced the next year A SINH.
lar act was passed in Georgia in 1910. IT.
settlement began in 1888, and slaves were soon
after introduced OF the provisions and legal
effects of there acts shall say something In