Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-02-17

Tree persons, lncluuing those pouhu W servoo
for term of years, and excluding Indians not
taxed, thrse,ftihs Of all other psrs0ns"-An /,
sec 2, Con. IT, S,
q "The migration or importation of such
persons as any Of the States now existing shall
think proper to admit shall not be prohibited
by the Congress prior to the year 1908, but a
tax may be imposed on such importation, not
exceeding ton dollars head Con. IT, s., art
1, sec y.
3. "No person held to service or labor in one
State, under the laws thereof escaping into an
other, SHALL in consequences Of any law or reg
ulaton therein, be discharged from such SER
vice or labor; but shall be delivered up on
claim of the party to whom such service or la
Dor may be due."--Con. u s., arr. 4, sec. IL.
The first provision, as Americans understand
il, recognises the existence Of Slavery as fact,
but certainly gives no oountenance to it. On
the contrary, it makes it q ground and reason
for reducing the representative power Of the
communities upholding it so that it is in fact .
positive encouragement to Slavery.
The second provision as we have already ex-
planned, secured for the General Government
power to put On end to the slave traffic in 1908,
real gain to Freedom and Humanity, az be-
fore the adoption Of this it had no power over
the subject whatsoever. The securing this pow
er was triumph Of the ti-SIavery Principle
of our fathers; the postponement Of its exer-
oise till 1908, was the result of circumstances,
as they thought beyond their control
The third clause certainly does not apply in
terms to slaves; it does embrace, we all know,
the case of free persons, held to service or la
Dor, as apprentices. Were a court, in its ad-
ministration Of Law passed in strict conform
ity to this provision, to contine itself to its
terms, no slave could be delivered up under it.
because no slave Opes or cda Oice service. The
slave renders service to his master, not because
it is "duepin the language Of the Constitution,
but because he is compelled by force to render
it. We know only by history that the provi-
sion was INTENDED by those who introduced it
to apply to both fugitive slaves and appren-
toes; but from the same history We learn that
it was introduced incidentally, attracted little
attention, and was adopted without careful
examination Of its bearings or probable conse-
qnences; that the object Of it was to prevent
the owners of slaves in the States from sustain
ing loss by their escape, but that no one
dreamed that it sanctioned Slavery, encoar-
aged it, or would perpetuate it.
The Sentinel dwels upon this clause Of the
Constitution with great oomplacency, assum-
ing that it establishes Slavery throughout the
Union, and surrounds it everywhere with the
sanction and support Of the General Govern
ment. Where is its authority for the assump-
tiona fit confne itself to the provision alone,
to the only legitimate construction, its terms
suggest and the general spirit and aim of the
Federal Constitution warrant, then we say that
provision is not applicable to slaves at all If
it refer to History, and the Madison Papers
containing an account Of the proceedings of
the Federal Convention that adopted it for tho
purpose of showing that it was intended to
embrace the case Of fugitive slaves, then it
must not 60 beyond History and that record.
But if it appeal to them, then it must admit,
that public sentiment in the colonies, when
they embarkedin the war Of Independence, was
against Slavery; that after the Declaration Of
Independence, State after State, by judicial de-
cision or legislative enactment recognised the
policy Of emancipation that in the last Con-
gress Of the Confederation, sitting at the same
time the Convention that formed our present
Constitution was in session, the famous Ordi-
nance Of 1887 was passed, excluding Slavery
forever from the Territory Northwest Of the
Ohio river--ihe only Territory then belonging 10
the United States that this act was not the OF
spring Of any purpose to draw line between
slave territory and free, but of the policy then
dictated by public sentiment Of iimiting Sia-
pery }, that in the Convention that formed the
present Constitution, Slavery was uniformly
treated as an exceptional and transient system,
to be tolerated as a necessary evil, for the time,
while every provision in relation TO il was 80
framed as TO avoid mentioning It's name, or
recognising its fundamental principle 80 that
il might at any time be abolished in the States
without the slightest change being required in
the Federal Constitution; that the delegates
from Virginia and Maryland were the most
strenuous against the insertion Of any provision
that might encourage the perpetuation or ex.
tension Of the evil that an amendment having
been proposed which seemed to involve the REQ
ognition Of the idea that man could hold man
as property, IL was modified so as TO exclude
this idea, at the suggestion Of Mr.. Madison,
who insisted that the Consultation they were
forming ought not TO contain any implication
that man could be property; that the abolition
Of the slave trade in those days was regarded
as involving the abolition Of Slavery; that tho
clause comforting power in Congress to pro-
hibit the slave trade in 1908, was adopted with
view to facilitate and hasten the extinction
Of Slavery; and that the provision in regard 70
fugitives from service or labor was not intended
even BY the South Carolina delevatea who su0-