Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-06-16
[ooPYRIsHT SECURED By THE AUTHoR.l
For the National Era.
THE LEGAL TENURE OF SLAVERY.
LETTER XIV.


ILLEGALITY OF SLAVERY FROM 1875 TO
1889, UNDER THE DECLARATION" AND
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.
To the Friends of american Liberty:
The question is still before us, When, where,
how, and by whom, was American Slavery To-
galized? In pursuit Of legalized Slavery, we
seem to be chasing rainbow, that recedes as
we try to approach tan ignis fatuus, beck
oDipg us through swamps and quagmires, but
never leading us to firm and substantial
ground.
At the close of my last letter, said that the
Declaration Of Independence must be repealed,
or cease to be the basis Of our State and Ma
tional Governments, before American Slavery
can be legalized Does any one deem this q
mere flourish of rhetoric, az the Declaration
itself has been said to be Let him pause and
reflect. In sober verify, is it not demonstrably
true? Let us see
A Government must have foundation--a
fundamental principle, primary idea--as
basis Of it's authority to which it can appeal
when it requires homage. No Government is
without such on idea and it is certain that Q
Government cannot sustain ITSELF nor claim
validity for its laws, when its Legislation and
Jurisprudence conflict with the Wy foundation
upon which it stands. 1t cannot legislate away
ITSELF, and still claim validity for the legisla-
ton that denies its own organic structure and
existence!
Apply this to our State and National Gov
ernments By their Declaration of Independ-
ence they have declared their foundation to be
the inalienable right of man to liberty. On
this ground they claim the right to exist and to
legislate. But when they attempt to legislate
against the inalienable right of man to liberty,
they deny their own foundation, their own or
ganic structure and existence, and consequent
" the vitality and authority of their own legis-
lative acts An enactment Of Slavery by such
Government must be invalid, from the very
nature Of tho case. If you say it is valid, you
say it overturns the Government; and what
becomes of the validity of its acts, then? Slave
law, il it be valid, overturns the theory of in
alienable human rights But when this theory
is overturned, our National and State Govern
ments, achich are founded upon 1t, are ovcrturn-
ed Admitting the possibility of legalizing
Slavery, (which have at present admitted, for
the arguments sake) it is not possible for
Government to legalize Slavery, so long as it
claims to be based upon mans unalienable
right to liberty; in other words, SO long as it
denies sts own right to legalize Slavery, which
amounts to the same thing Our American
Governments, originated and founded as they
are upon mans inalienable right to exemption
from Slavery, cannot call upon its own courts
and Executive officers to enforce laws that en-
slave men and, consequently, they cannot en-
act any slave laws that shall be valid. They
are estopped by their own organic act and
structure from doing or attempting any such
thing. Any such act must be unconstitutional
in the highest and strongest possible use of
that term.
Without denying, therefore, for the present
the possibility Of legalizing Slavery in some way
repeat the affirmation that it cannot be done
by q Government that solemnly disclaims its
own right of doing it; it cannot be done by
our American Governments, either State or
National, founded as they are upon that dis
claimer, until they disannul and repudiate the
disclaimer, and absolve themselves from the
obligations and restrictions it imposes upon
them. And this cannot be done until the Dec
laration of Independence is repealed or repu-
dated by the Nation and by the States, in some
solemn public act as imposing as that by
which the Declaration was adopted. To say
otherwise, would be to make the State and
National Governments absolute despotic, with
out the least restriction or limitation of their
power: for no Constitutions or Bills of Rights
subsequently imposed, could be binding upon
them If their own solemn and organic Decla
ration be not binding.
. If our fathers intended to establish or to
retain such an institution as SLAVERY, they
should have done one thing, which they did
not do--and they should have omitted one thing
that they did Into their Declaration of indie
pendence they should have Incorporated an ex-
press legalization of Slavery, defining very
clearly and unmistakably i0ho were slaves
and they should have refrained from incorpo-
rating into it any declaration of mans ina
lienable right to Liberty-to exemption from
Slavery. Had they issued such Declaration,
will admit for the arguments sake) the pos
sibility Of their legalizing Slavery. As it is,
there is no such possibility, short Of another
Revolution, quite as radical as the first, and in
the opposite direction. 1t may have been q
lamentable oversight in our fathers, that they
neither legalized Slavery, nor provided for its
possible Equalization But the fact is as ii u.s.
and cannot be helped now, short of the pro-
cess have described. Our brethren Of the
South might as we'll understand this, first as
last The late Mr.. Calhoun appears to have
understood it, and 30 do some Of his associates
and disciples. They sneer at the Declaration,
and they would set up another Government II
they could.
But repeal or Reputation OF the Declare
ton of 1915 would be an awkward experiment
for the South. III the reasons for a separation
from the mother country be recalled. it might
be difficult to show why the separation should
continue. Would repeal of the Declaration
Of Independence throw them back again into
a state Of colonial dependence upon Great
Britain Here is grave legal question. The
guardians of legalized American Slavery would
not relish the jurisdiction Of the country from
which the Declaration released them
IL it be questioned whether the Declaration
of independence still remains the fundamental
organic law Of our State and National Gov
ernments,* we shall be compelled TO raise
another inquiry, When, whore, how, and by
whom, was the Declaration Of Independence
repealed, disannulled, or repudiated, as q
foundation of our State and National Govern
ments ~
Any person who can answer this question,
will probably be able to answer the other in
quiry, and tell us when, where, how, and BY
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