Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-02-13
For the National Era.
THE LEGAL TENURE OF SLAVERY.


LETTER x.
COLONIAL AND SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION
FAILED TO LEGALIZE SLAyERY--TEsTI-
M0NY OF SLAyEHOLDING JURISTS.
[coNTINUED
To the Friends Of american Liberty.
What q falling off is here!n Slavery, in
stead Of requiring municipal law for it's esfab-
hshment, requires municipal law for its PROFIT
biti0n If this be SO, the decision of Judge
Matthews in the case Of Marie Louise may be
questioned, Slavery becomes the condition of
nature and statute law must interpose before
it can be displaced Ia Maine and Massachu-
sotts, where there are probably no statutes
absolutely opposed to Slavery persons al
ready reduced to Slavery may be held in it ~
A GLORIOUS uncertainty Of the law when ex-
pounded TO meet the anomalies of Slavery
By the same legal axiom ASSAULT and
battery, when once committed, might be con-
tinued legally, If there are no express statutes
against it--a legal AXIOM that ignores or
reverses common law
Nothing short Of positive, local, municipal
law, be it remembered, can legalize Slavery.
This is admitted This is judicially decided.
This was our starting point. Slaveholding
judges ransack all the legal and historical
archives Of the country in quest Of the said
positive, local, municipal law. In vain they
can find no trace Of IT, They yield the point.
They confess, frankly, the failure. aNoNE
HAVE BEEN FOUND, AUTHORIZING THE SLAVE
RY OF THE BLACKS" Very wcll-what next
A verdict for Freedom? No; an aopinion -
not municipal law, but only an aopinioa''--
not that it is, but that il MAY be , whenever
common sense and humanity permit in "a
legal axiom that-that aDhat? In substance,
that any man that can q catch niggeyn and
fetter him, and drive him, may legally continue
to do SO, provided no positive local. munich
pal law has been enacted against it The
law logic Of John Hawkins revived again. Such
are the shifts and exigencies Of slaveholding,
in quest Of legslization!
After all, Q closer scrutiny will perhaps en-
able us to recall the severity Of this last re-
mark, as applied to the amiable and dscrimi-
mating Judge Matthew'S however just it may
be in its application to those who deliberately
defend the legal tenure Of slaveholding.
Judge Matthews does not say that slavehold-
ing was ever kgafised but only that it was
"permitted and tolerated. He does not say
that Slavery is noW legal but only that the
slave may be held in his present cad ccndi-
ton, however the tenure whether legal or
otherwise) under which he is held may be de-
scribed. Undoubtedly he may but only be-
cause the guilty Government continues to !" toll
crate the 0utrages it ought to suppress.
In saying that Slavery was tolerated in all
the colonies" Judge Matthews, by an obvious
implication, denied that it had ever been legal
ised. No acute lawyer who uses legal terms
with precision ever speaks Of practice which
he considers legal as being tolerated Govern
ments protect, but do not tolerate, men in the
enjoyment Of their lawful rights Abuses and
nuisances are tolerated, but not innocent, law
full acts
Judge Matthews then declined to liberate the
slave, not on the ground that he was legally
enslaved, but on the ground Of the Tolerance
(forbearance) hitherto exercised, and which it
was deemed difficult, inconvcnient incongru-
GUS, or ungraceful, for him, as a stakeholder
among shareholders, to terminate Thus Mad
ison continued stakeholder, though he do
MED the legality Of propertyin man, and would
notconsent that the Federal Constitution should
contain an admission of its legality. On the
whole, it is not to be admitted that q iurist Of
Judge Matthew's attainments and standing
would stultify himself by admitting the legal
ity Of slaveholding, after having declared that
it could not be legalised without positive mu-
nicipal law, no traces Of which could be
found He did not do it, as his words show
He carefully and adroitly avoided doing it,
though deciding against claim for freedom.
This fact is full Of instruction, deserving to be
studied and remembered.
[To BE CONTINUED