The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-08-03

| And Law an Embossed maniac, strong,
Blood. drunken. through the biackness trod,
Hoarss shouting in the ear of God
The blesphemy ofwrong.
| ooh Mother from thy memories proud
Thy old renown, dear Commonwealth
| Lend this dead air breeze of health
| And smite with stars this cloud.
| "a Mother of Freedom wise and brave,
! Rise awful in thy strength" said
An. me spoke but to the dead;
stood upon her grave!
NORTHERN PERFIDY AND SOUTHERN HONOR.
It would be amusing, if it were not disgust
ing to read the impudent claims set up by
Southern politicians and presses, to absolute
infalIibility in their interpretations of the
Constitution. If the Southern States see fis to
nullify the Revenue laws, as did South Caro-
lima in 1892, or the Pest Office laws, as several
of the States have done, or the Constitution
itself as all the Southern States have done, as
to the clause which secures equality of priv
leees to citizens of the several States, it is all
right and proper; at any rate, chivalrous and
honorable. Even those Southern men who
have not approved the notification Of the Rev.
enue laws by South Carolina, are far from
branding the act as reasonable, and its authors
as periured. But let Northern man, particu-
larly a member Of Congress, disclaim the obii-
CATION to run down fugitive slaves, and every
newspaper and demagogue south of the Poto-
mac is utterly thunderstorm with the exhibit
ton OF bad faith. All the walls of wrath and
indignation are poured out upon his head; and
his expulsion from the halls of Congress is de-
manded, in the name of all that is honorable
among men The Northern people have often
been frightened from their propriety by tricks
of this kind; but the day has passed and gone
forever, when they can again produce their
desired effect.
The clearest infrsctions of the laws of the
United States, when their constitutionality has
not been brought in question, have been COM
mitted, not merely by Southern mobs, but by
Southern States, acting in their legislative ca
pacities. Men who swore to support the Fed
eral Constitution, and the laws made in pur-
suance thereof, have deliberately violated those
oaths by voting to nullify the laws Of the land.
Whatever may be said in excuse for South
Carolina, in her notification of the Revenue
lave, there cannot be the shadow of apology
for the deliberate abrogation of the Post Office
laws; and South Carolina, and other Southern
States which have nulifsd them, have not
even alleged their unconstitutionality. They
| have deliberately made it penal offence for 3
postmaster to do that which the laws Of the
United States command him to do, viz: to de-
liver letters and papers to those to whom they
are directed. Tho postmaster is compelled,
under pains and penalties, to give notice to
magistrate that Abolition newspapers have
been received at his ofico; and the magistrate
is authorized to enter the post Office, fOrcibly
if necessary, and take out and burn the OBJ
ectionable mail matter Is it not cool impu-
dence for the authors of such laws, or their
Representatives in Washington, to talk of
honor and good faith, and to impute to others
the violation of oaths?
Then there is the clause securing equality Of
privileges in each STATE, to the citizens of the
several States, which has been utterly nullified
and repudated By every slaveholding State.
The clause referred to is a part Of the same
article and section of the Constitution which
requires the rendition of fugitives from labor
We copy the entire section:
"Art w SEC 2. The citizens of each State
shall be entitled to all privileges and immuni-
| ties of citizens in the several States.
GA person charged in any State with trea-
son, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from
Justice, and be found in another State, shall,
on demand of the Executive authority of the
State from which he fed be delivered up, to
be removed to the State having jurisdiction of
the crime.
"No person held to service or labor in one
State, under the laws thereof escaping into
another, shall, in consequence OF any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on
claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due"
| The first third, and fourth sections of the
fourth article of the Constitution expressly con-
fer power upon Congress to carry out their
several provisions; but the second section, as
will be seen above, confers no power upon
Congress If any such power exists, it is OUT
side of this section and must be applicable to
4
equally the duty of Congress to enforce the first
clause by legislative enactment; and, with or
without an act of Congress to enforce it, there
cannot be a shadow Of doubt about its obliga-
ton upon the States. Yet what has been the
course of Southern legislation touching this
clause 1t has been abolished, and trampled
under foot by men who have sworn, upon the
Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, to respect
and enforce it! Every Southern State has
passed laws for the sale or Imprisonment of
free cOlored citizens from the North, merely
for entering their borders; and these barbarous
and cruel statutes are enforced in the open
face of day, in the presence of the United States
District Judges, Attorneys, and Marshals Is
not the very sublime of cool impudence reached,
when men, who have voted for or sustain such
laws, talk of the sacredness of oaths
The late Judge Johnson, of South Carolina,
said that the unconstitutionaEty of the laws
against the admission of free colored citizens Of
other States was too clear to admit of argu.
ment: and Mr.. Benz amin admits their uncon-