The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-06-07
tooPYRIeHT SECURED BY THE AUTHoR.l
For the National Era
THE LEGAL TENURE OF SLAVERY.
LETTER Xxx.

LETTER xxx.
BILLS OF ArTAINDER-Ex POST FACTO LAWS
IMPAIRING THE OBLIGATION OF CONTRACTS.
IcoScLuDKDI
To the Friends Of American Liberty:
lin consequence of transposon of sheets of man
userp portion Letter XXX printed belonging
10 Letter the Nos OF the May 9th and 81 ST.
V. Ex POST FAcTo LAW.
mo State shall pass bill of attainder, OF
er post facto law" &c.
An er post tacto law is law so framed as to
have retrospective operation, affecting events
and transactions that took place before the en-
actment was made.* For example: If the
State of New York, in passing its prohibitory
liquor law, in March or April, instead OF liking
the commencement of its operation on the ner
coming fourth of July after it was passed, had
fixed it on the fourth of July previous, so as te
punish infractions of it committed before it was
enacted, that would have been an ex post factG
law and any attempt thus to have executed it
would have been over-ruled BY the clause of the
Constitution of the United States now before
us. No advocate of prohibitory liquor laws
would have doubted it. No plea of " State
Rights would have awaited anything. The
Federal Constitution, ratified by the States, for
bids the States to pass any such ex post facte
law.
Just so, if the State of Massachusetts should
pass an act declaring that all the descendants
of the persons convicted of witchcraft at Salem
century or two ago, should now be subjected
to certain disabilities or punishments, on &C
count of that act or condition of their ancestors
the Federal Courts would set aside that act Of
Massachusetts,, as conflicting with the clause Of
the Constitution now before us. 1t would be, al
once, bill of attainder (attainting the blood)
and an ex post facto law, applying to alleged
offences before the act was passed.
A similar decision would be made, if South
Carolina should impose disabilities or punish
ments upon the descendants of those, in that
State, who were tories during the Revolution
airy war.
A parallel instance we should have, in the
State of Virginia, if that Ancient Dominion,
alarmed by the confessions of her own Senator
Mason and other Virginians, that she has on
her statute book no positive laws establishing
Slavery, should now attempt to supply the de-
fciency, by enacting that all the descendants
of those Africans who, in 1920, were landed from
Dutch man-ofwar in James river, and sold to
the planters, should, now and forever, hereafter
be held as slaves. The Federal Courts, under
the clause before us, would be bound to set
aside such a statute of Virginia. 1t would be a
bill of attainder and an ex post facto law, if any
enactments can be thus described.
All the so-called slave laws of the slave States
ed as laws at all. In not one of the Colonies
were there any statutes creating the relation of
master and slave, or authorizing or even regu.
lating it, at the time when slaves and Slavery
were first introduced. All the subsequent Sla-
very legislation, before and since the Revolu-
ton, were retrospectioe, assuming what had no
legal existence, viz the slavery of the persons
thus bought and held. By assuming what was
not true, their validity fails. Or it, to stave off
this conclusion it be held that this after legisla.
ton legalized their previous enslavement, or
rather the enslavement of their ancestors, it
becomes, at once, an ex post facto law and an
attainder of the blood.
So that the entire mass Of .&acery legislation.
in this country, is not only seen to be illegal
and nugatory in itself, by the maxims of the
common law, and by all the rules of jurispru-
dence known to civilized man, but is likewise
brought directly under the annihiating control
of the Federal Courts, by this provision of the
Constitution of the United States" No State
shall pass any bill Of attaindsr or ex post facto
law" If this clause has no power to uproot all
the Slavery in the slave States, then may Mas
sachusetts hang the descendants of her Salem
witches, and South Carolina confscate the es.
tates of the progeny of her tories, and there ia
no relief from the Federal Courts--no meaning
in the clause under review. The meaning of the
words, the intention as gathered from the words.
and the spirit and general scope of the instru-
ment, conduct us to one and the same unavoid-
able conclusion
Ask any intelligent Shareholder or LAWYER in
Maryland, Virginia, or the Carolinas under what
legal tenure slaves are now held in those States.
They will readily respond by reciting the State
enactment that the child follows the condition
of the mother. Inquire by what tenure the
mother was held, and you will be referred to the
condition of her mother and 90 on, back to the
first importation of slaves. All these enact.
ments are, manifesly, "bIls of attainder,''
without legal validity, while the Constitution of
the United States is "the supreme law of the
land" Inquire still further, by what tenure the
first generation or two of slaves were held be-
fore any of these laws of descent were enacted.
The answer will have to be, that they were held
tcithout any law! In other words, that they
were legally free. SO that, if the child follows
the condition of the mother, the present gener-
alton, like the first, are all legally free There
is no escape from this result but by maintaining
that the slave laws fixing the rule of descent,
and other laws upholding Slavery or assuming
its previous existence, had retrospective ope-
ration, and actually legalize the ensavement of
all that first generation, who, during all their
lifetime, were legally free, being under no pro-
slavery laws at all This makes them ex post
facto laws which no State can maintain, under
the Constitution of the United States The en-
tire system of pro-slavery legislation in this
country Is but one great web or conglomerated
mass f"double-and- twisted, ""double distilled
sex post facto ~ A." attainder," from beginning
to end. Take away from it these features. and
no semblance or remnant of legalized Slavery
remains. And these features-if nothing else.
clothe the Federal Courts with ample constitu.
tional power to abolish the whole system.
vi. IAPAIRING THE OBLIGATION oP CONTRACTS
"No STATE shall pass any law impairing the
obligation of contracts
This inhibition of the Constitution imme.
diatey follows the preceding, and stands in the
same clause-a part Of the same sentence.
Several things are to be observed here /.
There Is recognition of the right of all men
to form contracts 2. Of the sacredness of that
right; 3. There is direct provision that " no
State shall pass any law +" infringing that right.
by annulling or even "impairing the obliga.
tions" created by those contracts. If the leeis.
lature OF Massachusetts, should pass a statute
that no contract made with Roman Catholic
should be binding, if Maryland or Florida
should impose similar disabilities upon Jews or
Protestants, the aggrieved party would only
have to seek relief In the Federal courts, and
speedy redress would be obtained. Just so, if
Ohio should pass laws impairing the obligation
OF contracts with Kentuckians, or if Pennsylva.
MIA should annul contracts made with men hav-
ing red hair. Take now parallel case. North
Carolina has an enactment or judicial deci-
SION that :" no slave can make a contract, not
even the contract of marriage" A large por-
ton of the population of that State, including
nearly all the mechanics of the mort of W;lnn;ne