The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-07-05
LETTER xxXIII.


LETTER xxXI1.
APPoRTIoNMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND
DIRECT TAXES.
TO the Friends of American Liberty:
The Constitution of the United States, in its
bearings on American Slavery, ought always
to be construed in the light OF the AscERrAlSED
FACT that American Slavery is, and always has
been. ILLEGAL. The grand error of the
Courts, and of the successive Federal Admins
trations, on all questions relating to Slavery,
has been the unfounded assumption that Amer
lean Slavery is legal.
Aside from that assumption, no one would
ever have imagined that the clause considered
in my last Letter concerning persons held to
service and labor in one State, under the laos
thereof and escaping to another" could refer to
fugitive slaves. And the same remark may be
made in respect to every part OF the Const,tu-
ton that has ever been construed as being
favorable to Slavery. So long as the legality
of Slavery is admitted, so long the Pro-Slavery
construction of the clauses may appear plausi-
BILE. But as soon as the matter-offact illegality
of Slavery comes into remembrance, the illusion
vanishes at once. Many persons, however, who
see and admit the illegality of Slavery, when
ever their attention is particularly drawn to the
argument, to the historical facts, or to the ad
missions of Southern statesmen and jurists
Immediately fall back into their old habits of
thinking, whenever any clause of the Constitu-
ton is quoted as being in favor of Slavery, and
they are ready to admit its force, which they
could not do, if they only kept in mind the fact
that Slavery has no legal existence.
1t is common to remark, that the Constitu-
ton is so formed, that if Slavery should be
abolished, posterity would never learn from it
the fact that there had ever been any Slavery
in this country. And that remark confirms
what l have just now been saying. Let the
fact of Slavery be kept out of mind, and we
should, all of us, very readily find other asses for
the clauses now pressed into the service of the
shareholders.
But, since Slavery has in fact no legal ex-
istence, we are bound to construe the Constitu-
ton precisely as we should do if there never
had been a slave seen or heard of in America.
With these considerations, let US resume our
examination of the remaining clauses that have
been construed in favor of Slavery.
"APPoRrIoNMENr OF REPRESENTATIVES" ETC.
" Representatives and direct taxes shall be
apportioned among the several States which
may be included within this Union, according
to their respective numbers, which shall be de-
termined by adding to the whole number of
for term of years, and excluding Indians not
taxed, three-ffths of all other persons. "-Art.
1, Sec. 2, Clause 3.
Now, l ask, how would this clause have been
construed, provided nobody had ever thought
What would have been understood by the
phrase, I" free persons?" And what by the
phrase, all other persons?"
The answer is easy. With our forefathers,
and in their books of law that have come down
to us, the term free persons had always
been used in contradistinction from aliens.*
And the phrase g all other persons in such a
connection would mean aliens, the very class
whom it would be natural to diminish in the
numerical basis of representation and taxation,
as being non-voters, and as having less prop
erty; and as our fathers had always contended,
in their difficulties with the mother country,
that representation and taxation should 90 to-
gether.
!. Now, since there is, in matter of fact, no
ngGt slavery in this country, and consequently
no legal slaves to whom the phrase "all other
persons" could, as being such legally apply,
or who could legally stand in contradistinction
from free persons" contend that we are not
at liberty to construe this clause as if there
ioere, legally, slaves, to whom it could apply.
plies the clause to free citizens, and to aliens
as distinguished from them.
Such construction, unlike the prevalent
one, would be in accordance with the establish
ed legal rules of Interpretation to which have
so frequently referred, and particularly in my
last letter. 1t would be collecting the inte,l-
ton of the instrument from the ao0rds, in their
accustomed legal acceptation, instead of forcing
an unusual meaning upon them by the unwar-
rantable assumption that they referred to some
thing that did not legally exist! 1t would be
in accordance with the rule that the minor de-
tails of an instrument should, if possible, be
expounded in harmony with its general spirit
and objects. 1t would honor the common law
maxim, laid down by Coke and Lyttleton, that
"the construction of law shall not work an
injury and the similar rule, laid down by
Plowden, that if the words be obscure, they
shall be expounded most strongly for the pub
lie good" 1t would be sustained by the appli-
cation of the rule, (of Coke and Lyttleton,) that
"the Preamble is key to the understanding of
the meaning" 1t is demanded by the rule,
that 4" where the question is doubtful, the de-
cision must be in favor of liberty and by the
rule Of the Supreme Court, that "where rights
are infringed, where fundamental principles
are overthrown, where the general system of
io"o 10 uOpoieCu iiOh, koo }HC SOAAioh Soh-
struction Of this clause would make it do, "the
intention must be expressed with irresistible
ctearness, to induce court of justice to sup
pose design to effect such objects" So far
from being expressed with irresistible clear
ness" the design commonly attributed to this
clause is not expressed at all, unless we under.
stand the words in new sense, altogether diff
ferent from their long-established legal mean
ing-a sense that nobody would ever have i'm
agined, but for the unfounded assumption that
American Slavery is legal. In one word, all
the time-honored rules of legal Interpretation
are violated by the common exposition of this
clause, and are brushed aside by the prosla-
very pretence that Slavery is an established
institution" which the Constitution of the
United States was designed and established to
foster and protect, at the expense of all the
other interests in the country.
If any doubts this let them consult Spooners In
consufionaly of Slavery, where the subject discuss
ed great length, and the tact nconroverbly proved
The work is for sale by Bella Marsh Boston dol
lar. No lawyer statesman should be without il.
REMAINDER OF LETTER xXxIII NEXT WEEK
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