Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-11-03


The Administration evidently considers it tie
American Institution, claiming paramount regard
and protection. The Fugitive Slave Act being too
limited in scope, Mr.. Attorney General Gushing
has lately amended it, to make it universal
in its operation all American soil We copy
from the National lntelligencer an abstract of the
new enactmcnt:
OPINION OE TIE ATTORNEY GENERAL.
Attorney General Cushing has given an opinion
in regard to the reclamation of "iUgitives from
service in organized Territories Of which the
following are the main and most interesting
points:
81. The constitutional right of citizen of the
United States reclaim fugitive from his lawful
service extends not only to the States and to the
organized Territories, but also to all the unor-
ganized Territorial possessions of the United
States.
80 If in such Territory there be no commits
sioners of the United States to act, the claimant
may proceed by recapture without judicial pro-
cess.
''3. Any such fugitive from service in the In
dian country is there unlawfully, and, an intru-
der is subject arrest by the Executive authority
Of the United States.
81. Such fugitive cannot be protected from ex-
tradition by Indian tribe or nation; Tor the In
dians are themselves the mere subjects of the
United States, and have no power in conflict with
the Constitution of the United States.
IS. BY the local law of the organized political
communities of the Cherokees, Choctaws, and
Chickasaws, there is ample provision for the de-
livery up of tugitives from service in any OF the
States"
The constitutional right Of persons claiming
! fugitves from service labor. according to the
Constitution, no. Caleb Cushing is thus defined:
! "No person held to service or labor in one State
under the laws thereof escaping into another shall
in consequence of any law regulation therein
I ln hon frOn labor.
be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom
such service or labor may be due"
1t has always been held by civilized jurists that
Slavery is an exception to natural right and that
therefore, any provision in relation to 1t should be
construed Strictly. 1t has always been held 10y
the oracles of Democracy and especially by Slave
holding politicians, that the Federal Goyernmen
possesses only derivative powers, conferred BY thu
Federal Constitution, and that it can exercise NJ
power, not expressly given, or absolute necessary
to the exercise of one that is so conferred. Exam
inc in the light Of these two principles of construc
ton the constitutional provision in relation to fu
gtiyes from service or labor it invests the federa
Government with no power at all Neither II
terms nor by implication DOES it impose duty, O
confer right upon it. Whatever litigation l
prescrbes, is laid upon the States individually,
This view is sanctioned by the doctrine OF Stat
, Rights, and by natural right. Slavery rejects thi
view, and the principles on which 1t is founded
= Where there is doubt it claims the beneht o. Vt
q Where an act admits of two constructions, 1t in
ssts upon that which shall nure to its interest n
? matter though forced and unnatural. And whll
affecting to stand upon State authority, 1t uniform
ly aims to extend and strengthen itself by FEEDER
4 al action, in this way becoming the ally OF tn
v most dangerous Centralism. .
! 1t begins by converting an obligation laid upoi
. the States, into duty imposed on Congress, trans
ferring from the States to the Federal Governmen
i the right to act upon the subject of tustyes iroI
! service or labor. The Constitution says that sue
fnoitives shall not be discharged from such servic
or labor by the laws of any State, but shall be d'
h liyerei up Slavery epacts that officers constit'
! ted by the Federal Gorefh"en shall deliver 'nei
D. up. r-;.;,o. osc
i ping from one State into another StdtG shall be
e livered up. Slavery through its Fugitive s,a Ac
N says that such fngitves escaping INTO "ho'ie' ''
I. or Territory, shall oe given up.
d The first usurpation payos the way Tor the Sc
" ond, and this for the third, namely the ameh
of meut Of Mr.. Gushing to the Fugitive Act wh''