The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-10-11

be determined in her favor, we will sincerely
rejoice in such vindication of the Constitution
For the National Era
THE LEGAL TENURE OF SLAVERY.
LETTER xxxvIII.
THE PRO-SLAvERY CONSTRUCTION DEMOLISH
ED BY HISTORICAL EXPOSITION
To the Friends of american Liberty:
/ have now proved that "rHE UNION" was
formed in IVA, and that it was formed by a
compact" against Slavery, not in it's favor
This Union, as we have seen, was recognised
as still existing by the Declaration of l776-
was recognised again, as existing, by the I" Ar
ticles of Confederation" of 177S = and We,
again, by the Federal Constitution of 1887
All these great national documents give the
lie direct, therefore, to the pretence that {" the
Union was formed in 1887, and that il
could not have been formed without a "com.
promise" in favor of Slavery At the very
time that the struggle to form the Union " is
supposed to have been going on, "the Union "
was already existing, had existed for thirteen
years, and not question concerning its con-
tinuance had ever been raised, or was then, in
any quarter, or by any body, entertained! At
the very moment when, it is now pretended, "a
compromise" had to be made, in order to bring
the slave States into the Union, land all of them
were slave States but one y the States acere in
the Union already-a Union by which they
were all pledged against the slave trade, and
for the avowed purpose of preparing for the
abolition of Slavery itself.
AS there was no need of "a compromise -
respecting Slavery, in order to form the Union,
so there were no differences of sentiment be-
tween the different States, on the subject to be
compromised. The Ordinance of 1857, exclu-
ding Slavery from the Northwestern Territory,
1.-THE very year in which the Constitution was
draited,) was assented to by every Delegate in
Of New York; The literature of the times was
all against Slavery. Nothing was said in its
favor. The statesmen of the South, with uni.
ted voice, were against it. Washington, Jeffer
son, Madison, Patrick Henry, William Pinckney,
st. George Tucker, Wythe, Pendleton, Gray.
son, Lee, Blair, Mason, Martin, McHenry, Page,
Parker, Randolph, Chase, Iredell, Spaight,
Ramsay nearly all the illustrious names
south of the Potomac regarded Slavery as a
waning system, and proclaimed it such before
the sum-"
Jefferson said: "And can the liberties of a
nation be thought secure, when we have re.
moved their only firm basis, the conviction that
those liberties are the gift of God?" "With
what execratiOn should the statesman be load
ed, who, permitting one half of the citizens thus
to trample on the rights of the other, trans
forms those into despots and these into enc.
mies?" The Almighty has no attributes that
could take sides with us in such a contest y
ii. e. with insurgent slaves.
Washington urged its abolition "by I,egisla.
tive authority" and added: $50 far as nv suf:
trage will go, it shall not be wanting"
Madison denied that man could hold proper.
ty in man; and neither he nor the Convention
that drafted the Constitution would permit that
instrument to contain single word that could
be construed into a recognition of it. "On
motion of Mr.. Randolph, the word "serpitude' ~
was struck out, and the word "service" unani.
mousy inserted, the former being thought to
express the condition of slaves, and the latter
the obligations of free persons."-M Madison Pa.
pers, Vol. Sd, p. 1869.
Granville Sharp, whose chief claim to lite.
rary merit lay in the ability with which he had
maintained the illegality and unconstitutional
ity of Slavery in the British dominions, and the
duty of the British Government to abolish it in
the British American Colonies, then including
these States,) was thereupon laden with the
highest literary honors of the College of William
and Mary, in Virginia. To be radical Abo
litionist was then to be on the highway to pop
ularity throughout the Southern States.
And this IS the period of our history in which
it is pretended that the Union between the
Northern and Southern States (already exist.
ingD could not have been formed without a con
stitutional compromise concerning Slavery
And who could have been the parties to this
compromise? The North and the South
What! When the only Pro-Slavery vote in
Congress was by a member from New York;
When greater number of prominent and lead
ing Southern statesmen were earnestly and loud
ly declaiming against Slavery, than there were
OF Northern ones? AT time, too, when all the
States, except Massachusetts, were slave States
If even Massachusetts be properly an exception
| tor the census returns reported slaves in Mas
sachusetts some time afterwards? At time
| too, when the number of slaves in Georgia was
less than the number of slaves in New York
| Which OF the States, we demand, could not be
brought into " the Union," (while already in the
| Cnlon,) without " compromise" in favor Of
Slavery? Was it New York, with her solitar,
Pro-Slavery Delegate in Congress? Was 4
Rhode Island and Massachusetts,, MANY O
whose capitalists were chiefly interested ther
In the illegal African slave trade, prescribed
by the Union" of IVA?
The idea of a struggle and compromise ,
between the North and the South, on the sav,
question, at the time the Federal Constitution
was formed, must have been vastly amusing t.
any surviving statesman of that period, coulc
he have been spared to our times
And then, in respect to the Intentions an,
understandings with which, it is said, tn
Constitution was framed and adopted VIVA
are the historical facts?
In the Virginia Convention that ratified tn
Constitution, Patrick Henry Ia member of tn
Federal Convention) said that Congress, by tn
Constitution, had "power to pronounce al
slaves free" "There is," said he, "no ambip
uous implication or logical deduction. ri
paper speaks to the point. They haze til
poWer IN clear and unequirocal terms, and acil
clearly and certainly exercise it,"
In the same Convention, Gov. Randolph said
"They insist that the abolition of Slavery vii
result from this Constitution. l hope there i
no one here who will advance an objection 8
dishonorable to Virginia. hope that, at tn
moment they are securing the rights of thei
citizens, an objection will not be started tina
those unfortunate men now held in bondage
BY THE OPERATION OF THE GENERAL GOVERN
MENT, may be made FREE"