The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1855-04-21

s. ates, reserved to him by the Constitution and |
1 avs of the United States; and that high tr- |
anal can, merely by its mandate, annul the |
alignment, and discharge the party from all its |
onsequences. This, and this alone, was the
ccurity which your forefathers established to
prevent the evils and dangers of insubordna- |
ton by the State authorities. l proclaim, fur
Their, that when the Constitution of the United |
States was submitted to the people of the sew
eral States, to be adopted by them, the chief
objection which was urged against it, the OBJ
lection which was urged with the most ZEAL the |
most energy, and the effect was, that the lib |
critics of the citizen would be brought into ieop-
ardy by the extended power of the Federal |
Judiciary So strenuously was this objection
urged. that the Constitution was not adopted
until it was demonstrated by Hamilton, jaw, |
and Madison, in the Federalst that the State
jurisdiction. which you are now about to strike
down, was left to the States and could never be
wrested from them without an act of Congress,
which there was no reason to presume would
ever be passed.
Sir, this is an important transaction. warn
you that it is transaction too important to be
suddenly projected, and carried out with unu-
sual and unseemly rapidity 1t is transaction
that will be reviewed freely boldly and through
long years to come. Y GU would have done well
to have given us week. or day. or at least
one hour to prepare ourselves with arguments
to dissuade you from your purpose and to stay
your hands, Suffer me to say, with all defer
encc, that you would have done we'll if you had
allowed yourselves time to consider more de
liberately the necessity for measure so bold
and the consequences which must follow it,
repeat sir, that there is no necessity for this
act. In every case which is intended to be reach
ed by it, the mandate of the Supreme Court of
the United States annuls the Judgment of the
State Court which has mistaken its own powers
1la1,
the State itself, with all its dignity and pride,
falls humbed and abased at the foot of the cen
trail and imperial power. Ihabitually contem-
plate everything connected with the develop
ment of the resources and with the extension
and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and glory of this my coun-
try, with an enthusiasm which l am sure do
not always find burning in the hearts of all with
whom it is my duty to act in her Councils
But, sir, shudder when think that this devel-
opment this extension, this ACKNOWLEDGEMENT,
and this accumulation of glory, are going on
firmly, steadily and crushingly, at the expense
of these noble, Independent States that the
majestic dome, while it spreads itself more
widely and erects itself higher and higher is
pressing into crumbling fragments the pillars
which constitute its true and just support
Sir, we have had on this occasion, as we al
ways have on painful occasions of this kind
pathetic illusions to the safety of this Federal
Union. And these illusions have been address
ed to me, although have been content to be a
silent listener to this debate What do YOU
think must be the feelings of a man, himself
Representative of three millions, one eighth of
your whole peOple-a Representative of one
sixth of all the freemen in the Republic-a Rep
resentative of even larger proportion of the
whole wealth of the cOuntry--a Representative
of the whole Concentrated Commerce when he
finds himself surrounded by men who think that
q community infal
and enjoying such wealth and cherishing such
interests, are so far habtually blinded by pas
sion, as to be disloyal to the Union on which
all their safety depends? Sir, almost forget
my customary liberation, when see around
me men who know how the interests and affec-
tions of their own homes cluster and entwine
themselves with every fibre of their own hearts
and who yet seem to forget that those interests
and affections are the offspring of humanity it.
self, and therefore common to all men, and
suppose that it is treason against the country
to protest against the oppression of any one of
its many and various masses and races.
| warn you. Senator's that you are saving this
Union at q fearful cost. This is Republican
Government-the first and only one that has
ever been widely and permanently successful.
Every man in the country, every man in Chris
tendon. who knows anything of the philoso-
ply Of Government, knows that this Republic
has been thus successful, only by reason of the
stability. strength and greatnf SIS of the indi-
vidual States. You are saving the Union of
those States, by sapping and undermining the
columns on which it rests. You reply to this,
that there is a newly developed necessity for
this act of Federal ACKNOWLEDGMENT There is
no such new necessity whatever. The Courts
of the several States have exercised their con-
current Jurisdiction over officers and agents of
the United States for period of sixty years,
in cases which involved life, liberty, property,
commerce, peace, and war, subject to supervi- |
sion by the supreme tribunal of the Union, and
while individual rights have been maintained,
the public peace has been everywhere preserv- |!
ed, and the public safety has never received
wound. During all that time, there has never
been an agent or apologist of the Federal pow
er. SO apprehensive for TIE public safety as to |
propose the measure which is now before u.s.
There has never been a time when such prop |
osition would have been received with favor
There have indeed been discontents, but they |
have been local and transient. Such dscon-
tents are incident to free society everywhere |
and they are inevitable here. 1t is through the |
working of such discontents, that free commu-
mites, acting by constitutional restraints, and
within constitutional Courts, work out the re- |
formation OF errors. the correction of abuses, |
and the advancement of society. All that has |
happened is change of the scene of these dis |
contents, resulting from a change in the geo.
graphical direction which the action Of the |
Federal Government takes. Heretofore, the |
murmurs of discomfort came from the South.
Now, the breeze which bears them sets in from |
the North. When the wind blew from South |
ern quarter, the rights of the citizen were not
safe without the interpostion of the State tri- |
bunals. Now, when it comes from an opposite |
point of the compass, Senator from Connect |
icat [Mr. Toucey] requires Congress to prohib-
it that interposition. and to arm the Federal
Government with new and portentiOus power. |
Mr.. President, all this trouble arises out of
the Fugitive Slave Law. The transaction in
which we are engaged is by no means the first |
act OF new drama. You began here in 1898, |
to extend into the free States, by the exercise |
of the Federal power, the war of races-the |
war of the master against the slave. The Fugi- |
tive Slave Law which was then passed, became
obsolete. Though no great Inconvenience was
sustained, the pride of the slaveholding power
was wounded In 1850, you passed a new Flu |
gitive Slave Law, and cOncocted it with meas |
ures designed to extend the Territorial juris- |
dictiOn of the United States over new regions, |
without inhibiting slavery. You were told at
that time, as distinctly as you are told tonight,
that your new law could not be executed, and
would become obsolete for the same reason that
the old law had become obsolete that the fail |
ure of the old law had resulted, not from its |
want of stringency, but from its too great strin-
gency. You were told then, as distinctly as
you are now told, that your new law. with all
your terrors would fail, because, like the old
law it lacked the elements to command the |
consent and approval of the consciences, the |
Sympathes and the judgments of q Free PeO- |