The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-08-21

independence and State sovereignty. The
abolition of Slavery, even, would be dearly
purchased at the price of our system of Con-
federated Government. Slavery, though stu
pendous wrong, is, as every one must see, tran
silent In its nature. 1t cannot last forever. We
therefore would not sacrifice the Federal Con-
stitution, and the independence of the States,
to secure its immediate abolition. The Fede-
rative principle is as essential to the mainte-
nance of Liberty, as the ha6eas corpus and the
jury trial. That principle in government has
in different ages of the world been repeatedly
tested, but never fairly, until the formation of
our Government. In former trials, it generally
failed, for the same reason that our own
first league of States, under the Articles of
Confederation, failed, viz: the want of sufi-
cient authority in the Federal Government,
or League, to support itself by taxes, and to
enforce the laws These important defects are
supplied in our present Constitution, at the
risk, as Jefferson and other statesmen foresaw,
of making the Confederacy too strong for the
States. Mr.. Jefferson therefore recommended
his friends to adopt the Constitution as it was
framed by the Convention, on condition that
certain guarantees for the independence of the
States should be added by way of amendments.
This course was pursued. The States accom-
panied their acts of ratification with PROPOSE
tons to amend in several important particu-
lars, and conspicuous among them is the guar
anty of State Sovereignty. The amendment
On this head declares that "The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitu.
ton, nor prohibited by it to the States, are re-
served to the States, respectively, or to the
People"
Now, if this clause is good for anything, it
secures to the several States the absolute con.
troll of their domestic affairs, Slavery as well
as the rest and to trample on it, in the name
of Freedom, is to set an example to tyrants,
fatal to Freedom itself. To depart from it is
to establish q system of consolidation, which in
this immense country would be more incOn-
sistent with individual freedom than that which
makes all France subject to the tyrant who has
possession of Paris.
Admit therefore, that Slavery has no con-
stitutional and legal basis in the States-that
it was instituted in all the older States without
law-and we still maintain that the Federal
Government has no right to interpose its power
or authority to annul the system. 1t is a mat
ter for the State Jurisdictions and the Federal
Government in all such matters is q foreign
jurisdiction, with no more power to interfere in
ordinary cases than any other foreign jurisdic-
ton. What authority it might have under
"the treaty-making power" we will not under
take to say; but any such authority would be
extra-constitutional, and merely of necessity.
We therefore stand by the motto, Freedom
is national, and Slavery sectional" The Elk
tremists, North and South, maintain the con.
trary, that Slavery is national. The Republi-
can Party can take no such ground, without
doing violence to the common sense of the
People, and at once sinking into deserved in
significance.