The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-10-16


underlies all the others. Heretofore those interest
ed in extending the system of human bondage have
not ventured upon this ground. But finding that
the monstrous iniquity has no other refuge, they
now plant themselves boldly upon the odious and
anti-Democratic principle, that property in man
has the same rights as property in horses.
The gentleman from South Carolina, Mr..
KEITT,1 in a recent speech upon this floor, in
anticipation of the Cincinnati Convention, enun-
ciated this doctrine in the following language:
"The South should establish in the platform the pr
ciple, that the right of Southern to his slave Is
equal its length and breadth to the right of Northern
his horse. She should make the recognition OF the
right tisa complete, and indisputaok"
Nearly every Southern man who has spoken this
session has contended for the same principle.
This is not law; neither is it right Against this
tyrannical assumption, | place the opinion OF
Lord Brougham. He says:
"Te me not of rights talk of the property of the
planter in his slaves. deny the right; acknowledge
ton such a claim There Is a law above all the enact
of human Codes the same throughout the world,
the In all times it is the law written by the finger
God the hearts of and by that law unehanse
able and eternal while men despse fraud and oath rspne
and abhor blood, they shall reject tr indignation The ,cid
aud guilty phanasy hold properly man"
Such also were the sentiments of Wilberforce,
Pitt, Burke, Martin, Fox, Granville, Grattan,
Curran, and host of others, who triumphed over
the slave power in England, after a desperate
struggle Such the sentiments of all classes in
England now. The contrary doctrine finds advo-
Gates only in this Republic
Against this doctrine place the decisions of
the courts. The Supreme Court have repeatedly
held that slaves are regarded as persons and not
property, in the "full, complete, and indispu-
table acceptation of that term. In passing upon
a case involving this point, the Supreme Courtsa
"The Constitution slaves persons In the
ond section the first article which apportons
atves and direct taxes among the States, provides
that the number shall be determined by adding 10 the
whole number of free persons including those bound
service for term of and excluding Indians not
taxed threefhs of all other persona And again. in thu
third section of fourth article 10 declared that
held to service or labor in one State under tho
thereof escaping into another shall in consequence
any regulation therein be discharged from such
labor shall be delivered up claim OF the
party to whom such labor may be DUE"
The courts of many if not all of the slaveholf-
ing States, have taken the same view of the
subject.
The Supreme Court of Mississippi says:
at has been determined in Virginia that slaves per-
sons" sin the Constitution of the United States slave
especially designated persons" "The right of the
ure but by virtue only of the positive law OF the state
In another case, the same Court says:
"Slavery condemned by reason, and by the laws OF
nature. Ii exists and exist, only through municipal
regula ions" ,
The Supreme Court of Kentucky, in 3 Marshall,
page 40, says:
slavery is sanctioned by the laws of this State bu,
consider that right existing by positive law OF
municipal character, without foundation in the law OF
nature.n
The Supreme Court of Louisiana says:
THE relation Of slave and owner, in the States of the
Union In which II has legal existence whether free
saveholding, is a creation OF municipal law"
And they declared slave, taken to France by
her owner, and brought back to Louisiana eman-
cipated by the mere act of taking slave to a
country where Slavery was abolished. Judge
Barbour, of Virginia, in delivering the opinion
of the Supreme Court Of the United Stateston
this subject, says:
subjects OF commerce. and not being imported goods,
cannot fall within train of reasoning founded the
sructon Of power given to Congress to regulate com
merce and the prohibition TO the States from imposing
duty upon imported goods"
In giving history of the adoption of the Con-
stitution Mr.. Madison informs us that the term
"persons" was inserted by the Convention which
framed it, and other phraseology stricken out, be-
cause "it admitted that there could be property
in men," an idea which Mr.. Madison said abe
thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution"
All, or nearly ALL the slaveholding States have
from time to time prohibited the introduction of
slaves as merchandise, and some of them for any
purpose and all their courts have maintained
the validity of these laws. Yet, if slaves were
! mere property, like cattle and horses, cotton or
iron, they could not be precluded by any State. ;
need not labor this point further. There is
no doctrine better settled by State and National
courts, and by legislative precedents, than that
Slavery is the creature of State laws that it is
contrary to reason the common law, the COM
mon sense and general understanding Of man.
kind that it can exist only when State laws
sanction it. The moment the slave is, by con-
sent of his MASTER beyond the jurisdiction of the
State by which he is held, he is free. The mas
ter has no property In the slave, that exists all
over the world, but such only as exists in the
State that, by positive law, sanctions Slavery.
The decision in the case of Forbes ps. Cochran,
q Barn. and Cresswell, 1881 in the Court of
Kings Bench, covers the whole ground 1t is as
follows:
"The right 10 slaves when tolerated by law is founded
not the law of nature but the law of tho particular
country Ii is law in rit,a; and when party gets
out OF the potrer of his and gets under the
of power without any iorong act done by
the party giving that protection the right of the
which is founded the municipal law of the particular
place only, does continue. The moment a foreign
slave puts his foot shores he TO be slave,
because there no iap here chieh sanctions has being held in
Sacery. And the local law which held him in Slavery
against the law of nature, has lost its force"
Then, sir, the STAKEHOLDER has no right of prop
erty in his slave, which gives him any right to
carry such property into any Territory where the
laws do not sanction Slavery. If he does, his
right at once ceases, and the slave is as as free
IL
1t works no hardship to him who claims property
in his fellow-man. He knows the law. The
hardship is on the other side--that man should
be held in Slavery anywhere. Southern men
talk about being excluded from the Territories,
because they cannot carry their slaves there.
AS well might man who has one, two, and
three-dollar bank notes, talk about being >I-
cluded from this District, because he cannot pass
bank notes here of less denomination than eve
oil Ia fha e1ava ucb IF MIC
ter, that the one cannot emigrate without the
| other? This is all idle talk. AS before stated,
Slavery exists by local law and the moment you
get beyond the locality where such laws exist,
the shackles of Slavery fall.
But am not done with this doctrine Of /" State
Equality" 1t is not equality, but inequality, that
| the South claim. They set up a claim of prop
erty in man, and think it hard that such prop
erty has not the rights of general property. They
complain that they cannot take this kind of mer-
chandise into the Territories This complaint
has no foundation. Do these complainants forget
that this kind of property has quality and
confers rights which no other property has or
can confer2 Do they forget that every slave,
reckoned by them as only property, is Mree.ffths
a man7 This right of manhood for political
purposes, as well as property, belongs to the
stakeholder. The slave is no man for himseE, in
the eyes of Southern gentlemen or Of the law /;
but every five human beings held in bondage
make three political men of their master What
other property has this wonderful faculty? !
know ofnone. To illustrate this point: Suppose
a Southern man goes to Kansas with five hun
dred slaves, and Kansas Is made slave State
this one man, by his human property, becomes
equal on this floor and in his vote for President,
and in all the political affairs of the country, to
three hundred and one hard working, intelligent
| men in New Hampshire, or in any other free