St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1856-12-18

ASAotlOA IA VIC 0t6SC Vi M0IHC ! AO
more can it in the State Of Missouri
Any statute which proposes to do this
is mere nullity !; it takes away no
right, it confers none. If it remains
on the statute book unrepealed, it re-
mains there only as monument OF err
ror, and bea con of warning to the
legislator and the statesman. TO re-
peal it will be only to remove imper-
lection from the statutes, without at
fecting, either in the sense of permis-
mission or of prohibition, the action of
the States, or of their citizens.
Still, when the nominal restriction
of this nature, already dead letter in
law, was in terms repealed by the last
Congress-, in q clause of the act organ
izing the Territories of Kansas and Ne
braska, that repeal was made the &C.
casion of widespread and danger
Gus agitation.
It was alleged that the original en-
actment being a compact of perpetual
moral obligation, its repeal constitu-
ted an odious breach of faith.
An act of Congress, while it remains
unrepealed, more especially if it be con-
stitutionally valid in the judgment Of
those public functionarics whose duty
it is to pronounce on that point, is un-
doubleday binding on the conscience of
each good citizen Of the Republic. But
in what sense can it be asserted that
the enactment in question was invest
ed with propriety and entitled to the
respect Of solemn compact? Nc
distinct contending powers Of the gov
eminent, no separate sections OF the
Union, treating as such, entered into
treaty stipulations on the subject. II
was mere clause Of an act Of Con
gress, and like any other controversial
matter of Legislation, received its final
shape and was passed by compromise
of the conflicting opinions or senti-
ments of the members Of Congress-
Buff it had moral authority over mems
consciences, to whom did this author
ity attach Not to those of the North,
who had repeatedly refused to confirm
it by extension, and who had Jealous.
~ striven to establish other and in
compatible regulations upon the sub
ject. And if, as it thus appears, the
supposed compact had no obligatory
force as to the North, Of course it could
not have had any as to the South, tor
all such compacts must be mutual and
of reciprocal obligation.
It has not unfrequently happened
that law givers, with undue estimation
of the value of the law they give, OF
in the view of imparting to it peculiar
strength, make it perpetual in terms
but they cannot thus bind the con.
science, the judgment, and the will OF
those who may succeed them, invested
with similar responsibilities, and cloth
ed with equal authority. More care
full investigation may prove the law
to be unsound in principle. Expert
ence may show it to be imperfect in
detail and impracticable in execution.
And then both reason and right COM
bine not merely to justify, but to re-
quire its repeal.
The Constitution, supreme as it is
over all the departments of the gov
crnment, legislative, executive, and
judicial, is open to amendment by it's
very terms and Congress or the
States may, in their discretion, propose
amendment to it, solemn compact
though it in truth is between the sove-
reign States of the Union. In the
present instance, political enactment,
which had ceased to have legal power
and authority of any kind, was repeal
ed. The position assumed, that Con-
gress had no moral right to enact such
repeal, was strange enough, and sim
gularly so in view of the fact that the
argument came from those who open
~ refused obedience to the existing
laws of the land, having the same pop
ular designation and quality as the
acts--nay, more, who un-
equivocally disregardcd and condemn
ed the most positive and obligatory
of the Constitution itself,
and sought, by every means within
their reach, to deprive a portion OF
their fellow citizens of the equal en-
joyment of those rights and privileges
alike to all by the funda-
mental compact of the Union.
This argument against the repeal of
the statute line in question, was &C
companied by another of congenial
character, and equally with the former
destitute of foundation in reason and
truth. It was imputed that the meas
ure originated in the conception of ex-
tending the limits of slave labor beyond
those previously assigned toit, and that
such was its natural as we'll as intend
ed effect; and these baseless assnmp-
tons were made, in northern States, the
ground of unceasing assault upon con-
stitutional right.
The repeal in terms of statute, which
was already obsolete, and also null for
unconstitutionality, could have no in
fluence to obstruct or to promote the
propagation of con flicting views of po-
litical or social institution. When the
act organizing the Territories of Kan
sas and Nebraska was passed, the in
herent effect upon that portion of the
public domain thus opened to legal set
Element, was to admit settlers from all
the States of the Union alike, each with
his convictions of public policy and pri-
vate intere st, there to found in their dis
erection, subject to such limitations as
Tho Constitution and acts If COnpress