Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-05-03

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esty Of the man who should insist that Congress
has never yet passed n Fugitive Slave Law, De
cause the word slave is not mentioned therein ?
The way in which slavery is proved to be uncon
stitutional is as iUllows;-
NC title of nobility shall be granted'--'No ill
of attainder shall be passed'-'No State shall pas
any bill impairing the obligation of contracts
The privilege of the writ Of hnSeas corpus shall
not be suspended in time of peaoe'-'Ihe United
States shall guarantee to every State n republican
form Of goycrnment-'NO person shall be dcpriv'
ed of life, liberty or property, without due process
of law'-'We. the people Of the United States, IN
order to Ioim II more perfect Union, to establish
Justice and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our postcrity, do ordain this Consti'
tution':-Mettore, slavery is unconstitutional
These are direct and positive prohibitions Of sla-
very says Gen. Granger, cutting it up root and
branch
But, as q contract is 5inding only in the sense
in which it was understood and recognized 10y the
parties making it-0s the language of the Cunsti.
tuition is to be interpreted in the light Of history,
and in view of The circumstances under which it
was formed-the all-suficicnt reply to these quo
cations is, that they were never designed or under
stood to interfere with the institution Of slavery,
directly or indirectly, but had reference to such
only as were free; therefore, to construe them in
any other manner, to apply them in a way never
contemplated, is to be guilty of fraud, and to act
upon the jesuitical maxim that the end slnctiiiccs
the means. That the passages referred to were
not regarded as at all impairing the right Of any
Shareholder to his slave is evident, beyond u rea-
sonable doubt
l. Because not II slave was ever set free by any
such construction OF the Constitution.
z. because a Save representation III Congress
was treated as a constitutional provision from tie
deginViHg.
3. Because the foreign slave trade was univer-
sally regarded ms sacred, under the constitution,
against any governmental interference for its abo-
lition until the year 1903.
4. Because the fugitive slave; law of 1893 dem
onstrated, promptly and conclusively, what was
intended by the section, No person held to SER
vice or labor &c.
5. Because, if slavery was made illegal by the
Constitution, it is incredible that such men as
Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, Jay and
Franklin, lived all their days ignorant of 50 mo.
mentous n fact.
G..Becausc, if this was so, it is equally incredi-
bic that the people as electors, and the senators
and representatives. as their servants, and every
court appointed by them from the highest to the
lowest, state and national, for almost seventy years
should never have understood their own Constitu-
ton and form of government.
q. Because the intelligent adoption of q Consti-
tuition intended to 'cut up slavery, root and branch
presupposes a radical change in the views and feel
ings Of the people on the subject of slavery, and
they regarded it as under all circumstances n sin
against God, and an outrage upon man; whereas,
it is notorious, that the right to hold slaves was
every where conceded, and is at this day stoutly
maintained by a very large majority Of the peo-
pie.
8. Because immediate and unconditional eman-
c~ipation is a modern doctrine; while the most that
was aimed at, in the days Of Washington, by any
scheme, was a gradual abolition, halt way between
now and never
Q. Because every one of the thirteen States, ex-
cept Massachusetts,, adopting the Constitution. toll
Grated slavery on its soil at that time; and not one
| II at-Ll. A--l- 49,. -
with its right to continue to hold slaves, ad lii
tuR.
10. Because slavery had an existence in the col
onies for more than q century and a half-gradu-
ally extending itself, and increasing the number
CT its victims till it reached half n million at the
time of the adoption of the Constitution. Now,
to say that a system so old, and SO interworen with
all the religious, political, social aid pecuniary
habits of the people, was crushed without a strug-
gle, and that property so valuable was vO.untari-
~ sacrificed 10y its possessors, is simply preposter-
Gus.
II. Because Africans and their descendants, in
this country, have been treated with systematic in
justice and oppression, as an inferior and leprous
race, from the settlement of the country; hence, it
was not possible for those who ~despised and en-
shaved them to take then! to their embrace as equals
in the formation Of the government-but it was
natural and inevitable for them to exclude this ha-
ted and outraged class from equal rights and priv
ileges-and, accordingly, they did SO; hence, the
pro-sluvery compromises in the Constitution.
II. Because; since the world was created, it has
never been known FOR tyrants, possessing urlimit-
ed power over the lives and liberties of Others
and especially the worst of all tyrants, slnvchold-
ers,-as IA body, to relinquish their grasp, and pro
claim freedom 70 their vassals, without entreaty or
hesitNncy, without discussion or agitation, and
without necessity or recompensc. Certainly, nc
such thing was done by the colonial shareholders,
either on the adoption of the Constitution or prior
to that time; therefore, the assertion, that that in
strument cuts slavery up, root and branch has
no foundation whatever, but is d~isprcvcd by evil
dence wholly nsurmountable
Here we have given a dozen reasons, each one
OF which is incontrovertible, we think, proving that
an anti-slavery construction of the Constitution is
Il fraud, on the one hand and is giving credit to
whom credit is not due, on the other. For it is not
true that our fathers resoluiely set their faces
against chattel slavery, and determined to give it
no quarter in their national compact: on the con-
trary, it is true that, to effect a union of the colo
MES, and to prevent their own possible subsection
by the mother country, through their divisions,
they made "a covenant with death ana an agree
ment with hell, though not without ome twinges
Of conscience and feelings of shame. Our duty is
not to deny or to hide their guilt, but to confess
it with sorrow, and to refuse to be participators
therein.
1t is mere parrot.talk, therefore, to be repeating
the various clauses of the Constitution relating to
a title of nobility, to bills Of attainder, to impair
ing the obligation Of contracts, to the writ Of ha-
beas corpus, &C., &c. They break no %Getter; they
emancipate no slave; they were not adopted in or
der to cut slavery up, root and branch'--no, not
even to interfere with the growth Of a single twig
thereof. As if this tremendous struggle, which
is shaking the republic to its foundations, we're a
question Of grammar or to be decided by an inge-
NOUS Interpretation AS if the representative
of the people, and the people themselves, have
been ignorant of the relation Of the Constitution
to chattel slavery for more than three score years
Away with such childish folly, and up with the
banrer wherein is inscribed the motto, NO UNION
WITH SHAREHOLDERS!
Prom Fred. Douglas, psper.