Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-01-12
Chr Auli- GIoperp Duolr
S.ILEN, OIn0, JANUARY 10, 1856.
UNQuTSIlCKAILY.

The Tribrn in its comments on President
Fierco's Message, irretrievably cxplodcs.the Repul
lican theory Of letting Slavery alone MS it B. j,
and where it is, if it will only let us alone. Il
snys that "to assert the constituiionalitv Of tic
Fugitive Slave law, or the application of the Tugi
person clause Of the Constitution 20 slave property
is 10 deny that eng STATE has a right 10 maintain IL,
iocal inliiintioa al free labor and tie doctrine et
ereyy man the o,caer Of hia'se!f"
An uuqucstionaLlc truth. We are glad to hear
it from such a source. Democrats, Wings, Know.
Nothings and Republicans all admit The obligatioy
to return fugitive slaves in some form. This admit.
ted, Slavery is admitted everywhere; and for aught
we can see Judge Kane's opinion which classes
cover coats" and "carpet.sacks" with the woman
and her offspring is as good an inventory for Penn
.sylvsnia as for North Carolina. The Tribune re.
licvcs itself from tie difficulty by denying thc
constitutional obligation for slave rcndi
ton Of any sort. a position which tie party that
the Tribune sustains, must also take, or in some
other way rc,oluticnize public opinion and the
government, or submit t. slavery extension.
not into tho Territories merely. but into tie nomi.
ually Free States themselves.
We quote the closing parograph,of the article
alluded to, commencing it to the attention of all
such as propose to make Slavery sectional, under
a rroslay9ry constitutional compact with slave
drivers:
1T were easy enough to show from President
Piercc's own premises that tho theory of the rcndi
ton Of escaped slaves is an absurdity. Great is
the parade he makes Of the. d ctrinc that every
State shall have its own institutions free from the
interference Of other States. Grant this and there is
but one possible way in which two distinct States
can each maintain without the Interference of the
other institutions so hostile MS freedom end slavery.
These institutions must bc confined by the respect
i've geographical Boundaries. The stakeholder can
no more he allowed to enslavc or rc.onslaYe on the
soil Of a Free State, than the citizen of a Free State
can be allowed to penetrate q Slave State for tie
purpose IF cnticing slaves to escape. The mo-
ment the one or the other Of these acts is permitted
by Constitutional compact or otherwise,
the right of a sovercigLStal to maintain its institu.
tions is no moIe. To assert the constitutionality of
the Fugitive Slave law or the application of the fu-
person clause of the Constitution to slave
is to deny that any State has a right to
maintain the local institution Of free labor and the
doctrine Of every man the owner of himself. The
assumption which foists into the Con-
,titution a meaning that Roger Sherman and Geo.
Wilson so promptly rejected, and which the Con-
yontiun rs n whole dared MI inie}ligiJiy submit 10
peopie cJ tie Northern States, must be repudi
ated and blown to the limbo Of lies yet, or it will
practically reach its legitimate, logical consequence
Of making Slavery co-cxtensivc with the Union"