New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-01-07

sustaining the authority OF the master over the slave
anywhere, and especially out of his own State.
Now the vital point of the case is this: The peo-
ple. who by their votes made Constitution OF
what the Convention bad merely proposed for their
approval. were not aware of any meaning IN thl'
clause except that naturally conveyed by its taH-
ruag,. The historical proof is conclusive that IN
the Northern States no applicability to slaves OF
Slavery was suspected till long after the ratifca
t;on Of the Constitution. In the most powerful oil
these States the opposition to the Constitution was
able. and even bitter. Every reason and pretext
was seized to defeat il, aud especially every sem
blance of concession TO Slavery was most strenu-
ously urged against it. Had any considerable num-
Der of people beside the members Of the Constitu'
tional Convention, who hsd their reasons Tor
keeping the secret to themselves, suspected
that the clause was intended to protect
slave.hunting on free soil, or, indeed that 1t
had any relation TO Slavery whatever 1t would
have been used as a weapon against the Constitu-
ton BY SOME Of its Anti-Savery opponents, beyond
the possibility of doubt. If this had been done,
some such friend Of the Constitution and foe OF
Slavery a. Sam Adams of Massachusetts, would
have been obliged to parry the blow, and the sue
cessul feat could not have escaped the record Not
lisp Of discussion in the Northern Conventions Is
on record in regard to this clause. And hedIscus'
sion which took place about it in twoof the South
ern Conventions was after the Northern States had
acted. And in one of them, Virginia, it was con-
tended by no less legal authority than George
Mason. that the clause gave no protection what
ever 10 Slave property.
We are bound. therefore, TO believe that the ma
jorty Of the people who ratified the Constitution
and gave to it all the vitality and authority when II
possesses. gave no more meaning to this clause than
ts own language naturally conveys. What the
drafters at Philadelphia thought about 1t Is oil no
more consequence than what their horses thought
unless it can be proved that the people were aware
of II and this cannot be DONE while the contrary
is sufficiently obvious There is, in fact every hls
torica reason to believe that had the secret oil THIS
little South Carolina whitewashed postscript to tie
black compromises leaked out in Massachusetts be-
fore its Convention sat, the present Constitution of
the limited States never would have been adopted.
II were easy enough to show from President
Pierces own premises that the theory oil the rendi
tiop Of ESCAPED slaves is an absurdity Great Is the
perode he makes of the doctrine that every State
shall have its own institutions free from the Interior
ence 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 as Freedom and Slavery.
These institutions must be confined by the respect
i've peoorapbical boundaries. The STAKEHOLDER can
no more be allowed to enslave or re-enslaye on the
soil of Free State, than the citizen OF Free state
can be allowed to penetrate Slave state Tor the
nurpose of enticing slaves to escape. The moment
tbe one or the other of these acts is permitted,
whether by constitutional compact or otherwise,
the right of sovereign State to maintain its nstlt'
tons is no more. To assert the cOnstitutionaty OF
the Fugitive Slave law or the application OF the fll-
pitiye person clause of the Constitution to slave
property. ia to deny that any State has right to
maintain the local institution of free labor and the
doctrine of every man the owner OF himself. Inc
abominable assumption which foists into the
Constitution meaning that Roger Sherman and
George Wilson so promptly rejected, and which the
Convention as whole dared not inteiiigibiy submit
10 the psopIe of the Northern States, must be repudi-
ated and blown to the limbo Of lies yet or 1t Will
practically reach its legitimate, logical consequence,
of making Slavery cOextensye with the Union.