Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-01-05
MESSAGE.

IreSluent Glerce mas come 10 the conclusion
that whether the House of Representatives is OF
ganhzed or not his message must go to the countr,
and the world. Hence on Monday the 3lst ult
the Message was presented and readi in the Senate
In The House it was also presented where after
fierce debate the House refused to have it read b
q vote of l26 to 81. Afterwards the whole subiec
was laid on the Table. Omitting much other mai
ter, which we had prepared for insertion this week
we copy that portion of the Message referring t
the question of Slavery
The Congress of the United States is, in effect
that congress of sovereignties, which good men il
the Old World have sought for but could never at
tain, and which imparts to America an exemption
from the mutable leagues for common action, iron
the wars, the mutual invasions, and vague aspira
tons after the balance of power, which convuls,
from time to time the Governments of Europe. Gu
cooperative action rests in the conditions of per
manent confederation prescribed by the Constitu
ton. Our balance of power is in the separate re
served rights Of the States, and their equal repre-
sentation in the Senate. That independent soyer
eighty in every one of the States, with its reserved
rights of local self government assured to each b,
their coequal power in the senate, was the funda
mental condition of the Constitution. Without i
the Union would never have existed. However de
sirous the larger States might be to reorganize the
Government so as to give to their population its
proportionate weight in the common counsels, they
knew it was impossible, unless they conceded to the
smaller ones authority to exercise at least q mega
ative influence on all the measures of the Govern
ment, whether legislative or executive, through
their equal representation in the Senate. Indeed,
the larger States themselves could not have failed
to perceive that the same power was equally neces
sary to them, for the security of their own domes-
tic interests against the aggregate force of the
General Government. In u word, the original
States went into this pprmnnpnt lnaUun n N tho
agreed premises, of %exerting their common strength
for the deferce of the whole, and all its parts but
OF utterly excluding all capability of reciprocal
aggression. Each s~olemnly bound itself to all the
others, neither to undertake nor permit any en-.
croachment upon, or intermeddling with, auother's
reserved rights.
Where it was deemed expedient, particular rights
OF the States were expressly guaranteed by the
Constitution but, in all things beside, these rights
were guarded by the limitation Of the powers grant
ed, in the compact of union. Thus, the great pow
er of taxation was limited to purposes of common
defense and general welfare, exc ludlng objects an
pertaining to the local legislation of the several
States and those purposes Of general welfare and
common defense were afterwards defined by specific
enumeration, as teing matters only of correlation
between the States themselves, or between them
and foreign Governments, which, because of their
common and general nature could not be left to the
separate control of each State.
Of the circumstances of local condition, interest
and rights, in which a portion of the States, con-
shutting one great section of the Union, differed
from the rest and another section, the most impor-
tant was the popularity Of a larger relative colored
population in the Southern than the Northern
A population of this class, held in subsection,
existed in nearly all the States, but was more nu-
and of more serious concernment in the
South than IN the North, on account of natural
differences of climate and production and it was
that, for the same reasons, while this pop
ulation would diminish, and sooner or later cease
to exist in some States, it might increase in others.
The peculiar character and magnitude of this ques-
ton OF local rights, not in material relations, but
still more in social ones, caused it to enter into the
special stipulations of the Constitution.
Hence, while the General Government, as well
by the enumerated powers granted to as by those
not enumerated, and therefore refused to it was
forbidden to touch this matter in the sense of at
or ofense. it was placed under the general
Of the Union, in the sense of defense
against either invasion or domestic violence, like
all other local interests of the several States. Each
State expressly stipulated, as well for itself as for
each and all Of its citizens, and every citizen of.
each State became solemnly bound by his allegi-
lnce to the Constitution, that any person, held to
service or labor in one State, escaping into another,
should not in consequence of any law or regulation
hereof, be discharged from such service or labor,
nut should be delivered up on claim of the party
o whom such service or labor might be due by the
avs Of his State.
Thus and thus only, by the re ciprocal guaranty
Il all the rights Of every State against interference
IN the part Of another, was the present form of
esta blished by our fathers and trans
nitted to us and by no other means is it possible
or it to exist. If one State ceases to respect the
lights of another, ard obtrusiyely Intermediates
With its local interests-if n portion of the States
assume to impose their institutions on the others,
n refuse to fulfill their obligations to them-we
IRE no longer united friendly States, but distracted,
hostile ones with little capacity left of common ad-
'antage, but abundant means Of reciprocal injury
mischief.
Practically it is immaterial whether aggressive
between the States, or deliberate re-
usal or the part of any one of them to comply
With constitutional obligations, arise from errone-
'us conviction or blind prejudice, whether 1t be
by direction or indirection. In either
it is full of threat and Of danger of the dura-
,ility of the Union.
CONSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS OF SLA-
VERY.
Placed in the Office of the Chief Magistrate as
he executive agent of the whole country, bound
o take care that the laws be faithfully executed,
md specially enjoined by the Constitution to give
Information to Congress on the State of the Union,
t would be ~palpaGle neglect of duty on my part
o pass over a subject like this, which, beyond all
Kings at the present time, vitality concerns indi-
Iidual and public security.
1t has been a matter of painful regret to see
states: conspicuous for their services in founding
his Republic and equally sharing its advantages,
disregard their constitutional obligations to it,
conscious of their inability to heal aG-
nitted and ~palpable social evils of their own, and
which are completely within their jurisdiction,
hey engage in the offensive and hopeless underta-
ing of reforming the domestic institutions Of 9TH
r States wholly beyond their control and authori-
y. In the vain pursuit of ends by them entirely
and which they may not legally at
he Constitution, and all the countless benefits
Shich it has conferred. While the people of the
States confne their attention to their own
fairs, not presuming oficiously to intermeddle
the social institutions of the Northern States,
90 many Of the inhabitants of the latter are per-
nnnentlv nrrnnized In assncintinns To inHict injury