The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-29

TED the Government as their representative or
trustee. and intrusted it with powers to be ex.
edfortheir common benefit. - Calhoun
Works, vol. A, p. 1917 If it be true, then, that
the States as States, have each this imprescript-
ibte right to traffic in slaves, not only asittin,
but also aoahout, their respective limits, and
that the National Government is but their
trustee to enforce it, in my Judgment. South
Carolina has the same constitutional right to
demand the repeal of your statute which pro.
hibits the slave trade upon the seas, and pun
ishes it with death, as Virginia had to demand
the repeal OF your statute of 1920, which pro-
hibted the slave traffic in the Territories.
Both these enactments rest for their validity
upon the same general power in Congress; and
The extra-territoral right of the several States
to traffic in slaves, if it exist, is sacred upon
the sea as upon the land. 1t logically results,
therefore, upon the Presidents showing, that
the statute restriction upon the slave trade up
on the seas is violative of great principle of
our institutions, the imprescriptible right of
equality of the several States.
How comes it that the President does not at
once denounce this unequal exercise of the
trust power of the Government over the foreign
commerce of the States, as "an endeavor to
force the ideas of commercial policy enter
tanned in particular States upon allied indie
language of the President, that we had no consti
tutional Government that we still lived under
the Confederation; that the commerce of this
great country upon the land and the sea was
not under the exclusive control of National
Government, but was subject to the sovereignty
and conflicting regulations of thirty-one allied
independent States.
/ scout all such dogmas rejoice, to-day,
in the assurance that, despite the Presidents
false statements and false logic, we have
National Government, fully empowered by the
Constitution to regulate exclusively the com.
merce of The country with all foreign States,
between the several States of the Union. and
throughout the National Territories. Every
American citizen knows that the commercial
embarrassments of the country, after the es-
Enlistment of independence, arising out of the
conflicting con, mercial regulations of the States
under the Confederation, contributed more than
any other cause to the formation of the Con-
stitution.
Who will forget the noble action of Virginia in
1886? Virginia, the mother of dead heroes,
and dead patriots, and dead statesmen, but,
thank God! the mother also Of living Republic
and q living Constitution. When Virginia, in
1886, appointed her commissioners, instructing
them to meet such commissioners as the other
States of the Union should appoint, "to take
into consideration the trade and commerce of
the United States,' she took the first great step
towards the formation of that more perfect
Union and free written Constitution under
which we live. Sir. that Constitution was or
daned and established by the people of the
United States, to establish justice; to provide
for the common defence; to promote the gen
eral welfare; to insure domestic tranq utility; to
protect industry; to regulate commerce, and to
secure the blessings of liberty, aEd not to form
a mere alliance of independent States," with
an equality of right, as States, TO enslare
men within and without their respective juris-
dictions.
But, says the President, the States are equal,
and have each and all, as States, equality of
rights. The several States are equal in respect
of all the great and essential rights of free
Commonwealth, in respect of all rights sane
toned by the Constitution, and consonant with
its spirit; they each and all, under the Cons,i'u-
ton, have the right TO do whatever free
State may Of right do" except that they may
not exercise any of the powers granted by the
Constitution exclusively to the General Gov
eminent. But have yet to learn that any State,
fJrmed under and by virtue of the Constitu.
ton, may Of right enslave its own children,
and sell them like cattle The Constitution
does not provide for the erection and admis-
sion into the Union of such States, nor does
it admit the existence of such tyranny
within the Territories, where its jurisdiction
is exclusive. The States, say, are equal un-
der the Constitution, in the right, within their
respective limits, to establish justice, to pro-
mote the general welfare, and to secure to each
and every person therein the absolute enjoy
ment Of the rights Of human nature, which are
as imperishable as the human soul, and as uni
versal as the human race. But the States are
unequal in the right to do wrong, if may be
allowed the paradox-in the privilege to tram
pie upon the Unborn rights Of humanity, and to
violate that principle of eternal justice, which
requires that every man shall receive his due.
The original States, not under the Constitution,
nor "by force of the Constitution but indie
pendent of it, retained to themselves a monopo
ly in the horrid crime of Slavery within their
respective limits, and also in the slave traffic
for twenty years upon the high seas.
This reservation of privileges by the original
States-this inequslity between them and the
new States formed under, and only by force of
the Conslitution-is written upon the face of
that instrument, and declared by the national
legislation in the erection and admission of
new States. The constitutional provision for a
three-fifth representation, based upon slave
population, and also the provision for the recap
ture of slaves escaping from one State into an
eminent from any interference for the abolition
of Slavery within the original States. These
two provisions are, in fact, implied limitations
upon the power of the General Government,
for the erclusice benefit of the original States.
So also, the ninth section Of the first article Of
the Constitution was an express Limitation of
the general power of Congress over the foreign
commerce in slaves, for the erclusiUe benefit
of the then existing States. That section is in
these words:
"The migration or importation of such per-
| sons as any of the States NOW EXISTING shall
think proper to admit shall not be prohibited
by CONGRESS, prior to the year lS0S, but a
tar or duty may be imposed on such imporfd-
ton not exceeding ten dollars for each per-
son."
This express limitation in favor of the orig.
inat States was absolutely necessary, if they
would continue the foreign slave trade after
the adoption of the Constitution, for the reason
| that the Constitution was declared "to be the
{ supreme law of the land-the Constitution
and laws of any State to the contrary not
withstanding and by its terms the ex-
elusive power was granted to Congress to reg
ulate foreign commerce, even TO proh bition,
which included navigation and intercourse as
well as trade, the importation or commerce in
slaves as well as the Importation or commerce
in goods. That all of these Limitations upon
the power of the General Government, whether
implied or expressed, were for the exclusive
benefit of the States then existing, cannot be
gainsayed, and therefore the power of Congress
was not thereby restrained in legislatsg for
the Government of the Territories, or for the
institution and admission into the Union OF
new States.
TIE attempt was made in TIE Constitutional
Convention to secure to the ne,o States which
might be thereafter admitted into the Union
the same privileges thus retained by the orig