Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-05-11

ed by COL Benton in "Thirty Years View" that
the fugitive clause in the United States Constitu.
ton was consented to by the North as an equiva-
lent for prohibition slavery in the territories
which it was supposed would be the settled policy
of thecountry after the passage of the ordinance
of 1881" I" Warrington" says on this
al don't believe that this is historically
true Mr.. Upham further takes the ground that
the South having violated its plightcd faith, the
North was no longer bound TO enforce the eonsti-
tutional provision relating to fugtives. I do not
see how this ground can be maintained either
Senator Shaw, of Nantucket, in his Speech not
only denied the bargain, bat also the allegation
that The constitution required the return of slaves.
This is the first time have heard the Lysander
Spooner and Gerritt Smith doctrine propOunded
in our legislature 1t can be defended, believe,
with success. y
And so zoe believe. The moment we admit the
existence of SO internal " bargain" as that al
legged by President Upham, all our hold upon the
constitution as an instrument to furtherthe cause
of Liberty, and stay the progress andusurpation
of the monstrous slave power which rules the
country, as with a rod Of iron,,is gone at once
To be sure we may urge, with great potency and
truth, that the compact has been faithlessly
broken in the ruthless legislation of 1854, re-
pealing the Missouri Compromise; but what
cares the South for that The instant we grant
the fact of so scandalous an agreement, an OBJ
legation TO convert ourselves into slave-catchers
for the return of the fleeing bondman back again
to his oppressor, and set that agreement against
a meritorious but mere constitutional act las we
claim it) Of our fathers excluding slavery from
all the then national territories, we virtually
throw away all our distinctive principles as
anti slavery party. For the slave obligarchy
have already wrested from the Supreme Court a
decision declaring that ordinance unconstituton-
al and if we admit the consttutionality of the
obligation to return fugitive slaves, we are gone
at once, unless go back to first principles, and
layI down the broad doctrine contained in the
Declaration of Independence, of the g inalien-
able right of ALL men, irrespective Of birth
place, color or creed, to Liberty and construe
the constitution, as it should be construed, in
accordance with that theory.
We would ask for no better platform for an
ant-slasery party, than that laid down by Steph
en- G. Phillips, in speech we remember to have
heard him deliver, with great pleasure and salts
faction, in 1851. He took the broad ground, not
Ouiy VI buC Vi tue VI AuBAr
tive slaves with our obligation to the Constitu-
ton but Of the total incompatibility of the exist
of slavery itself, in any of the States, with
that noble instrument, which he termed to be EN-
phatically an anti-slavery document" through
out. Mr.. Phillips said that if the Constitution
were literally carried out in all its provisions
not only would we have no fugitive slave law but
slavery itself would be entirely extinct from every
square inch of American soil, South Carolina not
excepted. No slave could wear his CALLING chains,
or task master call the roll of his bondmen, any
where under the jurisdiction of any one of the
confederated commonwealths which make up our
glorious Union, for each State should be compell-
ed to conform in its Constitution and laws, to the
"supreme authority Of the federal Constitu-
ton
This is a construction Of the Constitution which
we long to see recognized, by the party claiming
to be the anti-slavery party of the country, If the
candidate for Governor of the Free Soil party OF
six or seven years ago, could take such ground,
in the face of its then coalition with the pro-
slavery Democracy, will it not be safe for the an
t-slayery political party Of 1857, untrammeled as
it is with any such coalition, to take the ground
of the unconstitutionality of slavery and its in
compatibility with Republican institutions The
United States Constitution guarantees "Repub-
lican " institutions to each State. Is slavery a
" Republican institution : !" If it is, then let
our party adopt some other name. But we be.
lieve such thing. Slavery is the most anti
Republican, anti-Democratc institution in the
land and strict, literal construction of the fed
eral Constitution, and rigid enforcement of its
doctrines, would root it out entirely.
We trust, at least, that the next discussion on
Constitutional construction, in our State Senate,
will bring out some Republican on the radical
side this matter, and not leave that side of the
question longer to be monopolised by an Amseri.
can senator, (Mr.Shaw of Nantucket who thus
far appears to be alone in that body. and in this
and preceding Legislatures, in the advocacy Of so
sound and correc, construction of the Constitu-
ton.