Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-12-23

this implies that slavery is against natural
right. Why do we presume that a man
has no owner We presume just the oppo-
site of the horse. What makes the difference d?
The horse, by nature and right, is prop
erty; but man is not Hence, Chief Justice
Mansfield decided that slavery was so odious
to natural right, that it could only exist by
force of positive law. So, the United States
Courts have decided, that slavery is the crea-
ture positive law, and that, when a slave
goes beyond the jurisdiction of such law by
the consent of his master, he is free. But the
present assumptions of the slave party are
against this doctrine. They claim that slaves
are held in equity as well as law. If this doc
trine prevails, as it is likely TO, slavery cannot
be excluded from any State of the Union. 1t
may go into Ohio or Maine, it may come into
Massachusetts, and no State law can exclude
it. But, this assumption is as false to the
Constitution as it is to justice, natural right,
and common law.
The Constitution does not recognize the
right of property in man, either by direct as
sertion or implication. 1t implies and asserts
the opposite. 1t provides that no person "shall
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, with
out due process of law" If this means any
thing, it means that every man has right to
liberty against the world, until he forfeits it by
crime. But slayeocrats care nothing or the
Constitution, and care as little for the laws of
God, or the inalienable rights of man. This
talk of the President, about Constitutional
guarantees, is a mere blind to deceive the peo-
pie. and lead them to the support of his and
his party's infamous measures of oppression
which they are now projecting. The sue
cess which has already attended their
scheme, to bear the black and bloody BAN
ner of slavery over our new and rich
virgin soil, should alarm the Friends of Justice
Unless this bold infidel attempt is exposed, and
defeated, our national hopes are blasted, iber-
ty of person and speech is henceforth at the
disposal of cruel men, and the horrors of the
worst tyranny the sun ever beheld, is installed
all over the land of the Pilgrims.
Recent assumptions, in regard to slavery,
pIONG lIlG dliClSlb plOfGlD u DG True, IllaI
"evil copartnership corupts good morals" A
few years ago, the man who boldly claimed
that slavery was a just and righteous institu-
ton, was regarded as a fanatic, even among
Shareholders Mr.. Calhoun was always said
to be an honest, but eccentric man, entertain
ing views of human rights, very different from
those embodied in the Declaration of Indepen-
dence and the Constitution. He said that the
declaration chat all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inaienable rights, ooaS a mere rhetorical
flourish, a selfeUident Ge But no one sup
posed it possible for such doctrines to gain
many adherents in this country, or any other.
But the Slave Power, pressed by argument,
and made desperate by the sharpness of the
conflict in Church and State, and troubled to
reconcile their deeds with their own acknowl-
edged principles, have gradually changed po-
sitiOn, and now impudently assert, that
african slavery is a moral, religious, national,
and necessary institution" H.nH.