Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-12-18
THE ANTI-SLAVERY DUGLE.

placed by the decision of this Court. Citizens,
freemen, who have been born in eur midst, who
have resided with us their whole lives, who have
cultivated their farms aad paid their taxes for the
support of government, happen. from inclination
or business to visit another State of the Union.
The Constitution Of the United Estates secures to
every citizen, wherever he chooses to go, within
its jurisdiction, all the privileges and immunities
OF a citizen IN the United States. Yet in defiance
OF this solemn guarantee and constitutional right,
he is thrown into prison, or, by the strong arm OF
power, reduced to slavery. Nay more, he may be
kidnapped from his fire side, from his home in his
native State transported into another State, and
there branded as n slave and held as such by mere
physical force. What is his remedy 2 Can he
testify in a Court Of Justice Can he sue in the
Courts and recover his freedomi lie makes the
attempt, and tho wretch who claims him has an
easy task to perform. lie enters q simple plea
to the jurisdiction, and his work is done-his vic.
tim is secure. No law, say these Judges. State
or Federal, can relieve him, and no power, save
that Of the Almighty, can restore him his lost
rights. Human laws and human redemption are
powerless."
Thus your Committee perceive that by these
doctrines and by these decisions of tho Federal
Administrator aud the Federal Judiciary, if car.
ried out to their legitimate conclusions, Vermont
is powerless, and every free State is powerless, in
defence of their own citizens. Their State soyer.
eighty is gone. They are mere satellites, feebly
revolving round a great central power. One con-
solidated government, and one only exists, at the
head of which stand the President and the Su.
preme Court. Like the upper and the neither
milestone, these two powers are ceaselessly at
work, crushing the rights and liberties of the
masses as well as OF the States.
But these States. and the millions of people
who inhabit them, will not always tamely acqui.
esce in these demonstrations encroachments on
their rights. The numerical strength and the
moral power are with them, and, if united as are
the people of the South on all questions affecting
their interests, the time is not distant when the
Constitution shall be rescued from the hands Of
the destroyer, and the States and people restored
to their lost rights -when freedom shall again be
the rule and slavery the exception. Even now
the indications are strong that submission has
ceased to be a virtue"
The Report concludes as follows:
"In conclusion, then, and in review, after full
examination and deliberation, your Committee
would observe that, rs one of the objects of the
Constitution is to ESTABLISH JUSTICE zoe regard none
Of its provisions as conflicting Oim this object. 1t
is true that, in it's name, wrongs and outrages may
have been carried to many a stricken heart, and
thousands of innocent victims may have been sac.
rifced at its shrine-but none OF those were ever
sanctioned, OF for a moment justified, by a single
word in the Constitution. In its name, the citizens
of the State have been. and may be again. enslaved
imprisoned, murdered, and the States deprived Of
their cherished rights hut it is a foul Islander Oh
the Fathers to assert that a Constitution, ordained
by them, to secure the blessings of liberty, sane,
tons any such outrage-an outrage that does vio-
lence to the common sense of the civilized world.
The reverse Of all this is true. Like its great pro,
totype, the Declaration of Independence, ON which
it is founded, it maintains the equality, in rights,
Of the human race.
ave plant ourselves, then, on this Constitution,
and there we are determined to stand, firmly, un.
finchingly, unmoved and unterrihed by the com,
bined assaults of Federal or of the Slave Power,
whether manifested 10 Fugitive or Nebraska Acts,
Presidential Proclanations or bred Scott decisions.
This Constitution, so perverted and ~maligned in
high places, shall yet be made to do its appropri'
ate work and fulfil its sacred mission. The time
is coming when it shall cease to be made the in
strument of tyranny and oppression to the millions
of this continent; but shall become the harbinger
OF peace, the bond of union, and the great chart of
Human Rights, securing, under its broad agis,
freedom to the whole people, of whatever condi-
ton. Then shall elderly and union, now and
forever, one and insoparable," be something more
than an unmcaning gencrality, addressed to the
popular ear to gain ephemeral applause. In let.
ters of living light, it shall be written in the hearts
OF the American people, from the broad Atlantic
to the still broader Pacific, and from the SHOWS of
the Northern zone to the giittering gold regions
under a Southern sun: everywhere, and in all
time, it shall be A PRACTICAL REALITY, A LYING
DEMONSTRATION"
We need not say what we think of this ealogium
upon the U. S. Constitution, since our views in re.
spect to the bearings of this instrument upon sla.
very are well known. 1t is immateriaI, Compare.
lively speaking, whether the Revolution by which
alone slavery can be abolished shall be brought
about by a new Interpretation Of the Constitution,
or by setting it aside as inconsistent with the prin.
ciples of freedom.
We subjoin the law enacted by the Legislature :
No. 54.-AN ACT TO SECURE FREEDOM
TO ALL PERSONS WITHIN THIS STATE.
IL is hereby enacted. dc.
Sec. l. No person within this State shall be con.
sicered as property, or subject, as such. to sale.
purchase, or delivery nos shall any person, with.
in the limits of this State, at any time be deprived
of liberty or property without the due process of
law. .-..
Sec. 2. Due process of law mentioned in the
preceding section of this act shall, in all cases, be
defined to mean the usual process and forms in
force by the laws of this State and issued BY the
courts thereof; and under such process such per.
son shall be entitled to a trial by jury.
Sec. 8. Mheneyer any person in this Stats sLau