Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-05-07
HIGHER LAW as. FUGITIVE SLAVE
LAW. -

-
In q recent number of the Clers'and Leader i.
an editorial with the above caption, in which an
effort is made to show tina: because the Fugitive
Slave Law conflicts with the Higher Law, there
fore ii is no lac. In supper, Of this position
Blaekstone's definition Of law is given:
"a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the Su-
prcmc power in a State, commanding what is
right. and prohibiting what is wrong"
The following quotation is also given from the
same writer on law.
"This law of nature being coeval with mankind
and dictated by God himself is Of course superior
in obligation to any other. 1t is binding over all
the Globe, in oil countries and ut all times. No
human lars are of any udlidity if contrary 10 tbs,
and such Of them as are valid derive all their au'
thority media,cly or Immediately from this orig.
inal," .-8- -...
Who then, asks the Leddor, is to decide what is
law when a moral question is involved mot tie
State, not tho Courts, but each for himself. Such
a conclusion is no g~ovcrnmentism With q ven
geauce. Reduce the theory to practice, and you
would have no settled law, no fixed government ,
but each person would contain within himself
Legislative, Judicial, and Executive powers. Not
only would We have Every man bis own Law
yer" but every man would be his own everything
else.
In regard to Blackstone's definition Of law, and
its obligations as quoted above, wo believe none Of
his commentators have understood it as does the
Leader. Coleridge in his edition Of Blackstone
says.
"IIere the author means merely that q law, con,
lrary to nature, has no binding force on the con.
science"
Christian, another commentator, in a note on
this passage declares:
eff an act of Parliament should, like the edict
Of Herod, command all children under a certain
age to be slain, the Judge ought to resign his Of
fee rather than be auxiliary to it's execution F.; but
IL could only be declared roid by the same legisia-
tire porrer by phich it pas ordained"
Nathan Dane, author of the ordinance Of 1877,
quotes what ne believes to be Blackstohe's mean
ing of his definition of law, which he puts in the
following language.
Municipal or civil law lie the rule Of municipal
or civil conduct prescribed by the Superior power
in the State, commanding what the Legislature
deems right. and prohibiting what it deems
wrong"
Blackstone himself. on a subsequent page Of hi,
work says:
81 know it is generally laid down more largely
that acts of Parliament, contrary to reason. are
void. But if the Parliament will positively en-,
act a thing to be done which is unreasonable, l
know of no power, in the ordinary forms of the
Constitution, that is vested with authority to con-
troll it and tho examples Usually a~lledged, in
support of this sense of the rule, do none Of them
prove, that, where the main Object Of q statute is
unreasonable, the Judges arc at liberty to reject
il for that were to set the judicial power above
that of the Legislature, which would be subver.
siva nf nil Gnvprnmant Y u
If we could conceive it possible for the Parlia.
ment to enact that a man should try as we'll his
own causes as those of other persons, there is no
court that has power to defeat the intent Of the
Legislature when couched in .uch evident and OK.
press words, as leave Lo doubt whether it was the
intent of the Legislature or not"
If the rejection Of a law by thesJudges because
they believe it unredsonable-not unconstitutional
for they have authority to, pass upon that question
would be subversive of all government" by
placing the Judicial power above tie Legislative
as Blackstone declares, what would he say to a
proposition to place the power of the private in
dividuaI above both the Judicial and Legislative
authority?
If the %argumen. of ,le Leader is simply design.
cd to prove that no law of man which violates the
PRINCIPLES Of right is morally binding upon the
conscience Of any man, we agree with it, and pre-
sumo every one else does but if it is designed to
make easy the consciences of those who swear to
support the Constitution and laws Of the Union,
by giving them. as it were, an absolution for per,
jury, we must protest against it as detrimental to
sound morality, as tending to obliterste the bar.
iers between truth and falsehood. and to destroy
all respect for legal obligation. as such, whether
they be righteous or. unrighteous. ...