The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-06-25
The Repeal of the Force Bill.

There never was truer maxim than
the one which says that curses are like
pigeons for they always come home to
roost And there never was stronger
application of the maxim than in the case
of the Force Bill of 1853, which extin-
guishes the power of the States to resist
federal usurpation 1t was intended to
coerce South Carolina to accept the high
protective policy of 1898, which that
State has already resisted, and was pre-
pairing to oppose by what she held to be
the constitutional remedy of nullifca-
tion. 1t provided for summary proceed
ings to collect the duties on imports in
that State. 1t secured the federal officers
from all responsibility to the State au-
thorities in the discharge of their duties
under it, At the same time itdisabled the
courts of the State from any action against
any aggressions committed upon citizens,
under color of their Office while discharg-
ing the duties which the new bill enfor-
ced. If any federal officer should shoot
down a merchantwho defended his goods,
from what he considered an unconstitu-
tional lava law odious to his fellow-citi-
zens, as well as detrimental to himself; a
law which had been solemnly condemned
by his Legislature, and by convention of
the people of his State, to the same effect,
the Criminal Courts of the State were
yet to be deprived of all power to avenge
the merchants death by furnishing the
slayer The means to that end provided
by the bill, were at fault in the seventh
section, which authorized any federal
Judge to issue a writ of HABEAs CORPUS,
taking the criminal from State custody,
and also bring him from responsibility to
the State laws against homicide. This
usurpation of power, like all the rest
chronicled in history, was indicated by
the declared necessity of the case; the
old plea of all the tyrants, who have, since
the beginning, abused mankind. Mr..
wilkins, Pennsylvania Senator, was
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
and reported the bill with Just such an
appeal as might have been expected, to
the peculiar circumstances of the case.
81 He admitted the importance of this
bill, but he viewed its Importance as
arising not out of the provisions of the
bill itself, but ont of the state of affairs in
South Carolina to which the bill had
reference" Mr.. Webster gave it his sup
port because he believed more in the
general principle of federal supremacy
than in the doctrine of peculiar circum-
stances The Force Bill was supported
and passed by coalition of Northern
men under Wilkins and Webster with
Jackson's friends. 1t became the law.
and has been the law from 1888 to the
present time. 1t is believed by many of
our best minds to be a grievous attack
upon the federal system. And yet what
warning its history presents to cool the
zeal of those who, under the supposed
pressure of emergencies, are sometimes
willing to disregard the Constitution, and
throw away the rights of the States. The
Tariff Compromise Actof 1928, 3,passedby
agreement between the extremes of opin-
Ion represented by Clay and Calhoun,
prevented any question ever arising under
the Force Bill in the South where it was
intended to strike. The imposts being
reduced to low figure, were paid by the
merchants of Charleston, Richmond and
New Orleans, and there was none of that
oo,,. on with revenue officers, which
tho mnw,, - Legislators of that date had
.oI,o a,oh -, constitutional measures to
anticipate. All the persons intended to
be victimized, made goo THEN escape
but, it must not be supposet.i therefore,
that the Force bill had done no harm and
certainly, not that it is now incapable Oh
further mischief As the most signal ca
ample of retribution in American history, 4,
the curse has fallen upon its authors, with
even more than the weight it was to have
descended upon certain other heads 1t had
devoted 10 destruction. The law slepSS
twenty-five years; but on most unex-
pected day and occasion it swept over
our State of Ohio in proceeding, under
the Fugitive Slave Act Marshals and
deputies, who had shot at rescuers and
sympathizers, and were bound over or
imprisoned for intending, feloniously, to
kill our people, we're all DELIVERED
WHOLESALE BY BABEAs CORPUS The State
of Ohio got not even chance to talk of
her violated peace and dignity. 1t was a
question with her people how to get out