The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-03-28

IN the Territories that protection Which Is
given to other kinds Of property.
say that it is my purpose to propose this
amendment. | shall vote for it myself If
1t fails then shall vote for the resolution as
it stands, and chiefly because of the concluding
words. When these things shall have hap
pened, when we get the necessary experience
and when the Territorial Legislature shall
have been shown to fail and refuse, then the
resolution says 1T will be the duty of Con-
gress to supply such deficiency" In that
get recognition of the principle for which
| contend, that it is your duty to act. You
my complaint. You want greater amount
of evidence to bring your minds to the con-
clusion than require to bring my mind to the
conclusion | think both the contingencies
on which you base your determination to act,
to pass laws for the protection of slave proper
ty, have already happened. do not feel, my
SELF that any further experience is necessary
to demonstrate that the courts unaided by
statutory law, cannot afford protection. think
we have abundant evidence that the Territories
some of them, at least have failed and refused
to afford this protection ; and, so thinking, |
am prepared to act now. If my friends will
not be convinced, | will signify my own con-
viction; and then sit down quietly, and wait
until their minds are brought to the same con-
clusion as my own. l hope, if we are ever
to have protection, we shall get it while it may
be useful, and not have it mockingly rendered
after the Territories are hopelessly lost to the
| South and to slavery.
10 talk merely about protection, and to do
nothing is very idle ceremony. If we pres
sumo case demanding protection, you ought
to meet it like men. If we have no case say
So and let US quit talking about it. Promises
| ABOUT what Congress will do years hence,
when we shall be out and others in our places,
are not worth the paper on which they are re-
Apoligizing Mr. President, for having de-
tanned the Senate so long, yield the floor.
REPLY OF SENATOR FITCH.
Mr.. Fitch said: Mr.. President, some of the
remarks of the Senator from Mississippi call
for brief response from me but | ask the
indulgence of the Senate for but very short
time, aware, as | am, from the lateness of the
hour, that members must be EXTREMITY anxious
| to leave the chamber. The Senator spoke in
complimentary terms Of the supposed efficacy
OF my professional, my medical prescriptions,
but appears adverse to taking my political
| prescriptions-deems them inert trust it
will be many years before the Senator re-
quires prescription for the benefit of his
bodily health. May he live thousand years
without a single bodily pang. But sir, he is
badly diseased politically; and yet he will not
perceive the disease, or, perceiving it. will not
| admit its existence. He is like the victim of
that scourge of our race in variable climates
the consumption the victim who, even while
passing away under the ravages of the dis
ease, tlatters himself that he is exempt from
1t; and fancies that his friends, whose solicitude
| in his behalf calls them daily about him. are
| labOrng under some strange hallucinaton re-
| lative to his condition. Possibly could con.
vince the Senator that he is the subject, and
likely to become the victim, of a dangerous
political malady. Possibly could point out
the appropriate treatment for his recovery
Possibly | could prepare political prescrip-
ton for his benefit, possessed Of curative pow
ers equal to those he has been pleased to as
sign to my professional But | much fear me.
as he has indicated that he would not adopt
my treatment, that he would not take nv
prescription; | much fear me that he prefers
to Inc, and those acting with me and our RENE.
dies, to patroniZe an eminent Northwestern
man, deemed by many political empire and
his nostrums for while the Senator will not
himself, as he has assured u.s. take that en-
prizes nostrums, deeming them poisonous, vet
he consults to their effects upon others, and
pursueS such course toward his nostrums as
may well induce others to take them.
Ills argument, designed to prove that the
common law cannot protect slave property, is
an argument against the truth of history
African slavery was first introduced into Eng
land and its possessions under the common
law. 1t received here and throughout the
English dependencies for years its sole protec-
ton from the common law-years during
which 1t most tlourlshed years during which
1t acquired that vigor which has perpetuated
itself to this time. That law, as the Senator
well SAID, exists not only in this country, but
wherever the AnglO-SaXon race have estab |
Eshed government, except in the particular
instances in whichit has been superseded by
particular legislative acts. 1t exists certainly
IN this country, not only in States but in Ter |
ritories alike. In both alike it is recognized
by the courts, except where it comes in con- |
fict with some constitutional legislative enact
-nset-- Well gsir, one or It's fTst axioms is, |
that every right has its remedy. l would say, |
then, to the Senator from Mississippi, he has |
but to establish his right and the remedy |
necessarily goes with it. The Constitution |
has asserted the right Of the South as coeuual |
with that of the North in the Territories. The |
Supreme Court has affirmed this right. The
Constitution, the courts, and the common law.
will protect the right. A Territorial legisla-
ture may so regulate as to improve that pro-
lection. II 1t refuses so TODD, it practices the
doctrine OF non action recently inculcated, and
evades It's duty; but 1t cannot go any further in
that direction it cannot violate its DUTY and
the constitution by destroying, or even i'm
pairing, the right; however, it may make the
attempt. A modern school of politicians
reasons thus; if Territorial legislature has
the right to protect and to regulate the pro-
lection of slave property, it has the right to
impair its value; lift has the right to impair
its value, it has the right to destroy it. What
aFsurdity of reasoning, if it can be called
reasoning My friend from Mississippi dis
sents from the rationale, butarriv.s at its con-
clusion
The Constitution guarantees to every citi-
zen, life liberty, and his property The Con
sttutlon, the courts, and the common law pro-
tect these rights. legislature may so regu-
late as to improve this protection. A legisla-
ture may, for instance, vary the punishment
Tor violation OF these rights. 1t may vary
The punishment for taking life but does the
power to vary the punishment for taking life
larry with 1t the power, by direct or indirect
acton, to lessen the value of the life of the in
1ocent citizen the power to place his life in
ially jeopardy? the power to destroy his life?
he latter proposition might as well be mair-
aimed as similar one relative to the power tn
protect property
shall allude to but one-time will not al
ow more--Of the Senator's illustrations in
support of his opinion that the common law {
lmpotent to the protection of slave proper
y lie asks, IF a man decoys my slave from {
me county to another adjoining, what RENE /
y have r. lie admitted that he had rem t
dy, but objected that the remedy must neces-
arly be applied day after day. We can look t
It this illustration made by him in the very
anne light with another illustration which l
ave heard II l mistake not, from the same
senator. AT all events l will couple the two o
has been objected to the common law that o
contained no provision against, and provided o
o punishment for, selling liquor to slaves; G
nd that, IN the absence of such law, their o
wners might find them, at times not onIy a
seless and troublesome, but mischieyous.- V
he difficulty in both cases, in the illustration
'-day and the previous one, is not in punish O
lg the act, but it is in proving it. Laws ex- Y
It. presume, in every slaveholding State
and Furnishing the sale Of spirits r!
} slaves, prohibiting and furnishing the sale CT
spirits to slaves, prohibiting and Furnishing vi
ne decoying away of negro. If negro, Oh
hen be is owned as property, is found in the Iii
without permission of law or own IL
:, of some other person, the possession i'm 7
les the fact that such person has deceived
i'm away, and is proof sufficient; but if be is &c
und running at large, no one is responsible IN
r his being so, unless the fact can be carried te
ome to some individual that he did decoy in
IN away How is the fact to be established? sf
r if a slave is found intoxicated, and thus to
seless, how are you to prove that any white OF
AN sold him spirits in violation of law p to
GU cannot do it under the existing statutes. tn
he sIaveholding States and several of the ri
On slaveholding, prohibit negro's testimony pc
ling received against white mans; and the an
hite man will decoy the negro, or sell him fol
,rits in the presence Of only the negro race. fiy
hat, then, is the Senator's remedy, if he has
not under the common law? Would he bl
me here and ask Congress to do that which WI
S own legislature has declined doing-put as
e negro on level with the white man in the wi
urts, put his slave on an equality with the m
lofa L. |