Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-12-11
SECESSION No. VIII.

SECESSION NO. VIII.
FATAL ERROR OF THE NoRIH-THE STATES For
EIsN TO EACH OTHER IN RELATION TO DoMEs-
TIC lNsTIrurIoNs-CNcoNsTIT LKSIs-
LAIIoS NOT observation-disclosures AcIs
NORTH THE MOST EFFECTIVE ARGUMENTS OF
sBcEssIoNIsTs-THES SUFFERERS ARE The Boa
DER SLkvEHoLDIsG STATks; AND NOT SOUTH |
CAROLINA.
To the People Of the SostA.
IL portion Of the people Of the South have been
deluded into the idea that they have inherent |
right to secede from the Union, deluson equ,lly
fatal has been p actised upon the public mind OF
the North. II is In the incubation Of the idea |
that they have any right to interfere with the ex
istence Of slavery in the South. They do not re-
aize the fundamental principle Of our institutions
that 80 far regards the reserved rights Of the
States they foreign to each other as are
Great Britain and France. Massachusetts has no
more right to interfere with the relations Of master
and slave In South Carolina than South Carolina
has to interfere In the relations of master and aP
prentice, man and wife, parent and child, In
Massachusetts,. man In Massachusetts has the
same right to the labor Of his wife, his son, his
daughter and his apprentice that man In South
Carolina has TO the labor Of his slave 1t 10 not
| natural right, but right originating In the laws
Of an independent State, with which no foreign
States or people have any right TO interfere. II
our States Were not united for general purposes
under one Constitution, the interference Of one
State or Its people with the institutions OF another
would be imper.inent and offensive and might
be carried 90 far as to afford just cause Of
Under our present Constitution, not only does
every State reserve an unlimited control over its
dome. sic institutions, but 1t Is Of the condi-
tons of union that person held to service or
labor in one State under the laws thereof, esca-
| ping into another, shall, In consequence of any
law or regulation therein, be discharged from
such service or labor, but shall be delivered up
| on claim Of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due"
/ This is the language Of the Constitution, the
| supreme law of the land, which all State legsla.
tors and judges are not only bound, but are sworn
| to support.
The provision has two aspects: In one of ito as
poets, IL provides in substance, that apprentice
or slave owing labor to his master under the laws
Of one State, shall, on escaping into another, he
relieved from that legal litigation by legislation
or judicial decision In the latter State. Every
State Judge, therefore, who decides that an ap-
prentice slave Ii free soon as he escapes from
one State into another, al from Kentucky into
Ohio, or from Virginia into New York, not only
violates the Constitution but also his oath to sup
port It,
The other aspect Of the provision is that which
requires that the fugitive, apprentice slave shall
be- delivered up to his master. Ii does not say by
what agency he shall be delivered up; but IL the
several States were actuated by the spirit Of har-
mony which ought to pervade the Union, they
would lend their agency to carrying into effect
this provision as well as every other part Of the
Constitution. The least that could be expected of
them, IL they wish to preserve the Union is not TO
obsruct the Federal authorities in their efforts to
make effective this provision Of the Constitution
II n II. Al
effect to the Constitution In this respect, or even
maintaining a passive attitude, have done their
) utmost, by legislation and otherwise, to render
this provision nugatory. Their Legislators have
by their acts dehed the laws of the United States
and violated the Constitution together with their
oaths to support It, These acts afford the mos,
, effective argument now welded by the sec.sso on.
ists because they constitute just cause Of com.
plaint and they furnish pretext for charg ing the
offending States with notification.
While these acts are an outrage upon the Con
stitu.ion, they far from constituting ssnulIih
catiOn'' in the South Carolina sense Of the term
In that sense, Qualification" is a sovereign ac
of the people Of State not susceptible Of revision
by any earthly tribunal, rendering any desig hated
act or acts Ut Congress imperative and void
within the limits of that State; whereas thes,
offensive acts Of the States do not profess to rence
void any act of Congress Though designed t.
sbstruct the operation Of particular act) nor Il
be beyond revision by the Federal judiciary
which will undoubtedly pronounce them uncon
stitutional and void often an appeal shall b.
made to them. Whether, with this remed,
always at hand, they constitute just cause 70
P | rebellion and revolution may well be doubted
The practical effect Of those laws 10 not 80 mucl
to prevent the recovery Of fugitive slaves a. 1t 1
| to encourage negrostealing and demoralize north
ern sentiment on that subject. There will AWAY
be thieves Of other property well as negroes
whose operations no State can prevent, but 80 IA
from attempting to restrain the negrothief he 1
I encouraged and sustained by legislative enac,
q ments, void though they be.
That portion Of the northern States and peopl
have grossly violated the rights Of southern slave
holders under the Constitution, does not admit O
doubt. But who are the sufferers and what
e the remedy!
The sufferers are almos. exclusively the horde
I slaveholding States-Maryland, Virginia. Ken
T lucky, and Missouri. They have lost slaves 4
consequence Of northern agitation and legislato
!. by thousands, while South Carolina, secure by
double Gordon Of slaveholding States intervenin
between her and the hsunts Of the negro thieves
. has lost few or none from that cause Yet, with
J., out consulting them in matter which concern
: their interest thousand times more than her own
she tells them their only remedy IL In dissout,o
: | Il the Union; and with white populatio
f scarcely exceeding that Of the city Of Baltimore
she plunges into the Of revolution, expectin,
to compel these great States to follow her
We will examine the remedy she proposes, an,
5 consider whether there is not a better.
1 amos KENDALL.
al THE %RAFHRR The folIovvfpu panox, - o..