Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-12-07
THE IN. Y. woRLD"ON THE PER-
sONAL LIBERTY BILL.

long leading article urging the Vermont
Legislature to repeal It's 4" Personal Liberty
Laws" Had it been read by every member,
we doubtful it would have produced any mark
cd effect. We take It that the writer knows
the people Of Vermont well enough to be
sure that its Legislature never intended to pass
any act in conflict with the Constitution q
the United States. WheEever a case snaH
arise under the Vermont Laws re-
ferred to, and the Courts de,ite any clause
of them bearing directly on the case 10 DC
unconstitutional. and therefore Invalid, there
,osd 10 10 fear that the Legislature will not
be ready enough to alter Or repeal such law,
as the case may demand. Till such case
arises. we see 10 reason why the Legislature
should be in any particular hurry to repeal
the State Laws, merely because q furious
clamor is raised about them. by those VIA rail
indiscriminately against all who will not bow
their necks to worship the Molocb Of Slavery.
The World says, in substance, that all Per
sonal Liberty laws of the Northern States
were designed 4" to defeat and nullify that
clause Of the Constitution which requires
that fugitives from service shall be delivered
up on claim Of the party to whom such SER
or labor may be due The WoTfd mas no
right to say that, for the simple reason that,
in most, if not all of those cases, principal
reason given FOX those enactments was the
need Of protecting persons in no wise covered
by the article partially quoted By the World,
from atroc;ous violations of their natural and
constitutional rights, to which, under the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, they are expo
sed. That they were also intended to check,
as far as it could be done, the fragrant inhu-
manities 10 which alleged fugitIves were often
subjected under it, cannot be doubted and
there was nothing wrong in law or morals in
that.
Granting, for arguments sake, that the
Fugitive Slave act Of 1850 is in all parts
constitutional Though it is notorious that
many men of eminence in the legal profession
say the contrary of it) that is no reason why
enactments should not be made to protect
the community from the abuse of its cruel
plainest dictates of humanity and common
sense justify such proceeding. 1t does not
follow if one man is armed with a drawn
sword-still less if he is an angry or insane
man-that nobody should be allowed to
have shield,-that if d slave owner or any
body protesting to act for one, is furnished
with power never before heard Of in free
country. 10 person, Tree or slave ought to be
protected from it's most outrageous abuse.
AS TO the effect Of the personal LIBERTY LAWS
in the Northern States to Illustrate the deliv-
cry of fugitive slaves, we have never
heard of one instance We DO not believe
one ever occurred. That where they have
not existed-and sometimes in spite of them
free persons have been violently seized un-
der the forms Of the Fugitive Slave law, and
carried into slavery, is motor. 3, 1.-The Nor
thern States, - says the World, (Which have
passed these bills, have clearly put themselves
in the wrong" There may be, or may not
be, unconstitutional clauses in some of them,
for aught that we know, but as g general
proposition we deny the assertion Of the
World.
They (the States who have passed such
laEsl are not, it "says in situation to COM
plain Of anything thai Southern States may
do in the multiplying line" Indeed pretty
doctrine that is Are not these laws pro
iczsedly in accordance with the Constitution ?
are they not all within reach Of the Courts,
to 30 declared null and void, and within
reach Of the Legislatures 70 bercPcalcd, if
good reason is given for it? Yet Ihs World
considers (f its language means anything)
that South Carolina because of their existence
has right to break down avowedly ak its
constitutional Obligations The World
quotes as opposite to the case saying of
Mr.. Webster "a compact that is broken on
ore ides broken en- llsides, an apothegm,
=
vsrseiy applied TO support Palpable absurd
ity. If tie sole condition under which SOuth
Carolina came under the L. ;. Government
had been that no Northern State should ever
enact a personal liberty law, and that when |
ever one did, from that moment ell the allegl- |
ance OF South Carolinians to that government
was to cease forever, there would be some
fitness 10 the application of Mr.. Wepster's
remarks, but as the case is there is none at
all.
The assertion of the World, that the Per
scnal Liberty bills were mostly " The result
rather of retaliatory spirit, than Of a sense
of their ri hit or their necessity" We do not
believe to be a correct one. They were pass
ed as the enormities of the Fugitive Slave
H.aw OF 1880 were brought into notice by the
practices which took place under it. That |
law, it is well known, was enacted ia cul-
pable hurry. AS Mr.. Benton QUOTED by the
w orlD says:
=" Inc Nopuet is, now sucn an act came To naxe !
even by so lean vote as !: received-for II ~ !
voted for BIZ less than half the Senate and nv s; |
less than the number of Senators from the Slave |
States alone 1t is a wonder how it passed at all,
and the wonder increases on knowing that, of the
fnall number that voted for it, many against |
it, and merely went along with those who had /
constituted themselves the particular guardians |
Of the rights of the Slave States, and claimed q |
lead in all that concerned them.
" These self-instituted guardians we're permitted |
10 have their own way, some voting with them
1nwilngly, others lot voting at all. 1t was part
Of the plan of compromise and pacfcation which
was then deemed essential TO save the Union; and
under the fear Of danger to the Union on one hand
and the charms of pacifcation ard compromise on
the other few heated spirits got the control and
had things their own way. Under other circum-
stances-in any season Of quiet and tranouility-
the vote of Congress would have 49, i almost gen.
srsl against the complex, cumbersome, expensive,
annoying and Ineffective bill that was passed, and
IN favor Of the acts, with the necessary amend
nent, which WASHINGTON recommended and signed
which State and Federal judicaries had sanction
sd-whch the people had lived under fo- nearly co
gears, and against which there was no complain.
until siayery-agifation had become a political
game 10 be played at from both sides Of The Union
Whatever of acquiescence there was in its