Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-12-08

||InIn
SFlSrd a rood reason for a dissolution Of the
Union.
| Il d,,v svbirh have vet been committed consist !
h ,be nets OF different state Legislatures TO de.
s,o, tbe Fugitive Slave law. II ought 10 be re. !
membered however that for these acts neither
congress nor any President can justly be held
responsible Having been passed IN violation
OF the federal constitution, they ore, therefore,
nall and void. All the courts, both state and
national, before whom the question has arisen,
has from the beginning declared the Fugitive
Slave law to he constitutional. The single ex-
ception is that Of a State court IN Wisconsin.
aud this has not only been reversed by the pro-
per appellate tribunal, bat has met with such
universal reprObatiOn that there can be no
danger from 1t as precedent. The validity Of
this law has been established over and over
again by the Suprene Court Of the United S.
with perfect impunity. Ii Is founded upon an
express provision OF the constitution, requiring
that fugitive slaves who escape from service in
one State TO another shall be delivered M TO
their masters. Without this provision il is a
well known historical fact that the constitution
itself could never have been adopted by the
convention. 10 one form or other under the
acts Of 1893 and 1850, both being substantially
the same, the Fugitive Slave law has been the
law Of the land from the days OF Washington
until the present moment. Here, then, u clear
case is presented, in which it will be the duty Of
the next president as il has been my own, TO act
with vigOr in executing this supreme law against
the conflicting eDactmeuts Of State legislatures.
Should he fail 10 the performance Of this high du-
! ty he will then have manifested a disregard OF
the constitution and laws, to the great injury OF
| the people of nearly ole-half OF the Union.
But are we to presume in advance that be will
thus violate his duty This would be at war
with every principle Of justice and Of Christian
charity. Let us wait for the overt act. The
| Fugitive Slave law has been carried into execu-
ton in every contested case since the commence
ment Of the present administration though
often it is to be regretted, with great loss and
Inconvenience to the master, and with consider
able expense 10 the government. Let us trust that
the State Legislatures will repeal their uncon-
| siitutional and obnoxious enactments Unless
this shall be done without unnecessary delay, it
is impossible Tor any human power to save the
| Union.
The Southern States, standing on the basis OF
the constitution, have right to demand this act
OF justice from the States Of the North. Should
it be refused then the constitution, to which all
the States parties will have been wilfully vio-
! lated by one portion Of them in a provision es-
sential to the domestic security and happiness OF
the remainder In that event. the injured States,
after having frst used all peaceful and constitu-
tional means TO obtain redress, would be justif-
ed revolutionary resistance to tho government OF
the Union. ...
have purposely confined my remarks to re-
volutOnary resistance, because il has been claim
ed within the last few years that any State,
whenever this shall be its sovereign will end
| pleasure, may secede from the Union in aecor-
dance with the constitution, and without any
violation Of the constitutional rights OF the
other members Of the confederacy. That as
each became parties to the Union by the vote
Of its own people assembled in convention, so
that any one Of them may retire from the Union
in similar manner by the vote Of such con-
| vention.
In order to justify secession as q constituticO-
al remedy 1t must be on the principle that the
federal government is q mere voluntary associa-
tion of States, to be dissolved at pleasure by any
one of the contracting parties. II this be So
the conIederacy is rope of sand to be pene-
trated aud dissolved by the 6Tst adverse wave
Of public opinion IN any Of the States. In this
manner our thirty-tbFee states may resolve them
selves into as many petty, jarring and hostile re-
| publics, each one retiring from the Union, with
out responsibility, whenever any sudden excite
lnent might impel them 10 such course. BY
this process a Union might be entirely broken
into fragments in few weeks, which cost our
forcfathers many years Of toll, privation and
blood TO establish.
Such principle Is wholly inconsistent with
the history as well as the character of the fed
eral constitution. After it was framed with the
greatest deliberation and care, it was submitted
to conventions Of the people of the several
States for ratification. Its provisions were dis
cussed at length in these bodies, composed Of
the first men Of the country. Its opponents
contended that it conferred powers upon the
! federal government dangerous to the rights of
the states, whilst its advocates maintained that
under a fair construction of the instrument there
was no foundation for such apprehensions. In
that mighty struggle between the first inteects
of this or any other country it never occurred
| to any individual either among IFS Opponents or
advocates, to assert or even to intimate that
their efforts were all vain labor, because the mo-
ment that any State felt herself aggrisved she
might secede from the Unio0. What crush
| ing argument would this have proved against
those who dreaded that the rights Of the states
would be endangered by the constitution. The
tauth is, that it was not until many years after
the origin OF the federal government that such
! proposition was first advanced. Il was then
met and rcfuted by the conclusive argument of
General Jackson who in his Message Of 10TH
January 1888, transmitting the nullifying ordi-
nance OF South Carolina to Congress, employs
the following language:-'The right of the peo-
OF single state TO dissolve themselves at WILL
and without the consent Of the other States,
! from their most solemn obligations, and hazard
the liberty and happiness OF the millions com.
posing this Union, cannot be acknowledged
Such authority is believed TO be utterly repug-
nant both to the principle upon which the gen.
eral government is constituted to the objects
which it was expressly formed 10 attain
1t is not pretended that any clause 10 the con.
stitution gives countenanee 10 such theory.
1t is altogether founded upon inference, not
hon any language contained in the instrument
itself, 61t from the sovereign character Of the |
several states by which it was ratified But It |
Is beyond the power Of State, like On individu-
al, to yield portion Of its sovereign rights 10
! secure the remaiDderi In the language Of Mr.. |
, Madison, who has been called the father Of the
constitution II was formed by the states. act
} ing in their highest sovereign capacity and
! formed consequently by the same authority
J which formed the state constitution
Nor is the government OF .hs U. States. cyea.
tod by the constitution, less government In the
strict sense OF the term within the sphere Of its
powers, than the governments created bv the
constitutions Of the states arc, within their saw
eral spheres. II II, like them, oFgaui1ed into
1 l. n IL