Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1860-11-21

law is equally stringent. 1t forbids all the
Courts and all the officers in the State from
discharging any duty enjoined on Them by
the fugitive slave Jaw, and from assisting in
the arrest of runaway slave. The 9th section
declares that"any Judge of any Court of rec
ord in the State, any Justice OF the Peace or
other Magistrate, sny Sheriff, deputy Sheriff
high bailiff, Constable or Jailor, CT any citi
zen of this State who shall offend against the
provisions of this Act. by acting directly or
indirectly ind er the provisions of the
aforesaid Act of Congress, (the fugitive slave
law shall forfeit to the use of the State, to be
recovered on information or indictment, one
thousand dollars. or be imprisoned in the
State prison not exceeding five years"
If this Is not Qualification we do not know
what's. The object of both Legislatures in
passing these laws. evidently was to nullify
the fugitive slave law. by rendering it GRIM
inal offence to assist in its execution They
still remain unrepealed.
hfcation Of the provision of the U. s. Con-
situation, with regard to the rendition of
fugitive slaves, in the North, which first call
ed into existence the disunion sentiment in
the South. There were other causes of diff
ference it is true But none of them assum-
ed such immediate aud practical importance,
as this, or bore the impress of wrong in such
plain and legible characters. i large part of
the wealth of nearly every Southcrner con-
sists in his slaves He is no: therefore con-
| tending for a mere abstraction of but little or
no practical importance, when he insists that
/ the fugitive slave law shall be faithfully ex-
| ecuted; he is demanding the enforcement Of
! that which is necessary to protect him in his
personal property, and the disregard of which
might soon reduce him from afluence to pow
| erty When instead of seeing the Law faith
! fully executed in the North, he encounters
nothing but armed resistance and the assaults
! of savage mob, when he goes there to re-
claim his slave, It's but little wonder, that
/ he begins to place very low estimate on the
value of the Union, and to look forward to
the possibility Of its dissolution, as an event
to be neither dreaded nor avoided
The value of the Union consists in the pro-
/ lection it secures to the citizens Of all the
States in their rights When it fails to pro-
tect any portion of them in their constitution
al rights, it is not fulfilling lis mission, and Its
value will of course be diminished In the esti-
deserted, and certainly when it fails to secure
the execution of the fugitive slave law, 1t is
not fulfilling its duty to the Southern States
No one can deplore more sincerely than we
do, the secession movements now going for
ward in many of the Southern States But
We are not willing to shut our eye. to the
cause which produced them. The Southern
people have been so long and grossly wrong
ed by the North, that they can see in the elec
ton of a Northern sectional candidate to th.
Presidency, nothing but the beginning of new
aggressions on their rights. They eau only
be convinced that this is not so by the Black
Republican Party becoming conservative and
abandoning their opposition to the fugitive
slave law. Let the SO called personal liberty
bills be repealed; let the Newspapers of the
party instead of taunting aud reyiling the
Southern people, exhort their readers to be-
come more conservative, and less fanatical on
the subject OF slavery; let the Legislatures o
the Northern States pass resolutions exhort
ing their constituents TO respect the constitu
tioual rights of their brethren 10 the South
and denouacing all who resist the execution
of the fugitive slave law, as traitors aud dis
uhionists, and we will soon hear no more O
the secession movements. If they fail to DE-
so, the secession movements will 90 on. anc
end We fear in that destruction of the mode
Republic of the world.