Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1861-01-12

By this Constitution, certain duties were charg
ed on the several States, and the exercise of GER
tain Of their powers restrained which necessarily
implied their continued existence as sovereign
States. But, to remove all doubt, an amendment
was added which declared that the powers not
delegated to the United States by the Consti;u.
ton, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to tho
people. Gu 23d May, 1888, South Carolina, by a
convention of her people, passed an ordinance as
sentng to this Constitution, and aftorward altered
her own Constitution, to conform herself to the
obligations she had undertaken.
Thus was established, 10y compact between the
States a Government, with defined Objects and
powers, limited to the express words Of the grant,
and to so much more only was necessary to
execute the power grauted This limitation left
:he whole remaining mass of power subject to the
clause reservng it to the States or to the people,
and rendered unnecessary any specification Of re-
served rights.
We hold that the Government thus established
is subject to the two great principles asserted in
the Declaration Of Independence, and we bold
further that the mode of its formation subjects it
to third fundamental principle-namely, the law
Of compact We maintain that in every compact
between two or more parties the obligation is mu-
the failure of one of the contracting
parties to perform material part of the agree
ment entirely releases the obligations Of the other
and that, where no arbiter is provided, each party
is remitted 30 his own judgment to determine the
fact of failure with all its consequences.
In the present case that fact is established with
certainty. We assert that fifteen of the States
have deliberately refused for years past to fuldl
their Constitutional obligations, and we refer to
their own statutes for the proof.
The Constitution of the United States, in itH 4th
article, provides as follows
mo person held to service OF labor in one State
under the laws thereof, escaping into another
shall in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or labor,
but shall be delivered up. claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due"
This stipulation was so material to the compact
that without it that compact would not have been
made. The greater number of the contracting
parties held slaves, and the State Of Virginia had
previously declared her estimate of its value by
making it the condition of her cessOn of the ter
itory which now composes the States north Of the
Ohio River.
The same article Of the Constitution stipulates
also for ;hc rendition by the several States of fu-
{itives from justice from the other States.
The General Government as the common agent,
passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations
IF the States. For many years these laws were
executed. But an increasing hostility on the part
)t the Northern States to the institution of Slave
y has led to disregard of their obligations, and
he laws of the General Government have ceased
10 effect the objects of the Constitution The
States of Maine, Hampshire, Vermont, Mas
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, |
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Iowa have enacted laws which eth |
,r nullify the acts of Congress- or render useless
my attempt to execute them. In many of these
States the fugitive is discharged from the service
" labor claimed, and in none of them has the
State Government complied with the stipulation
made in the Constitution. The State of New-Jer-
ey at an early day, passed law for the rendition
# fugitive slaves in conformity with her Consttu-
iOnal undertaking; but the current Of anti-Save-
y feeling has led her more recently TO enact laws
Shich render imperative the remedies provided by
ler own law and by the laws of Congress. In the
State of New York even the right of transit for
slave has been denied by her tribunals, and the
State of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender
20 justice fugitives charged with murder and with
netting servile instruction in the State of Virg
1ia. Thus the Constitutional compact has been 1
deliberately broken and disregarded by the nom
avehodng States, and the consequence follows
hat South Carolina is released from its obliga-
ions.
The ends for which this Constitution was framed
ire declared by itself to be "to form a more per.
ect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tran
utility, provide for the common Defense promote
he general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
These ends it endeavored to accomplish by
federal Government, in which each State was re-
,ognized as an equal, and had separate control
'ver its own institutions. The right of property
n slaves was recognized by giving to free persons
distinct political rights by giving them the right
% represent aud burdening them with direct taxes
or threeftths Of their slaves, by authorizing the
he importation Of slaves for twenty years, and by
pulaling for the rendition Of fugitives from labor
We affirm that those ends for which this Govern
nent was Instituted have been defeated, and the |
Government itself has been made destructive of
hem by the action of the non-say ehodng States.
those States have assumed the right of deciding
pon the propriety Of our domestic institutions,
nd have denied the rights of property established
fifteen of the States, and recognized by the Con-
ti'ution ; they have denounced as sinful the in
sltution OF Slavery they have permitted the open
establishment among them of societies whose
vowed object iS to disturb the peace and to en-
anger the property of the citizens of other States
hey have encouraged and assisted thousands of
ur slaves to leave their homes, and those who re-
,ain have been melted by emmisaries, books, and
ictures, to servie insurrection.
For sevOnty-dve years this agitation has been
teadily increasing until il has secured to its
id the powers of the common Government. OBJ i
er7ng the hrms Of the Constitution, sectional