Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1861-05-08

such o clause in the Federal Consti.
tution, terminated seventy years ago. The
time TO plead conscientious scruples for
breach of faith founded on the alleged
immortality OF property in slaves, will
come after 1t is shown that nation can
eXist-much less that free people can
tranquility sustain common government,
for the sake oi enabling one half to pl1n-
der and degrade the other half. One of the
worst symptoms Of the case is manifested
in the indirect manner in which many Nor.
thern States have endeaI ored to defeat the
execution Of public law by unfriendly leg
islation, directed in some instances against
their own citizens, IN some against citizens
of the South, and in some against both
and in, not only apparently popular
approval of such laws, and the most stolid
indifference to the matter on the part of
those who did not approve them, but ev.
IN theiI careful and well considered de-
| fense by some of the ableSt and best men
n the North, as being without serious OBJ
lection in principle. That is, all ihe peo-
pie in Massachusetts being both citizens
of that State and ofthe United States, and
there being nobody there to act iE either
capacity, except those who must act in
both what follows under this new po!it-
ical morality, and what Is attempted uu>
der the preIeXt OF religious scruples is
that the people Of Massachusetts, as citi-
zens Of the United States acknowledge the
obligation resting on them under the
Federal Constitution for the rend ton oil
fugitive slaves in Massachusetts, and at
the same moment as citizens of the State,
they pass laws refusing the use Of their
prisons and make it criminal for their Of
ticers or even their citizens to assist, and
contrive remedies whereby the owner who
seeks to recover his slave may bo arrested
as trespasser, or even imprisoned as a
lelon. 1t is an exceedingly palpsble in
stance, on large scale, of what resources
were possessed by those fortunate and un-
Scrupulous gentlemen Of past age, who
were princes and bishops at the same time.
In point Of morals, such pretexts are sim,
| ply sCandalous. In private life, no man
| who resorts TO them can be held to be 2
gentleman-or in pecuniary transactions,
can be considered honest. In public life,
such attempts are chargeable with the fol
ly and wickedness Of begetting conflicts
of civil and political duties in mere wan
tonness-or with being. as we tave before
shown they are, the organized results ot
that seditious spirit of anarchy which is
destroying our country, and which Bet
ter public sentiment mus: crush wherev-
er it exists, before society can be safe in
any part Of it. The people of the free
States, wherever and in so far rs they
have been seduced into such legislation
owe to public morality, to their own char
acter, and to their highest interests, not
less than 10 their constitutional obliga-
tions AZ citizens Of the United States, and
the mutual relations of the States to each
other under our noLle Institutions to
erase at once all State enactments that
cast obloquy on their own national obliga-
tions, or look toward the dishonor or the
obstruction of the just and unquestiona-
| Ule claims of others upon them. And we
rejoice with all our heart at the indication
in so many portions OF the North, that
what is right will be promptly done in
! this matter and by this means, one of
the steps indispensable to the permanent
maintenance of our institutions be firmly
taken, and the friends of the Union every
where, but especially in the South, have
q noble vindicat;on of their resolute con-
tidence that the nation was yet sound at
heart.
6. The other point Of the two which
the whole nation perceives TO be fundas
mental, relates to the equality of the
States in the Union, and especially as that
bears upon the question of slavery in the
Federal Terri. rieS as we have already
stated. The great idea Of all our institu-
tiops, though complex, is perfectly clear.
! We constitute one nation, whose people,
however, are divided into many sovereign
States We have no nation but as we
have these States and we have no States
but as thew make this nation and our
people are citizens both of the nation and
of some particular State-and strictly
speaking to be one involves the other
The fundamental principles Of ou' liberty
is the sovere Intv, not Of governments,
but of societ, tself-the people and the
deepest loundat on of this sovereignty of
the people, is their right to change, to or
der, and to interpret, their political and
civil institutions by voting; to do this as
separate States where the matter relates
exclusively to the particular State-to do it
in concert where it relates to tho nation.
In the exercise Of this sovereign power the
people OF this nation have made all their
constitutions very Oldest Of which
now existing is the Federal Constitution.
And the broad distinction between that
Constitution made for the nation, which
by its nature and its terms is supreme ov-
er all in its proper sphere, and the Con.
stitutions made for the States respective
ly, is simply this that by the former
no powers are conferred on the General
Government created by it except such as
are expressly enumerated and such as
are incidental and necessary there
to; and that by the latter all power
residing in society are conferred on
/ the State Governments created by
them, except such as are expressly with
held by Bills of Right, or some similar de-
vice. We do not mean that these results
are inherent and inevitable but we mean
that these are the facts-the great and
wise things actually accomplished by our
ancestors. In the balancing of the powers
OF the Federal and State Governmental and
in defining and ordering their mutual
spheres and extent, lies that wide de-