The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1861-01-10

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individual i'm resisting the national ar
my. The moral responsibility Of SUCH
laws rests upon those who pass them,
not on those who have no agency either
in their enactment or their execution.
We heartily join, therefore in the
condemnation of all resistance to the re-
storation of fugitive slaves. All laws
designed to interfere with the full and
efficient operation of the constitutional
compact on this subject are immoral
But the question now before us is,
Whether the personal liberty laws, as
they are called, free Southern men from
their allegiance to their country and
from the obligation of their oaths2 This
is the question which every Southern
man has to answer in the sight Of God.
lt is not to be answered under the inn
pulse Of passion, or the dictates Of in
terest lie is not freed from his obliga-
ton to the Union because he is alien
ated in feeling from the North, nor be-
cause he thinks his interests would be
! promoted by secession The only quos-
ton is, whether these personal liberty
laws are such a violation of the national
compact as to destroy its binding force,
and to Justify disuuion? We answer,
No, for the following reasons: /. Be
cause, as already said, the Federal Gov
ornment is the party bound, and there
fore so long as that Government is faith
full to the contract, there is no violation
of tho compact. 2. Because the liberty
laws so far as we can learn, are not &c
| prOtcsSO notification of the Fugitive
Slave Law. They are not directed
against the agents legally appointed to
execute the law The law cmanatos
from the General Government. 1t is
designed to carry into execution a fed
eral prerogativo and duty. 1t is con-
lidcd to Federal officers. A law to for
bid the collection of duties at a port Of
entry by Federal officers would be an
act Of notification. But law to forbid
State officers to make a collection, or
State warehouses to be used for storing
the goods, would not be nullifcation.-
So i'm like manner, n law to forbid feder-
al officers to arrest fugitive slaves would
be nuliication. But law forbidding
State officers making the arrest, and
prohibiting the use of State prisons for
, their detention, is not a notification of
: the law Of Congress. The duty is from
. its nature dstasteful one, aud any
declaration that it must be performed by
federal officers thereto appointed, and
not by State officials, who cannot legally
be required to perform it, is not a breach
g ha
troops in Boston harbor should desert
! Massachusetts, is not bound to arrest
them, and law prohibiting the Stat,
/ officers from being called upon to per
form that service, would not be a nulli
fcatiou of the law against dcsertion.-
p 1t is a United States law, and must b,
% executed by United States officers. 3
A third argument on this subject is, tina
q the liberty laws are designed professedly
- to protect free negroes There is dan
p yer of their being unjustly carried int,
{ Slavery. IL has been done, and VI
S know that a young woman from Texas
/, although liberated by her owner an,
4 father, was considered so much in dan
p GER in New York that she was sent t.
e Canada for protection. If a negro il
y Virginia, held as a slave, claims to be
r free man, the law gives him certain ia
- ciltics for having the validity Of hi
y claim judicially decided. If a negr
living in Massachusetts, is seized as
T. slave, Massachusetts desires to give hin
y the samo mems of proving that he /
d free. The provisions of tho Massachu
' setts law are said to he identical wit
i those of the corresponding Virginia law
e This is not notification. 4. But sup
c pose these laws to be directly in confiC
with the Fugitive Slave law; suppose
IS State should expressly prohibit the re
o storation of fugitive slave arrested
IS would that justify secession? Woul
j- that exonorate any slaveholding Stat
{ from its allegiance to the Union? Gen
y tainly not, because secession is not Oh
= proper remedy for this injustice TIL
n first step would be to have such Stat
1 law declared, by the Supreme Court o
y the United States, to be unconstitutiOr
r. al. That would make it dead lette
{. In no part Of the Union could it be ey
10 ecuted in tho face Of such a decision
b. But should it be persisted i'm, the nol
,r step would be for tho United States
Ig enforce obedience to it's own law. An
If State resisting undor such circumstauc,
te would be in rebellion, and must be n
ID duced to submission to the law, Just
If Washington suppressed the whisky il
re surrecton This is the operation of OF
as system. Notification Of the Fugiti,
al Slave Law, therefore, even if formal
NJ enacted in any State, would be no ju
DIS tifcation Of secession. tits not hrea,
n of contract, so long as the Federal Go
mt crnment, the party bound, is faithful
IL it's duty. These liberty laws, obioctio
VS. able as they may be, are not the re
to cause of the difficulty. The bord
n States which suffer from the loss of slav
TO are not in favor of secession. The COZ
in plaint Of breach Of contract comes fro
o- States which suffer little or nothi
ID, from this source. We do not see,
7o, a careful consideration of the matt
b. how. any conscientious man can just
to disunioR on the ground that the Nor
m has proved unfaithhl to the natior
w. compact, The great majority Of {
re- people of the North arc in favor Of
- faithful execution of the law, and (
rd Federal Government, their constitute
TO al organ, has never failed to disoha
icy its duty in the premises.
as Another ground of complaint is 4