Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1861-02-01

ntSy CutBstHotA2g JOF u t0Hg SesttS " yoHss
untd at last 1T has come 60 that potnt snhen acs
may say the matter a. entirely right.
Mr.. Inglis. Mr. President, ii there is any
gentlenan present @ho wishes to debatesah his
matter, of course this body wlll hear him. but
as to delay for the purpose of a discussion,
| Cor one am opposed to it. AS MY friend Mr..
Parker) has said. most Of as hare had this
matter under constitution for the last taceaty
gears, and presume zoe hare By tals time ar
riUed 0t decision upon The subject
s'Mr. Keitt. Sir, We performing great
act, whitb involves not only tie stirring pres
cnt bat embraces the whole great future of
ages 10 come. l have been engaged in this
movement ever since entered political life
| am cootent with what has been done to-day,
and content with what will take place to-mor-
row. We have carried the body Of this Uaion
| to IT'S last resting place, and now We will drop
the flag over itl grave. After that is done,
am ready to adjourn and leave the remaining
ceremonies for to- oDoTrow.
''llr Rhett. The secession of Seuth Caro-
! ttaa IS not the epeat Of day. II is not aay
| thing produced By Mr. LincoIn's election, or
by the nor-erecutaon Of the fugitive stane law.
Ii has been matter Uhich has been gathering
head to' thirty gears. Now, in regard 10 the
fugitive slave law, myself doubt its cons;i-
tutionali,y, and doubted it on the floor OF
the Senate, whom | was member Of that
body"
We think .hess extracts prove clearly the
settled purpose of these traitors for many years
past to break up this government Gen. jack
son, in letter dated Washington, May 1,
1888, TO Rev. Andrew ]. Crawford, after he
had put down nullifcaton, says:
The tariff, it is now know1, was mere pre-
text. Therefore, the tariff was
only the pretext, and disunion and Southern
Confederaey the real object. The nert pretsrt
aoiH be The Negro or Slavery question.
Who will say that Gen. jackson did not un-
derstaud these men? His prophecy has been
verified to the letter.
One of the protexts Of these traitors is that
they cannot have their rights in the Territor-
les. In ether words, ths, they cannot carry
their local slave institutions there. This is ali
preteuse. 1t is new doctrine started at this
late day pretext for their treason. The
fathers Of the Republic never advocated such
absurd doctrine. Iudeed we can prove from
leading Southern disunionsts, that 50 late as
l84S, they held no such vi5ws. The Grst
extract we shall give IS from that arch traitor,
Robert Toombs. in the House of Representa-
tives in l848, a, the same time that Abraham
Lincoln WAS member. Here ii is:
ssTo luH the popular apprehen ion at the South,
some gentlemen on this floor have spoken of it
judicial question: The Sapreme Court has erer been
unsafe reliance upon political qNesions. It's duty
is to decide what law is-and that iuty performs
well-and not Whit it ought TO be. Their former
adjudication settles these principles that if under
our system the Constitution of the United States
does extend over our conquests without further
action Of this Government, it does not otherwise
affect the question of Slavery there except TO au-
thorize the owners of fugitive slaves, vino should
escape to these Territories, to recover them under
its provisions; that the Constitution, though It
recognizes and protects Slavery both Ia the States
and in :he Territories Of the Union When and where
it lawfully exists, establishes it nowhere And as
the necessary result from these adj lie ItonS,
Slavery being abolished in New Mexico ami Cali
fornia the Southern slAyeholdsr who emigrates To
these Territories witch his slaves has no legal guar
antics for the protection of this property. Let us
not deceive ourselves these questions have al
ready been settled by our courts, an if % are
wise We will act in reference to them
The following paragraphs from the speeches Of
two other distinguished Southern statesm N q to
show that the buoys have been shifted good deal
since they navigated the Slavery waters of the
Constitution in 184s.
Mr.. Alexander H Stephens Of Georgia, in
speech in the House Of Representatives, August 7,
l84S, said:
"The Constitution secures to all the citizens Of
all the States and Territories of this ITniou the
rights to which they are entitled by the laws of the
place. If Virginia or Georgia should abolish Slave
Ty, the Constitution no more reestabshes it there
than II has reestablished it in Peunsylvanit New
York, and other States where il has been abolished
The Constitution no carries the local law of
Slavery of any State into a State or Territory !
where, by law it is prohibited than 1t carries any
other local lawao more than it lrries the law Of
interest upon money, the statute of limitations the
laws OF dlStribution or the penal laws of State |
@Slavery is an institution which depends solely |
upon the municipal laws of the place where it ex |
ists :"
There is nothing in the speeches Of these two |
distinguished Southern gentlemen, in Is4s, claim
ing that slaves property under the Constitution
as horses and cattle property, and that the |
slaveowner anywhere hold his 81 I'VE prop- !
erty, by virtue of the Constitution only.
AS to slaves being property under the Gonstitu
ton, Mr.. George E. Bleger Of North Clrolina, one
OF the ablest lawyers in this country, in speech in
the Senate of the United States, uly 26, 1913
said:
Slavery as it exists under the Constitution of
the United States, is State institution,
1t does not exist institution of the Uni |
TED States. Nor is it recognized as an |
institution of the United States. otherwise than as
State institution
"Gentlemen say that every American citz IN has /
right to go into the newiy-acquired territory. II
is needless to examine that, fo no one proposes to
exelade them. But it is another and a different |
question whether he has right to carry slave
there; and, because the slave was recognized as |
property in the State from which he came, to Insist
that therefore, such slave shall be recognized as
property 10 the Territory to which he goes. The !