New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-01-09
sLAyE.cArcHINa Law.

cit cannot be doubted" said Mr.. Justice
Story, in delivering the opinion OF the Supreme
Court in the often.quoted and little.understood
case Of Frigg agt. The Commonwealth of Penn
sylyania, that the Fugitive Slave clause of the
Constitution Z" constituted q fundamental article,
without the adoption of which the Union could
- not have been formed" The assertion is true,
and the admission is important The admission
is important, as il is in direct contrayention of
later diotum Of the same Court" that black
man has no rights which white man is bound
" to respect" by the general law of nations, 7"
continues Judge Story, " no nation il bound 10
" recognize Slavery, as to foreign slaves found
"within its dominions. -. IL il does, il ia
as matter Of comfy aud not as a matter Of
3" International right. The state Of Slavery is
" deemed to be mere municipal regulation,
" founded upon and limited to the range Of the
" Territorial laws. IL is manifest from
not contained this clause, every non-saveholding
State in the Union would have been at liberty
to have declared free all rund,oay slares coming
L" within its limits, and to have given them entire
~ immmiiy and protection against the claims of
Z" their masters" The historical evidence on this
point is equally positive. In the North Carolina
Convention on the Federal Constitution, Judge
IredeIl said, as on nducement to its acceptance:
If any Of our slaves go there 1.-THE Free
States1 and remain there a certain time, they
would, by the present laws, be entitled to
" their freedom, 30 that their masters could not
"get them. This would be extremely prejudicial
to the inhabitants of the Southern States; and to
prevent it, this clause is inserted in the Constitu
+" ton" So when Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
returned from the Convention to South Carolina,
he used, as q powerful sedative for that little
community then, as now, in chronic state
of irritable and malignant eruption, this
language: "We have obtained right to recover
"our slaves in whatever part of America they
{" may take refuge; which is right We had not
before" The point we make then is this, and
ii is one that has altogether been lost sight Of:
Contemporary history, and subsequent Judicial
decisions of the highest authority, show that the
natural right TO liberty belongs as much to the
black man as to the white, and equally entities
him to the protection of law. 1t is only when
tne DidCA uiah IL iuSiho sinNo tuat NC iVscs
this right in Free State, and then BY virtue Of
a special clause Of thcE Constitution, without
which the Union could not have been formed,
and the very necessity Of which is an admission
Of the natural right of all negroes who are not
slaves. 1t was not deemed necessary by the
trainers of the Constitution to provide for the
rendition or capture Of horses or oxen escaping
from one State to another, because the right to
property in those animals is questioned by no.
body. But the negroes, though held, like
other animals, as property in the Slave
States, are not 90 held in the Free States,
and special clause was requisite to cover their
case when they made their escape. In all other
relations, they are, in the States where the NIL
nicipa lew does not recognize Slavery simply
meo, aud entitled 70 that protection which any