Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-01-24
Gbe Werntont 4benix.
BRATTLEBORO,
THURSDAY, JANUARY "a, 1850.
PERSONS OR pRoPERTYp

around our national Union, and threaten it with
dissolution, all have their origin in the peculiar
relations Of African slavery to the general gov
eminent. The insecurity of this "institution"
and the dangers with which it is threatened are
the basis for all the reasons assigned for seces-
sion. Any and every other pretext is mere
sham !; nothing of the sort has entered into any
plan for compromise or adjustment. Each ard
every section of all the propositions yet made
has the "irrepressible niger" for its founda-
ton, structure and cap. stone. If slavery were
entirely obliterated from the continent with no
possible prospect for its renewal we should hear
nothing more about secession, or of sectional
rights. There would then be no question upon
which to base a sectional issue.
A recognition of the existence of slavery in
number of the States which are component
parts of the Union is found in the Constitution.
But it is proper to observe that the word stare
is nowhere used in that instrument. Neither
is there any clause, phrase Or word in the Con-
stitution which directly or by implication re-
cognses human beings as property. The class
of persons held in servitude are spoken of only
as "persons owing service" They are recog-
missed as human beings as fully as any other
class of persons in the country. They were
SLAVES and property only in those States which
by their local laws made them SUCH There the
trainers of the Constitution found them and
there they left them. Whenever this class of
persons went from beyond this local jurisdc
ton they were persons, either sowing service"
if they went without the consent of those to
whom such service was due, or freemen if with
such consent. 1t was in this light, and this on
ly, that "three-ffths" of these persons were to
be added to- the decennial enumerations of the
white population as the basis for the apportion-
ment of members of Congress and direct taxes.
1t is only within the last ten years that the
preposterous claim that these persons-caed
"slaves" by the statutes of those States in which
they are held in servitude-are property I'M
der the provisions of the Constitution, in the
same Specification and to the same extent as
horses, cattle, sheep and swine, has been set up
to any considerable extent But new, untena-
bic and dangerous as this doctrine u.s. it is now
generally held by the people of the South and
made sine qua non by their most moderate
and conservative men in any basis of settlement
of existing difficulties which they have proposed.
They claim the right under the Constitution of
carrying their slaves into all the territories of
the United States end of protection to this spe-
cies of property while there. They call this
equal rights" thus putting their slave property
on precisely the same basis, so far as protection
is concerned, as such property as men from the
North take with them. All that they ask, say
they, is that slaves shall stand on the same foot
ing as live stock and merchandise.
Were it not for the moral considerations in
volved in this question it would be well, per-
haps, for the North to admit this claim, I'M
founded as it is, on one condition. If slaves
are to be treated solely as property in the ter
ritories let them be so treated in the States
where slavery exists To this end among 9TH
err amendments to the Constitution, so alter that
instrument that the re-capture of fugitive slaves
shall only be made through the same process
and in precisely the same manner that stray
horses and stray cattle or sheep are now re-
claimed. The fugitive slave law will then be
entirely unnecessary and one bone of conten-
ton will be removed. Another important
amendment to the Constitution becomes neces-
sary in the elaboration of this principle. The
property of the people of the Northern States
is not represented. in Congress. If slaves arc
property under the Constitution, incident to all
the laws and privileges, and subject to all the
liabilities of stock, goods and chattels, so much
of the organic law provides for the represent
tation of "three fiths" of this species of prop
erty must be abrogated or a proportionate
amount of property in the free States must be
added to the basis of representation. This
course pursued the Southern States would lose
twenty members of Congress, or the represen-
tation from the Northern States would be in
creased by more than thirty in that body!
1t strikes us that this proposition is fair {:
Slaves, under the statutes of the Southern
States, must be treated either as persons or
property, or, il still held to partake of the two
fold nature of both persons and property, the
possession of the citizens of the Northern
States, must in equity be entitled to equal priv
ileges under the Constitution. Upon no other
hypothesis can the pretentious claim put forth
by the slave power, that the Constitution of the
United States protects slaves as property wher-
ever its jurisdiction extends, be allowed or seri-
ously considered.
The ADMISSION OF KANsAs.-The bill for the