Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-07-04

NLNLNa "a AAANA 1L1 g1N@AAN1 VI AGN aA
rlan race itself, hateful to men, ~accursed
by the gods.
II Is not to be denied that the States,
when they ratified and established our
! Constitution did not understand it alike /;
and that it was ratified in some OF the
States as n compact between the States,
and in others as a National Government
created BY the one People as the supreme
and Sovereign OF all the States.
We know hat it was distinctly under
stood in Virgins to be a compact between
the States. So Mr.. MADISON asserted it
to be, when PATRICK HENRY objected
that it was not so, not a federal but a
National Constitution, on account Of the
use Of the phrase Z" We the People Of the
United Ststee," in the preamble. Other
States understood that it was not a com
pact between the States, but a Gov
eminent proper created and enacted by
She people Of all the Safes, as a Supreme
Law. To some Of the States, all its pro-
visions were promises and pledges made
by the States, each binding itself and
the validity of the whole was the cOnse-
quence Of these promises. To others it
was a law imposed on these States by a
common superior. There was therefore
no concurrence of wills, in regard to the
nature Of the Constitution, the parties to
it OF the makers Of it, and the relations
Of the States to the General Government
and to each other. There was therefore
no contract, and there was no supreme
law, because part Of the States never ac-
cepted it as a law, or gave any authority
to enact it as a law, or ratified it as a
law, when enacted. There was never
any real Union, that needed to be dis
solved and any State was at any time at
liberty TO withdraw from the connection
created under mutual misconceptions.
Is it doubted whether the Northern
States violated the Constitution? Let
the reader determine. Connecticut, for
example, so legislated in regard to per-
sonsl liberty that if tie actual owner
Of a fugitive slave from Georgia followed
him into Connecticut, and there went
before a Commissioner of the United
States, and made to the minutest point
the proof required by the act Of Con-
gress, had his slave delivered to him,
put on shipbosrd ~ the officers Of the
United States, and sent home, stn9 he
was liable to be Immediately arrested Tor
= criminal o%fIenge, for kidnapping, com
mitted to prison, indicted and tried ant
if he rested on I've decision II the C0ri-
miSs=ags, and male Oalytbe proof uJtch
thc tar required hiDt 10 make and which
he had made before him, ne must needs
be convicted, and be sentenced 10 a long
Imprisonment IN the P~unitentisry and
payment Of M enormous fine. 1t thus
became a fe'c'V to pUrsug a remedy az
forded by anact IF Congress, ia order to
enforce a right solemDly guaranteed by
the Constitution. The party could only
escape this consequence of the exercise
Of a legal and constitutional right, by
procuring from Georgia two witnesses,
who, personally present in the Conneeti-
cut Court, should testify that the negro
in question O his slave.
And yet IRE heard Connecticut, in
1850, by FOSTER her Senator, declare
and protest liz the Senate, with hand on
hesTt, that this law was not intended to
prevent owners OF slaves from recovering
them, but merely to prevent the kidnap-
ping of freemen. When Connecticut
concluded to violate the Constitution Of
the United States, and to compel her
officers who had sworn to support it, to
commit perjury when she determined
to uncover her own ~nakedness, and
make the successful assertion Of q cousti-
tutional right under an act of Congress
to be a felonious offence against her
majesty, she ought, at least, 70 have
had the courage not to deny that skeh
was her purpose, and lie in open Senate.
There are some depths Of baseness to
which a State ought not to descend, or
into them require her Senators to dive.
AS for the South, never, in any, even
in the least point, did she set at nought
the bargains OF the Constitution. HAY
ing made them, she abided by them, as
every honorable gentleman keeps, to the
letter and in the spirit, any contract he
has made, and deems it an insult for any
one to suggest that he can by any quib-
bic avoid performance. IF it for many
years governed in the Union. it did so
by virtue Of a political creed il no
hostile to the North, aDc by the aid of a
great party, in power in more than half
Of tine Northern States. 1t never de-
manded any exclusive rights or superior
privileges in those territories which it
had without price given to the Union.
The Northwestern territory it wholly
gave up to tie North NJ the beginning.
Louisiana asked a duty on sugar; but no
other Southern State demanded prOtec-
ton for the products of sIave-labaur.
II asked DO bounties, drawbacks or mo
uopolies, nor ever sought or desired to
exercise any powers of any kind, be-
yond those granted by the Constitution.
The repeal Of the law that prohibited
Slavery north Of So so was offered 10
the South by a Northern statesman, in
order that two Territories without fnhab.
itants and chiefly owned by the Indians,
might be created, to be i'm due time re-
ceived into the Union as States. AL the
material advantages Of the measure
were with the North, which, it was easy
TO see, would ecure both States. and
others to be grown to the westward of
these. The South received but the I'M
gracious, reluctant, and barren acknovl-
edgement Of a constitutional right.
which it was exceedingly unwise 90 ae-
cept, with the certainty that it would be
regarded by the North as a violation Of a
compromise OF lo2g standing. It was,
as was said Of an5ther act by TALLEy-
RAND, worse than a crime; it was a
blunder.'