Year: 1859

the place where his title was acquired
Whether the relation of master and slave ex-
lists or not is question which must be determ-


ned according to the law of the State in which
it was creates; but the respective rights and
obligations of the parties must be protected
and enforced by the law prevailing at the place
where they are supposed to be violated. This
is also true with respect to rights of every
other kind. Two merchants living in the same
town may buy their goods in different States.
Can it be doubted that the title of each depends
on the law of the State where he made his pur
chase But the law of larceny and trespass is
the law of forum common to both, and must
necessarily be the same. The validity of a
mans marriage is tried by the standard of the
law which prevailed in the country where it
was solemnized; but if he beats his wife, she
must seek protection from the law of the place
where they live.


Some of Mr. Douglass partizans, and nearly
all of the anti-slavery opposition, contend that
property in slaves cannot exist so as to entltle
it to the protection of the same laws which Sc
cure the right of property in other things
Fer their benefit we shall briefly show how i'm
possible it is to admit the distinction which
| they insist upon.


What is property? Whatever a person may
legally appropriate to his own exclusive use
and transfer to another by sale or gift. By
the laws of the southern States, negroes are
within this definition, and the Constitution of
tie United States not only recognises the va
lidity of the State laws, but it aids in carrying
them out. The trainers of the Constitution,
seeing that slaves were liable to one danger
from which all other property was exempt
namely, that of being seduced away by the of
fer in other States, of legal shelter from the
pursuit of their owners, agreed that the FEEDER
al Government should guarantee their rede-
livery to the exclusive possession of the persons
entitled to them as proprietors. The law, then,
of the States in which they are and the Con-
stitution of the Federal Government. to all
legal intents and purposes, pronounce that
slaves are property. Beaten here, our adver-
saries convert it from legal to theological
question. But when they appeal from the
Constitution to the Bible, they are equally dis
satisfied with the decision they get. Nothing
is left them but that '.Higher Law" which has
no sanction nor no authority, Divine or human.
Those who reject the Constitution must be con-
tent to follow guides who are stone blind
They are men who aspire to be wise above
what is written, and thereby press themselves
down to the EXTREMIST point of human folly.
They turn their hacks on all the light, which
the world has, or can have; they go forth into
outer darkness, and wander perpetually in a
howling wilderness of error.


But Mr. Douglas is guiltless of this heresy,'
at least. He comedies that slaves are precisely
like other property, so far as regards the legal
remedies and constitutional rights of the owner.


He processes to take the fundamental law of
the land for his guide upon that point. Let
his practice, then, correspond with his faith
let him "walk worthy of the vocation where
with he is called;' let him make no more ap-
peals to popular prejudice for a sovereignty
which does not exist; above all things, let him
never, by the slightest suggestion, encourage
any territorial government to undermine the
rights of tho citizen by legislation which is
"unfriendly" to the security of either pre perty
or life. We must not palter with the Consti-
tuition in double sense, but obey it, support
it, defend it, earnestly and faithfully, like men
who believe in it and love it. Whosoever st-
| temps to triHe with its principles, or weaken
the obligation of its guarantees, will find soon
er or later that he has fixed stain upon his
political character which "there is not rain
enough in the sweet heavens" to wash out.
A SNAKE FOR BEDFELLow.-With the
above caption the Nrginia Herald, printed at
Fredericksburg, tells the following strange tale:
"About two weeks ago, Mr.. John Elder of
this town, had an under-sack for bed filled
with straw at KENMORE by negro man. 1t
was hrou uoht home and placed under feather