Part 54 (2/2)

By emanc.i.p.ating the slaves in the District, the government of the United States would disband an army of ”enemies,” and enlist ”for the common defence and general welfare,” a body guard of _friends_ seven thousand strong. In the last war, a handful of British soldiers sacked Was.h.i.+ngton city, burned the capitol, the President's house, and the national offices and archives; and no marvel, for thousands of the inhabitants of the District had been ”TRANSFORMED INTO ENEMIES.” Would _they_ beat back invasion? If the national government had exercised its const.i.tutional ”power to provide for the common defence and to promote the general welfare,” by turning those ”enemies” into friends, then, instead of a hostile ambush lurking in every thicket inviting a.s.sault, and secret foes in every house paralyzing defence, an army of allies would have rallied in the hour of her calamity, and shouted defiance from their munitions of rocks; whilst the banner of the republic, then trampled in dust, would have floated securely over FREEMEN exulting amidst bulwarks of strength.

To show that Congress can abolish slavery in the District, under the grant of power ”to provide for the common defence and to promote the general welfare,” I quote an extract from a speech of Mr. Madison, of Va., in the first Congress under the const.i.tution, May 13, 1789.

Speaking of the abolition of the slave trade, Mr. Madison says: ”I should venture to say it is as much for the interests of Georgia and South Carolina, as of any state in the union. Every addition they receive to their number of slaves tends to _weaken_ them, and renders them less capable of self-defence. In case of hostilities with foreign nations, they will be the means of _inviting_ attack instead of repelling invasion. It is a necessary duty of the general government to protect every part of the empire against danger, as well _internal_ as external. _Every thing, therefore, which tends to increase this danger, though it may be a local affair, yet if it involves national expense or safety, it becomes of concern to every part of the union, and is a proper subject for the consideration of those charged with the general administration of the government._” Cong. Reg. vol. 1, p. 310, 11.

WYTHE.

POSTSCRIPT

My apology for adding a _postscript_, to a discussion already perhaps too protracted, is the fact that the preceding sheets were in the hands of the printer, and all but the concluding pages had gone through the press, before the pa.s.sage of Mr. Calhoun's late resolutions in the Senate of the United States. A proceeding so extraordinary,--if indeed henceforward _any_ act of Congress in derogation of freedom and in deference to slavery, can be deemed extraordinary,--should not be pa.s.sed in silence at such a crisis as the present; especially as the pa.s.sage of one of the resolutions by a vote of 36 to 9, exhibits a s.h.i.+ft of position on the part of the South, as sudden as it is unaccountable, being nothing less than the surrender of a fortress which until then, they had defended with the pertinacity of a blind and almost infuriated fatuity. Upon the discussions during the pendency of the resolutions, and upon the vote, by which they were carried, I make no comment, save only to record my exultation in the fact there exhibited, that great emergencies are _true touchstones_, and that henceforward, until this question is settled, whoever holds a seat in Congress will find upon, and around him, a pressure strong enough to test him--a focal blaze that will find its way through the carefully adjusted cloak of fair pretension, and the sevenfold bra.s.s of two faced political intrigue, and _no_-faced _non-committalism_, piercing to the dividing asunder of joints and marrow. Be it known to every northern man who aspires to a seat in our national councils, that hereafter congressional action on this subject will be a MIGHTY REVELATOR--making secret thoughts public property, and proclaiming on the house-tops what is whispered in the ear--smiting off masks, and bursting open sepulchres beautiful outwardly, and up-heaving to the sun their dead men's bones. To such we say,--_Remember the Missouri Question, and the fate of those who then sold the free states and their own birthright!_

Pa.s.sing by the resolutions generally without remark--the attention of the reader is specially solicited to Mr. Clay's subst.i.tute for Mr.

Calhoun's fifth resolution.

”Resolved, That when the District of Columbia was ceded by the states of Virginia and Maryland to the United States, domestic slavery existed in both of these states, including the ceded territory, and that, as it still continues in both of them, it could not be abolished within the District without a violation of that good faith, which was implied in the cession and in the acceptance of the territory; nor, unless compensation were made to the proprietors of slaves, without a manifest infringement of an amendment to the const.i.tution of the United States; nor without exciting a degree of just alarm and apprehension in the states recognizing slavery, far transcending in mischievous tendency, any possible benefit which could be accomplished by the abolition.”

By advocating this resolution, the south s.h.i.+fted its mode of defence, not by taking a position entirely new, but by attempting to refortify an old one--abandoned mainly long ago, as being unable to hold out against a.s.sault however unskillfully directed. In the debate on this resolution, the southern members of Congress silently drew off from the ground hitherto maintained by them, viz.--that Congress has no power by the const.i.tution to abolish slavery in the District.

The pa.s.sage of this resolution--with the vote of every southern senator, forms a new era in the discussion of this question. We cannot join in the lamentations of those who bewail it. We hail it, and rejoice in it.

It was as we would have had it--offered by a southern senator, advocated by southern senators, and on the ground that it ”was no compromise”--that it embodied the true southern principle--that ”this resolution stood on as high ground as Mr. Calhoun's.”--(Mr.

Preston)--”that Mr. Clay's resolution was as strong as Mr.

Calhoun's”--(Mr. Rives)--that ”the resolution he (Mr. Calhoun) now refused to support, was as strong as his own, and that in supporting it, there was no abandonment of principle by the south.”--(Mr. Walker, of Mi.)--further, that it was advocated by the southern senators generally as an expression of their views, and as setting the question of slavery in the District on its _true_ ground--that finally, when the question was taken, every slaveholding senator, including Mr. Calhoun himself, voted for the resolution.

By pa.s.sing this resolution, and with such avowals, the south has unwittingly but explicitly, conceded the main point argued in the preceding pages, and surrendered the whole question at issue between them and the pet.i.tioners for abolition in the District.

The _only_ ground taken against the right of Congress to abolish slavery in the District is, that it existed in Maryland and Virginia when the cession was made, and ”_as it still continues in both of them_, it could not be abolished without a violation of that good faith which was implied in the cession,” &c. The argument is not that exclusive _sovereignty_ has no power to abolish slavery within its jurisdiction, nor that the powers of even ordinary legislation cannot do it, nor that the clause granting Congress ”exclusive legislation in all cases what soever over such District,” gives no power to do it; but that the _unexpressed expectation_ of one of the parties that the other would not ”in all cases” use the power which said party had consented might be used ”_in all cases,” prohibits_ the use of it. The only cardinal point in the discussion, is here not only yielded, but formally laid down by the South as the leading article in their creed on the question of Congressional jurisdiction over slavery in the District. The reason given why Congress should not abolish, and the sole evidence that if it did, such abolition would be a violation of ”good faith,” is that ”_slavery still continues in those states_,”--thus admitting, that if slavery did _not_ ”still continue” in those States, Congress could abolish it in the District. The same admission is made also in the _premises_, which state that slavery existed in those states _at the time of the cession_, &c. Admitting that if it had not existed there then, but had grown up in the District under United States' laws, Congress might const.i.tutionally abolish it. Or that if the ceded parts of those states had been the _only_ parts in which slaves were held under their laws, Congress might have abolished in such a contingency also. The cession in that case leaving no slaves in those states,--no ”good faith” would be ”implied” in it, nor any ”violated” by an act of abolition. The resolution makes virtually this further admission, that if Maryland and Virginia should at once abolish their slavery, Congress might at once abolish it in the District. The principle goes even further than this, and _requires_ Congress in such case to abolish slavery in the District ”by the _good faith implied_ in the cession and acceptance of the territory.” Since, according to the spirit and scope of the resolution, this ”implied good faith” of Maryland and Virginia in making the cession, was, that Congress would do nothing within the District which should counteract the policy, or discredit the ”inst.i.tutions,” or call in question the usages, or even in any way ruffle the prejudices of those states, or do what _they_ might think would unfavorably bear upon their interests; _themselves_ of course being the judges.

But let us dissect another limb of the resolution. What is to be understood by ”that good faith which was IMPLIED?” It is of course an admission that such a condition was not _expressed_ in the acts of cession--that in their terms there is nothing restricting the power of Congress on the subject of slavery in the District. This ”implied faith,” then, rests on no clause or word in the United States'

Const.i.tution, or in the acts of cession, or in the acts of Congress accepting the cession, nor on any declarations of the legislatures of Maryland and Virginia, nor on any _act_ of theirs, nor on any declaration of the _people_ of those states, nor on the testimony of the Was.h.i.+ngtons, Jeffersons, Madisons, Chases, Martins, and Jennifers, of those states and times. The a.s.sertion rests _on itself alone!_ Mr. Clay _guesses_ that Maryland and Virginia _supposed_ that Congress would by no means _use_ the power given them by the Const.i.tution, except in such ways as would be well pleasing in the eyes of those states; especially as one of them was the ”Ancient Dominion!” And now after half a century, this _a.s.sumed expectation_ of Maryland and Virginia, the existence of which is mere matter of conjecture with the 36 senators, is conjured up and duly installed upon the judgment-seat of final appeal, before whose nod const.i.tutions are to flee away, and with whom, solemn grants of power and explicit guaranties are, when weighed in the balance, altogether lighter than vanity!

But survey it in another light. Why did Maryland and Virginia leave so much to be ”_implied?_?” Why did they not in some way _express_ what lay so near their hearts? Had their vocabulary run so low that a single word could not be eked out for the occasion? Or were those states so bashful of a sudden that they dare not speak out and tell what they wanted? Or did they take it for granted that Congress would always know their wishes by intuition, and always take them for law? If, as honorable senators tell us, Maryland and Virginia did verily travail with such abounding _faith_, why brought they forth no _works_?

It is as true in legislation as in religion, that the only evidence of ”faith” is works, and that ”faith” _without_ works is _dead_, i.e. has no _power_. But here, forsooth, a blind implication with nothing _expressed_, an ”implied” faith without works, is omnipotent! Mr. Clay is lawyer enough to know that Maryland and Virginia notions of const.i.tutional power, _abrogate no grant_, and that to plead them in a court of law, would be of small service, except to jostle ”their Honors'” gravity! He need not be told that the Const.i.tution gives Congress ”power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such District;” nor that Maryland and Virginia constructed their acts of cession with this clause _before their eyes_, and declared those acts made ”in _pursuance_” of it. Those states knew that the U.S. Const.i.tution had left nothing to be ”_implied_” as to the power of Congress over the District; an admonition quite sufficient, one would think, to put them on their guard, and lead them to eschew vague implications, and to resort to _stipulations_. They knew, moreover, that those were times when, in matters of high import, _nothing_ was left to be ”implied.” The colonies were then panting from a twenty years'

conflict with the mother country, about bills of rights, charters, treaties, const.i.tutions, grants, limitations, and _acts of cession_. The severities of a long and terrible discipline had taught them to guard at all points _legislative grants_, that their exact import and limit might be self-evident--leaving no scope for a blind ”faith” that _somehow_ in the lottery of chances, every ticket would turn up a prize. Toil, suffering, blood, and treasure outpoured like water over a whole generation, counselled them to make all sure by the use of explicit terms, and well chosen words, and just enough of them. The Const.i.tution of the United States, with its amendments, those of the individual states, the national treaties, and the public doc.u.ments of the general and state governments at that period, show the universal conviction of legislative bodies, that nothing should be left to be ”implied,” when great public interests were at stake.

Further: suppose Maryland and Virginia had expressed their ”implied faith” in _words_, and embodied it in their acts of cession as a proviso, declaring that Congress should not ”exercise exclusive legislation in _all_ cases whatsoever over the District,” but that the ”case” of _slavery_ should be an exception: who does not know that Congress, if it had accepted the cession on those terms, would have violated the Const.i.tution; and who that has studied the free mood of those times in its bearings on slavery--proofs of which are given in scores on the preceding pages--[See pp. 25-37.] can be made to believe that the people of the United States would have re-modelled their Const.i.tution for the purpose of providing for slavery an inviolable sanctuary; that when driven in from its outposts, and everywhere retreating discomfited before the march of freedom, it might be received into everlasting habitations on the common homestead and hearth-stone of the republic? Who can believe that Virginia made such a condition, or cherished such a purpose, when Was.h.i.+ngton, Jefferson, Wythe, Patrick Henry, St. George Tucker, and all her most ill.u.s.trious men, were at that moment advocating the abolition of slavery by law; when Was.h.i.+ngton had said, two years before, that Maryland and Virginia ”must have laws for the gradual abolition of slavery, and at a period _not remote_;” and when Jefferson in his letter to Dr. Price, three years before the cession, had said, speaking of Virginia, ”This is the next state to which we may turn our eyes for the interesting spectacle of justice in conflict with avarice and oppression--a conflict in which THE SACRED SIDE IS GAINING DAILY RECRUITS;” when voluntary emanc.i.p.ations on the soil were then progressing at the rate of between one and two thousand annually, (See Judge Tucker's ”Dissertation on Slavery,” p. 73;) when the public sentiment of Virginia had undergone, so mighty a revolution that the idea of the continuance of slavery as a permanent system could not be tolerated, though she then contained about half the slaves in the Union.

Was this the time to stipulate for the _perpetuity_ of slavery under the exclusive legislation of Congress? and that too when at the _same_ session _every one_ of her delegation voted for the abolition of slavery in the North West Territory; a territory which she herself had ceded to the Union, and surrendered along with it her jurisdiction over her citizens, inhabitants of that territory, who held slaves there--and whose slaves were emanc.i.p.ated by that act of Congress, in which all her delegation with one accord partic.i.p.ated?

Now in view of the universal belief then prevalent, that slavery in this country was doomed to short life, and especially that in Maryland and Virginia it would be _speedily_ abolished--must we adopt the monstrous conclusion that those states _designed_ to bind Congress _never_ to terminate it?--that it was the _intent_ of the Ancient Dominion thus to _bind_ the United States by an ”implied faith,” and that when the national government _accepted_ the cession, she did solemnly thus plight her troth, and that Virginia did then so _understand_ it? Verily, honorable senators must suppose themselves deputed to do our _thinking_ for us as well as our legislation, or rather, that they are themselves absolved from such drudgery by virtue of their office!

Another absurdity of this ”implied faith” dogma is, that where there was no power to exact an _express_ pledge, there was none to demand an _implied_ one, and where there was no power to give the one, there was none to give the other. We have shown already that Congress could not have accepted the cession with such a condition. To have signed away a part of its const.i.tutional grant of power would have been a _breach_ of the Const.i.tution. The Congress which accepted the cession was competent to pa.s.s a resolution pledging itself not to _use all_ the power over the District committed to it by the Const.i.tution. But here its power ended.

Its resolution could only bind _itself_. It had no authority to bind a subsequent Congress. Could the members of one Congress say to those of another, because we do not choose to exercise all the authority vested in us by the Const.i.tution, therefore you _shall_ not? This would, have been a prohibition to do what the Const.i.tution gives power to do. Each successive Congress would still have gone to THE CONSt.i.tUTION for its power, brus.h.i.+ng away in its course the cobwebs stretched across its path by the officiousness of an impertinent predecessor. Again, the legislatures of Virginia and Maryland, had no power to bind Congress, either by an express or an implied pledge, never to abolish slavery in the District. Those legislatures had no power to bind _themselves_ never to abolish slavery within their own territories--the ceded parts included. Where then would they get power to bind _another_ not to do what they had no power to bind _themselves_ not to do? If a legislature could not in this respect control the successive legislatures of its own State, could it control the successive Congresses of the United States?

But perhaps we shall be told, that the ”implied faith” of Maryland and Virginia was _not_ that Congress should _never_ abolish slavery in the District, but that it should not do it until _they_ had done it within their bounds! Verily this ”faith” comes little short of the faith of miracles! Maryland and Virginia have ”good faith” that Congress will not abolish until _they_ do; and then just as ”good faith” that Congress _will_ abolish _when_ they do! Excellently accommodated! Did those states suppose that Congress would legislate over the national domain, for Maryland and Virginia alone? And who, did they suppose, would be judges in the matter?--themselves merely? or the whole Union?

This ”good faith implied in the cession” is no longer of doubtful interpretation. The principle at the bottom of it, when fairly stated, is this:--That the Government of the United States are bound in ”good faith” to do in the District of Columbia, without demurring, just what and when, Maryland and Virginia do within their own bounds. In short, that the general government is eased of all the burdens of legislation within its exclusive jurisdiction, save that of hiring a scrivener to copy off the acts of the Maryland and Virginia legislatures as fast as they are pa.s.sed, and engross them, under the t.i.tle of ”Laws of the United States for the District of Columbia!” A slight additional expense would also be incurred in keeping up an express between the capitols of those States and Was.h.i.+ngton city, bringing Congress from time to time its ”_instructions_” from head quarters!

What a ”glorious Union” this doctrine of Mr. Clay bequeaths to the people of the United States! We have been permitted to set up at our own expense, and on our own territory, two great _sounding-boards_ called ”Senate Chamber” and ”Representatives' Hall,” for the purpose of sending abroad ”by authority” _national_ echoes of _state_ legislation!

--permitted also to keep in our pay a corps of pliant _national_ musicians, with peremptory instructions to sound on any line of the staff according as Virginia and Maryland may give the sovereign key note!

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