Volume IV Part 15 (1/2)

2d. What do taking office and voting under the Const.i.tution imply?

The President swears ”to execute the office of president,” and ”to preserve, protect, and defend the Const.i.tution of the United States.” The judges ”to discharge the duties inc.u.mbent upon them agreeably to the const.i.tution and laws of the United States.”

All executive, legislative, and judicial officers, both of the several States and of the General Government, before entering on the performance of their official duties, are bound to take an oath or affirmation, ”_to support the Const.i.tution of the United States_.”

This is what every office-holder expressly _promises in so many words_. It is a contract between him and the _whole nation_. The voter, who, by voting, sends his fellow citizen into office as his representative, knowing beforehand that the taking of this oath is the first duty his agent will have to perform, does by his vote, request and authorize him to take it. He therefore, by voting, impliedly engages to support the Const.i.tution. What one does by his agent he does himself. Of course no honest man will authorize and request another to do an act which he thinks it wrong to do himself!

Every voter, therefore, is bound to see, _before voting_, whether he could himself honestly swear to _support_ the const.i.tution. Now what does this oath of office-holders relate to and imply? ”It applies,”

says Chief Justice Marshall, ”in an especial manner, to their conduct in their official character.” Judge Story, in his Commentaries on the Const.i.tution, speaks of it as ”a solemn obligation to the due execution of the trusts reposed in them, and to support the Const.i.tution.” It is universally considered throughout the country, by common men and by the courts, as a promise to do what the Const.i.tution bids, and to avoid what it forbids. It was in the spirit of this oath, under which he spake, that Daniel Webster said in New York, ”The Const.i.tution gave it (slavery) SOLEMN GUARANTIES.

To the full extent of these guaranties we are all bound by the Const.i.tution. All the stipulations contained in the Const.i.tution in favor of the slaveholding States ought to be fulfilled; and so far as depends on me, shall be fulfilled, in the fulness of their spirit and to the exactness of their letter.”

It is more than an oath of allegiance; more than a mere promise that we will not resist the laws. For it is an engagement to ”support them”; as an _officer_ of government, to carry them into effect. Without such a promise on the part of its functionaries, how could government exist? It is more than the expression of that obligation which rests on all peaceable citizens to _submit_ to laws, even though they will not actively _support_ them. For it is the promise which the judge makes, that he will actually _do_ the business of the courts; which the sheriff a.s.sumes, that he will actually _execute_ the laws.

Let it be remarked, that it is an oath to support _the_ Const.i.tution--that is, _the whole of it_; there are no exceptions.

And let it be remembered, that by it each _one_ makes a contract with the _whole_ nation, that he will do certain acts.

3d. What is the Const.i.tution which each voter thus engages to support?

It contains the following clauses:

Art. 1, Sect. 2. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, _three fifths of all other persons_.

Art. 1, Sect. 8. Congress shall have power ... to suppress insurrections.

Art. 4, Sec. 2. No person, held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

Art. 4, Sect. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government; and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive, (when the legislature cannot be convened) _against domestic violence_.

The first of these clauses, relating to representation, gives to 10,000 inhabitants of Carolina equal weight in the government with 40,000 inhabitants of Ma.s.sachusetts, provided they are rich enough to hold 50,000 slaves:--and accordingly confers on a slaveholding community additional political power for every slave held among them, thus tempting them to continue to uphold the system.

Its result has been, in the language of John Quincy Adams, ”to make the preservation, propagation, and perpetuation of slavery the vital and animating spirit of the National Government;” and again, to enable ”a knot of slaveholders to give the law and prescribe the policy of the country.” So that ”since 1830 slavery, slaveholding, slavebreeding, and slavetrading have formed the whole foundation of the policy of the Federal Government.” The second and the last articles relating to insurrection and domestic violence, perfectly innocent in themselves--yet being made with the fact directly in view that slavery exists among us, do deliberately pledge the whole national force against the unhappy slave if he imitate our fathers and resist oppression--thus making us partners in the guilt of sustaining slavery: the third is a promise, on the part of the whole North, to return fugitive slaves to their masters; a deed which G.o.d's law expressly condemns, and which every n.o.ble feeling of our nature repudiates with loathing and contempt.

These are the clauses which the abolitionist, by voting or taking office, engages to uphold. While he considers slaveholding to be sin, he still rewards the master with additional political power for every additional slave that he can purchase. Thinking slaveholding to be sin, he pledges to the master the aid of the whole army and navy of the nation to reduce his slave again to chains, should he at any time succeed a moment in throwing them off. Thinking slaveholding to be sin, he goes on, year after year, appointing by his vote judges and marshals to aid in hunting up the fugitives, and seeing that they are delivered back to those who claim them! How beautifully consistent are his _principles_ and his _promises_!

OBJECTIONS.

OBJECTION I.

Allowing that the clause relating to representation and that relating to insurrections are immoral, it is contended that the article which orders the return of fugitive slaves was not meant to apply to slaves, but has been misconstrued and misapplied!

ANSWER. The meaning of the other two clauses, settled as it has been by the unbroken practice and cheerful acquiescence of the Government and people, no one has attempted to deny. This also has the same length of practice, and the same acquiescence, to show that it relates to slaves. No one denies that the Government and Courts have so construed it, and that the great body of the people have freely concurred in and supported this construction. And further, ”The Madison Papers” (containing the debates of those who framed the Const.i.tution, at the time it was made) settle beyond all doubt what meaning the framers intended to convey.

Look at the following extracts from those Papers:

_Tuesday, August 28th_, 1787.

Mr. Butler and Mr. Pinckney moved to require ”fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals.”