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Show 22 TilE GOLDEN IIOCR. We need, then, an edict without reservation declaring that this govenunent recognizes all lnen in this country as free. This edict may come from two sources : - I. CoNGRESS MAY DECLARE SLAVERY ABOLISHED. 1. By tho power (A.rt. I. ~ 8) to provide for the common defence and general welfare. 2. By the duLy (Art. IV. ~ 4) assigned the government,. to guarantee to every State in this Union a reputhcan form of government. When Congress has the 1nanlincss to sec, what it requires ingenuity not to sec, that the com1non defence is weakened and the general welfare i1npaircd by the existence of Slavery in this country, it is under oath to abolish that system, under the first of these clauses. When it has tho common sense to sec that Slavery and tho rebellion are united as cause and effect, and recognizes the normal hostility of Slavery towarus the ballot-box,- i. e. to the republican form of gov· ernment it is pledged to maintain in every State,-it is sworn no longer to harbor it in the country. It is not to the point to say that the majority of the States which adopted the Constitution held slaves. Law is, essentially, tho higher nature of man enthroned over his lower. Criminals are every day punished by laws which they pay to sustain, and acknowledge to be just and authentic. Many slaveholders voted for the prin· ciple that " all men are crcateu equal." This ques· tion is to be considered apart fron1 the practice of the States and individuals who n1ade our Constitution, as much as apart from their religious persuasions. IN COMMON LAvV. 23 The C?mpromisc which our fathers made with Slavery was not the one-sided affair which some new schools ·would have us believe. They gave protection to the system as long as it should la t; but, on the other part, they gained the POWER OVER IT which such protection in1plies. The abolition of Slavery by Cougress requires no a1nend1nent of the Constitution, si1nply because there is no word in the compact securing that institution fro1n the natural effect of legislation for the general \Yelfare. Consequently, its extinction is co1nmitted to the growth of opinion, and may be reached at any moment when the judgtncut of Congress shall enact that henceforth the clauses relatiug to " persons held to service " shall be held as applicable only to minors and apprentices. The fact that these clauses, when adopted, were meant to protect Slavery, along with the liability of minors and apprentices, is balanced by the fact that its specific mention was left out for the very purpose of rendering its tenure insecure. But the stricte::;t constructionist, or the most sensitive traditionafist, will admit at once that the Slaveryinstitution to which our fathers gave a quasi-protection in the Constitution is quite a different thing from the Slavery-institution which it is now proposed to abolish. Slavery establishing the ballot-box over its own head is a different thing from Slavery trampling on the ballotbox. Slavery helping to rear a republican government is a different institution from that which comes with murderous weapon to strike it out of existence. |