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Show 374 LIBERTY AND SLAVER~ sand flaming guardians of freedom,* he escapes with perfect impunity! Is he not a most marvellous proper rogue? But perhaps the reason the abolitionists do not lay hands on him is that he is an imaginary being, who, though intangible and invisible, will yet serve just as well to create an alarm and keep up a great excitement as if he were a real personage. § IV. The Duty of the Citizen in regard to the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution, it is agreed on all sides, is "the supreme Jaw of the land,"- of every State in the Union. The first duty of the citizen in regard to the Constitution is, then, to respect and obey each and every one of its provisions. If . he repudiates or sets at naught this or that provision thereof, because it does not happen to agree with his own views or feelings, he does not respect the Constitution at all; he makes his own will and pleasure the supreme law. The true principle of loyalty resides not in his bosom. We may apply to him, and to the supreme law of the land, the language of an in- *This crime of kidnapping, sR.ys Mr. Cho.se, of Ohio, is "not un!roquont" in his section of country; that is, n.bout Cincinnati. TIIE FUGITIVE SLAVE LA \V. 375 spired apostle, that "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." lie is guilty of all, because, by his wilful disobedience in the one instance ho sets at naught the authority by which the w~ole was ordained and established. In opposing the Fugiti vc Slave Law, lt is forgotten by the abolitionists that, if no such law existed, the master would have, under the Constitution itself, the same right to reclaim his fugitive from labor, and to reclaim him in the same summary manner; for, as we have seen, the Supreme Court of the U nitcd States has decided that by virtue of the Constitution alone the master has a right to pursue and reclaim his fugitive slave, without even a writ or legal process. lienee, in opposing the Fugitive Slave Law because it allows a summary proceeding iu such cases, the abolitionists really make war on the Constitution. The battery which they open against the Constitution is merely masked behind the Fugitive Shwe Law; and thus the nature of their attack is concealed from the eyes of their non-legal followers. But, says Mr. Chase, of Ohio, I do not agree with the Supreme Court of the United States. I oppose not the Constitution, but the decision |