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Show 342 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. chartered by a previous Congress, which, though sanctioned by the Supreme Court, has been since in high quarters pronounced unconstitutional. If it erred as to the bank, it may have erred also as to fugitives from labor." We cannot conceive why such an argument should have been propounded, unless it were to excite a prejudice against the Congress of 17D3 in the minds of those who may be opposed to a National Bank. For if we look at its conclusion we shall see that it merely aims to establish a point which no one would deny. It merely aims to prove that, as the Congress of 1793 was composed of fallible men, "so it may have erred!" We admit the conclusion, and therefore pass by the inherent weaknesses in the structure of the argument. IIis second argument is this: "But the very act contains a capital error* on this very subject, so declared by the Supreme Court, in P!etending to vest a portion of the judicial power of the nation in state officers. This error takes from the act all authority as an interpretation of the Constitution. I DISMisS IT." This passage, considered as an argument, is simply ridiculous. llow * This error wt~.s by no mcnns a cnpitnl ouo. TITE FUGITIVE sLAVE LAW. 343 many of the best laws ever enacted by man have, in the midst of much that is as clear as noonclay, been found to contain an error! Should all, therefol'e, have been blindly rejected? As soon as the error has been detected, has any enlightened tribunal on earth ever said, " I dismiss" the whole? By such a process we might have made as short work with Mr. Sumner's speech. If, after pointing out one error therein, we had dismissed the whole speech as worthless, we should have imitated bis reasoning, and in our conclusion have come much nearer to the truth. If we should say, indeed, that because the sun has a spot on its surface it is therefore a great ball of darkness, our argument would be exactly like that of Mr. Sumner. But that great luminary would not refuse to shine in obedience to our contemptible logic. In like manner, the authority of the illustrious Congress of 1793, in which there were so many profound statesmen and pure patriots, will not be the less resplendent because Mr. Charles Sumner has, with Titanic audacity and Lilliputian weakness, assailed it with one of the most pitiful of all the pitiful sophisms that ever were invented by man. In regard to tl1e derision of the Supreme |