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Show 352 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. not to be swept away by the filthy torrent or bis invectives. '!.'he Clays, the Calhouns, the Wcbstm ·s, and tho Washingtons of A1nerica, arc, indeed, as far above the impotent rage of this Senator as the very stars of heaven arc beyond his arm.* * Mr. Sumner hns a. great dco.l to say, in his speech, about " the memory of the fathers." When their sentiments agree with his own, or only seem to l1im to do so, then they are u tho demi-gods of history." Dut only lot those demi-gods cross his path or como into contact with his fanatical notions, o.nd instantly they sink into sordid knaves. Tho framers of the Constitution of tho United States, says he, rondo u o. compromise, which cannot be mmliontd without 8hame. It was that hattful bargain by which Congress was restrained until 1808 from the prohibition of the foreign slave trade, thus securing, down to that period, toleration for crime." • • . • "The effrontery of slaveholders was mo.tched by the 1ordidnu8 of tlte Ea1tcrn member!." . . . • "The bargain was struck, and at this price the Southern States gained the detestable indulgence. At a subsequent day, Congress brnnded the slave trade as piracy, and thus, by solemn legislative net, adjudged this compromise to be ft:loniou8 and wicked." But for this compromise, o.s every one who ho.s rend the history of the times perfectly well knows, no union could have been formed, and the slave trade might ho.ve been carried on to the present day. By this compromise, then, the Convention did not tolerate crime nor the slave trade; they merely formed the Union, and, in forming it, gained the power to aboli&h the !lave trade in twenty yean. The gain of this power, which Congress THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 353 §ill. The ,·ight of Trial by Jury not impaired by the l<'ugiti~:e Slave Law. It is alleged that the power to enact such a law docs not reside in Congress, because no such power has been "expressly delegated," !1ncl because it is not "necessary and proper" to carry any CJq)l·essly delegated authority into effect. W c should have replied to this argument; but it bas been urged before every tri-ho. d not before possessed, was considered by them as a. great gain to the eo.use of bumnnity. If the Eastern members, from a. blind o.nd frantic hatred of slavery, had blasted all prospects of o. union, and o.t the snmc time put the slo.ve trnde beyond tbeil' power forever, they would have imitnted tho wisdom of the abolitionists, who always promote the cnuse they seek to demolish. If nny one will read tho history of the times, he will sec that 40 U1e fathers," the framers of tho Constitution, wore, in making this very compromise, governed by tho purest, the most patriotic, n.nd the roost humnne, of motives. lie who accuses them of eonuption shows himself corrupt i cspccinlly if, like Mr. Sumner, he co.n la.ud them on one pnge as demi-gods, and on the very next denounce them o.s sordid knaves, who, for the snke of filthy lucre, could enter into a "felonious nml wicked" bargain. Yet the very man who accuses U10m of having mo.de so inf: tmous and corrupt a. bnrgnin in regnrd to the slave trndo can nnd does most eloquently declaim ngninst tho monstrous injustice of suppoe.ing them capable of the lenflt act in favor of slavery! X 30• |
