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Show 240 • DESPOTISM state institution · no express recognition even of the bare fact of the' existence of slavery, and much les~ of its exi:)tence as an institution entitled to the favorable regard and protecting care of the Feder~\ go~·crnmcnt. General Pinckney, of South C3:rolwa, 111 the course of the debates of the conventiOn, more than once asked for such guaranty for slave property; but so far from yielding to this demand, the greatest car~ was ta ken not to admit into the constitution "the idea that there cou1d be property in men;" that is to say, the very fundamental i~ea up~n which the whole slave system rests. It was nnposstble for the Federal constitution, by its own proper vtgor, to abohs~ .slavery or to make its abolition one of t he condttwns of the Federal compact-for on such conditions no constitution could be formed. It was even necessary to take into account, in several of its provisions, the actual, \Jut, as it was hoped and expected, temporary, existence of slavery. Yet, on the other hand, the greatest care was had not to give any sa~ction to a practice so inconsistent with t~os~ natural nghts upon which all the American constttutwns professed to be founded, nor indeed even to recognize, exc~pt by remote and obscure implication, its bare existence as a fact. The u tmost length to which the m~mbers of the convention would go, was a silent toleratiOn of slavery as it existed; leaving it to be disrosed o~-and, as the convention expected, to be speedtly abohshedby the states themselves. They were not antt·slavery men in that sense which makes hostthty to slavery paramount to all other considerations; but, so far.at an extreme dislike of that system, and a heart~ wts; for its speedy extinction, could go, the maJonty 0 . t hem were decidedly anti-slavery men; and the con;;;: tution, and especially the amendm~~ts to It ~~con· quent.ly adopted, contain many prov1swns very 1 sistent with the existence of slavery. d This view of the Federal constitution correspon J very nearly with the view taken of it? ~h no!th anlt soulh, for many years subsequent to 1ts adoptwn. IN .UlERICA. 241 .i8 only within a recent period that the idea has b ~et up, t hat the "~~mpromiscs of the constituti:,~~ mcludc the rccogmtion of slavery as an institution of the states, or s?mc of t hem, entitled to protection and sul'porl: Sttll more recent is t he doctrine t hat ~he d 1stmgu1~h.mg tra1t of " nationality" among us ts the rccogmtwn and support of the system of sla· very, and zeal for the return of fugitive slaves. Nut o?ly docs the ~ederal constitution, so far from recogm~ mg slaver~ 111 a ?y such character, take the greatest pa•?s t? avOid d~•ng so, but in point of fact, as we mamtam, slavery IS not even a state institution Jegally speald~g, but a mere usurpation, unsuppo'rtcd by law, and lll that character certainly not entitled to support or countenance from t he Federal government or any other. But if the Federal constitution, thou"h cautiously avoiding to commit the Union to the s~pport of slavery, has yet left the determination of the rig hts of the inhabitants of the states to the state authorities - even allowing that slavery exists by usurpation and not by _Iaw,-ha~ t he F ederal government any warra~~ t to mterfere, 111 any way, to set t his matter right 7 I~ tt not bound to wait patiently till the state authortiles shall themselves do it? Besides the specific and particnlar powers conferred upon Congress by the Federal constitution, that body, by a clau~e of a v_ery extens1ve and comprehensive character, IS authorized "to provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States· " at least in all the cases in which that end can be ;ccomplished by_ the expenditure of money. Now, suppose the •optmon to be adopted, by the majority of the people, that the "common defence and general ~velfa~e of the Umted States;" their defence against mvaswn from abroad, and insurrection at home; their welf~re, _moral, social, and economical, demand the ter_mlllatwn of the system of slavery ;-and, in this pomt of view, it seems to matter but little whether 21 |
