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Show 258 DESPOTlSl\t only to employ but to command the officers of the states. But, in the second place, quite apart from the errors into which a body no better suited for such purposes than Congress would be likely to fall, especially at first, as to the extent of its authority,-the whole theory of the scope of Federal legislation, upon which those who had the control of the early Congresses proceeded, was subsequently greatlv modified. The Federalists, as they called themselv~s, the con salida~ tionists, as they were considered by their opponents, who controlled the early Congresses, and who, like the present Union men, so called, professed a special attachment to the constitution and the Union, proceeded upon the idea of making a strong national government; indeed, of drawing within the range of Federal legislation every thing that might be most conveniently so dealt with-that is to say, about every thing. 'l'he Democratic or State Rights party held, on the other hand, that the legislation of Congress ought to be strictly limited to cases expressly authorized by the constitution. Such was the doctrine so emphatically set forth in the famous Resolution~ of '98; and such, at this moment, is the doc· trine not only ostentatiously professed by those at the head of the Federal government, but which, in a certain modified form at least, has obtained-upon all questions not involving the convenience of slave-hold· ers-pretty entire possession even of the United States tribunals. But surely it cannot be expected, without counting more fully than facts would seem yet to warrant upon the stupidity and patience of the North, that a liberal interpretation of the powers of Congress, rejected in all cases in which the indus· trial and pecuniary interests of the North have been · thought to be concerned, will be tolerated for the sole purpose of propping up the crumbling system of southern despotism. It was natural enough for Mr. Webster, both as an ancient Federalist and as a modern Union man, to yield up as he did, in his 7th of March IN .-\1\tlmiCA, 259 ~r~ccch, his own deliberate opinion, long held, and still una~tct:cJ, to the. formal judgment even of a mere maJ?nty of the judge~ of the Supreme Court of the United States,-for 1t was the policy of the old. Federal, as It now IS of our modern, sClf-stylcd Umon p~rt~, ~mo~c commonly known as Silver-Gray~, or Old I ?giC~!) to cx_alt that Supreme Court into a ?nal_ arbtter, 1f no~. Indeed an i~1fallible judge, not 1~1 pnvate c~:mtro~crstes OI~ly, but m all political quest. l~ns also, l~lvolvtng the mtcrprctation-as what pol~ tlcal question does not ?-ol the Federal constit.u· t10n and laws. But to see Franldin Pierce who during his six years' service in the Senate sat a'silent' humble, admiring disciple at the feet ~f Calhoun~ who, as presidential candidate, was the choice be: cause the submissive catechumen of the Dcmoc;atir. State Rights party, whose doctri;1cs he took speedy occaswn, after h1s elccbon, to glorify and endorse· and who, as president, professes to walk in the foot~ steps of And~ew JackHon, he who boldly claimed for lnmself, and lor all the coordinate branches of the government, the nght to act under the constitution as they understood it, even in spite of decisions of the Supreme Court; to ~ee this Democratic State Riuhts p_re~ident inconsistently striking in with that ~on· s1_stent old Federalist, l\ir. Webster, and running in Ius company, on behalf of slavery, into the most ultra Federal extre_mes-this is a spectacle rather trying to those who WISh to regard the rising leaders of 1hc young democracy of the North as at least tolerably true and ~''!ce~c Jl}CI~, and not, as their political op· po_nc~t~ so mdJscnmwatcly represent them, mere un· prHH.:ipled liCamps in pursuit of oHice, ready 1o profc!:ls auU to do every t.hing tending thereto. . II. Bot even admitting that the surrender of fugitlvt ·s from labor is a matter cxclnsively withiu the ~copC" of .Federal auihority, and not only a proper sub· Jec~ for 1 he !Pgislat ion of Congress, but one upon wlueh Congrc~~ is imperatively bound to legislate, (as wa; hdu by the majority of the Supreme Court |
