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Show 276 DESPOTISM from labor, seems to be clear. That intentiDI~ evi. dcntly was to provide a summary proce~s to be used in ca~cs wh<•rc there was no dispute a.bout the fact~ or a~ to the riaht of the claimant, leav111g open to any person agai 1~st whom such summary decision mig!Jt be made, ail the courts, state and federal, and al_l the procef:l.ses, wh~ther writ of habeas co~pus, w~1t l~e Jwmine replecrtando (or of personal rt>plevm),-tlw; la~t involving a 0 trial by jury,-or any othe~ c~mmonly rC'sorted to by persons restrained of their hbPrty, or seeking to get possession. of .the. persons of other~. Tile cornmitment of the JUStiCe m the one case, hts warrant in the other, was to be a lawful authority for refainina the seaman, or adjmlged fugitive from labor, a:' agains.t any private interference; but .ncith~r of them was intended to act as a bar to full mvesh· gation into the rights of the parties by the ordinary course of law. I am not aware that any court or any lawyer has ever yet pretended that the action of a justice of the peace i~1 committing an adjudged de· serting seaman to pnson, or to the ~ustody .of the master, is absolutely final and con~lusJ~e, turnlllg the seaman over to his suit for false 1mpnsonment, and not to be otherwise inquired into or reviewed by any court state or federal; and it was the pretended disco~ery in the act of 1793, of this alarm in~ potency, that fin;t raised arrainst it that loud and mcreas111g clamor of which .1\fr. Web~ter so bitterly complains. Constant recourse to historical facts, and an explora· tion of contemporaneous ideas, have bf'en dee':led essential to the true interpretation of the constJtu· tiona) provisions bearing, or supposed to bear, on slavery. Nor are such external aids any the l.ess. ~ecessary towards understanding the course of JUdl~ml decisions touching the same subject. 'rhe concJu:;J~n of the war of 1812-15 was followed by a ra~1d extension of the cultivation of cotton, which sprec!Jly grew, with the decline of the foreign dc~~n.d for br~~dstuf- f::;, to be the chief article of export. lh1~extens10n of cotton cultivation, besides those constantly expand· IN AM~R1CA. 277 ing schemes of territorial aggrandizement in a southern direction, so vigorou~ly sketched by Mr. W(•bstrr in his 7th of 1V1arch speech, also gave rh~c to that domP::~tic slave-trade-that breeding of slaves for sale-a point too delicate for that class of preachers who " never mention hell to ears polite," and therefore omitted by Mr. Webster,-yct. c.hielly instrumrntal in producing that change of opm10n at the south on the subject of slavery upon which he dwells with so much emphasis h1 his 7th of l\1arch speech; and, indeed, a coincident change of opi.nion at the North, at least among ship-owners, merchants, manufacturers, and politicians, no less remarkable. This domestic ~lave-trade was a rude shock to that patriarchal character to which, on some of the older plantations of Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, slavery had attained some shadow of title." By keep. ing constantly before the eyes of the enslaved the gloomy prospect of the auction·block and the slave trader1s chain-gang, it greatly increased their inclina~ tiou to run away. If they must quit the localities to • This trade, at its first commencement, wo.s not less loudly de· nounced in Maryland and Virginia "'than the African slave trade hud been during the revolutionary period. John Jlandolph "tigmatizcd it, in 1816, on the floor of Congresa, as "heinous and abominable," "inhuman and illc~aL" Even Governor 'Villiams, of South Carolina, spoke of it, in onu of his messages to the legislature of that state, a.s "a remorseless and merciless traffic,"" "a ceaf!cless dragging along the streetl! and highways of a crowd of suffering victims to ;~~!~i~~ ~==~~~l~=~~c:~~ ~~~)?c';~yo~ ~~:dje:;~~b~i ~:!~;;~~~ ttl introduction of shLvcs of all descriptions, to "defile the delightful avocntions of private life by the presence of convicts and malefactors.'' (See Hildreth's Hi.tm-y of the (.T,,ited Statu, '\101 vi. pp. 613-li.) This 111ame traffic, however, proving the chief re&ourcc of the impoverished planters of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas. many of whom now live, to usc the exprosaive Joc:nl phro.seolo"'Y• by eating their ne~ro6!!, it has come to be cherished and defendecl in those ltates With 8.8 much zeal as tho merchants of Bristol and Liverpool ever exhibited on behalf of the African slave-tradt•, or as is exhibited on .. behalf of it to-day by the petty kings who live by it on tho AJnean coast. :For Mr. Webster's remarks on the change of sentiment at tho South, and some corrections of the exaggerations into which he has fallen, 1ee A.pptftl').ix. 24 |
