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Show 16 THE GOLDEN HOUR. necess1· ty that every slave's ch a·u. l s. l to.n l d be truck off b b a decree of emancipation, It IS Important t~ ear . y . d tllat our President has no oath rcgt tcrcd Ill min . to protect Sl avc1.. y. The counterpart of the. right of Slavery to ,u, c 1c t al one in the States where It . conftncs itself is the forfeiture of any claim to protcct~on frotn any 'I. n fl ucncc 1.1 1 Nature or Civilization. which n1ay threaten 1. t s cx·1· stCilCC · If by lifting 1ns ftngcr the I >rcs1· a en t coul d save Slavery froln death, he ·would 11 avc no n.g 1 1 t to lift his little finger; it wou.l d be as uncons t1·t u t.1 011 al to sw" ve it in any State, as 1t ·would be, under the usual and peaceful process ~f govern-ment, to destroy it in any State by an official act. In the present conflict, Slavery has cast it ·elf directly across the track where the Pre ·idcnt has sworn to eng1· neer tl1 e bO 'ovcrnment ' and he has no right even to put down the brakes to save it from being c.ut in two. lie has stretched his con titutional authonty to the utmost in having sounded tho ·whistle to warn it, as he did recently in his special Inc ·sago. Lot it be retnembered that the right of tho States to regulate their own dotncstic institutions is one growino · out of the nature of the govcrnrncut ·which our b Constitution established. But tho friends of Slavery have of late years been pressing this feature of our govcnnncnt so far as to break it,- carrying it so far that the national government was repro ·cntcd a. soulething which had a usc, but, having created various sovermgn States, was now only fit to be thro\rn away, like IN COMMON LA \V. 17 a pod fron1 which the peas have been gathered. To put tho case beyond the reach of prejudice, let us imagine a case which cannot occur, but which is parallel : Cotton is a staple which any State has a right to produce. But suppose some year all the cotton planted should bear a fatally poisonous flower, which shoulu be woven into garments deadly to the wearers. Suppose that it was determined that, owing to some nc\v atrno ·phcric conditions, the cotton-plant if grown 1nu 't con tinuc a fatal poison. Then, if any State should • persist in rai~ing and selling that staple, tho United States would be co1npcllcd to interfere to prevent iL. No specific power would be necessary for such in tcrfcrencc; for such a State would be an outlaw ,vith which any nation (a fortiori that to which it owed allegiance) would have a right to interfere. N O\Y, Slavery having always spread malaria throughout tho nation, has this year actually borne a poisonous harvest,- which, unintcrfcrcd with, 1nust prove fatal to republican government. Then the general govcrnmcut has a rjght to deal with it no longer as a dome ·tic institution, but as a public foe. 'Tis its duty, even in the Border States, whore tho crop comes on later, to arrest the institution before it has reached the fatal maturity of treason there also. Already we have heard Garrott Davis advise Kentucky to resist laws of the United States. Tho question whether Slavery is a national or a State institution is this year a sheer impertinence. 1 ll |
