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THE NATION'S TRIAL: 
 
 THE PllOCLAMATlON: 
 
 DORMiAT POWERS OF THE (10lER\MEi\T : 
 
 THE COXSTITLTIOX A CIlAnTKK OF KMKl-DfiM, A.NI) 
 KOT "A COVLXA.NT UiTlI HELL:" 
 
 By EDWARD F^ BULLARD, 
 
 ArXIIOR OF TllK LAW OP TIIDST3 AND TEUsTEES. 
 
 DEATH TO SLAVEBY-LIFE TO THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 C B. RICUARDSOX, HISTORICAL DOOKSKLT.ER A.ND PUBLlSHEll, 
 594 &. 500 Broadway. 
 
 AI.HANY: 
 
 W. C LITTLE, LAW PUULISMI.R 
 18G3. 
 
w. 
 
 .p' 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three. 
 
 By EDWARD F. BULLARD, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York. 
 

 TO THE COXSCIEXTIOUS AND THINKING PUBLIC 
 
 THIS WORK 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The substance of the following Treatise was delivered 
 as a lecture, first before the Young Men's Association of 
 Waterford, February 18, 1863, and afterwards repeated at 
 other places. 
 
 At the request of many members of the Bar, and others, 
 it is published, after having been somewhat enlarged. 
 
 This work is published to awaken inquiry, as the present 
 crisis seemed to demand a brief work upon the duties of 
 the hour. 
 
 Waterkord, X. Y., April, 18G3. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. — Freedom and Moral Ideas, the Measure of Man's Progress 7 
 
 II. — Our Defiance of God and his Justice 11 
 
 III. — The Constitution no Cloak for Slavery : Recognizing Slavery de 
 
 facto does not Legalize or Guarantee it 16 
 
 IV. — The Union represents the only Sovereign Power 2o 
 
 v.— Slavery is War 30 
 
 VI.— The Proclamation the Great Ev€nt of the last 1800 Years 33 
 
 VII. — The Nation, through Congress, must settle this Question 37 
 
 VIII. — A State cannot Legally make a Slave 40 
 
 IX. — The National Government bound to Protect every Person within its 
 
 Boundaries 45 
 
 X. — A Republican Government, as guaranteed by the Constitution. ... 49 
 XI. — Piules of Construction. The Declaration of Independence Estops 
 
 the Nation from Continuing Slavery 56 
 
 XII.— The Present Age calls to a Higher Duty 59 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FllEEDOM AND MoRAL IdEAS, THE MEASURE OF Man'S 
 
 Progress". 
 
 "War, with all its horrors, is trying this nation in the presence of 
 the God of Justice. 
 
 When, in the course of events, a people apparently prosperous and 
 happy, by domestic convulsions is deluging the country with blood, 
 it becomes us to ascertain the cause and apply the retnedy. 
 
 Progress is the law of the universe. 
 
 Science has demonstrated that animal life has existed on this 
 planet for a thousand centuries, yet man has left recorded hi.-5tory 
 reaching back less than si.x thousand years. 
 
 Although, in the beginning man was created after the image of 
 God — that is, with a capacity to learn and exist forever — yet man 
 remains but a poor representation of the God-head until his intellect 
 has been cultivated and his affection born anew, so that he shall 
 perceive truth and love the right. 
 
 In tracing the development of the human race, each individual 
 must be treated as a trinity, that is: First, as a "physical; second, 
 as an intellectual ; third, as a moral being. 
 
 Until each of these attributes is developed, man is not truly seen 
 in the image of his Creator. 
 
 Hence triumphs of art, which may call out and expand tlio physi- 
 cal and intellectual, do not necessarily develop the moral. In tho 
 former, Thebes and Nincvah excelled, yet they have perished and 
 left nothing as an exami)lo to make us better, unless we take warn- 
 ing from their shortcomings. 
 
 If the end of man's existence was merely to build stately works 
 of art, wear purple and fine linen, with no reference to an eternal 
 destiny, then, indeed, was Kgypt a great people before the book of 
 Genesis was written, and our own America, two years since, had 
 nearly become her equal. 
 
8 
 
 But such was not the design of the great Father in creating man. 
 He made him for a higher and nobler purpose, — to be educated, to 
 exist and unfold forever. 
 
 Progress is an inherent law of the soul, and is written upon all 
 created things. To avoid misunderstanding we use the term man as 
 including all beings, without regard to color, that have souls within 
 ihem, susceptible of improvement and capaole of a future existence. 
 Few, among the enlightened, can be found so ignorant or perverted 
 by education as to deny to the African either of these qualities, or 
 that he is capable of becaming " God's noblest work, an honest 
 man." 
 
 The greatest benefactor to mankind, therefore, is he who serves 
 God by improving the condition of his children. 
 
 Moral ideas are greater than works of art. 
 
 All ideas are promulgated to the world as mere words uttered or 
 recorded. 
 
 The building of its cities has not done so much to advance the 
 world as Paul's sermon on Mars Hill. 
 
 No one is so obscure as to be without his influence in raising or 
 degrading the moral condition of his neighbor. Yet but few have 
 become so high and pure as to leave their good works apparent to the 
 whole world. 
 
 The mere words of those few have become the property of man- 
 kind, and they illuminate his pathway in the conflict between truth 
 and error, right and wrong, as the sun illuminates the material 
 universe. 
 
 But few persons, having the opportunity even, have so lived as to 
 exhibit their characters so perfected and elevated as to become the 
 light of the world. 
 
 But few events have become the great monuments which are 
 known and read of all men. 
 
 The first of these was the life of Moses, who was born but 3,434 
 years since. 
 
 He astonished the world by the high moral standard which he 
 raised, but did not live to see many of his own followers appreciate 
 the scope of his teachings. 
 
 Where is the man who will now assert that his mere words or 
 fanatacism have not been of more benefit to mankind than all the 
 pyramids ever devised by the intellect or reared by the hand of 
 
The next of tliosc events, whicli all civilized nations recognize, is 
 the life and teachings of the humble Nazurcno. 
 
 Hut little understood liy the wisest of our day and generation, 
 when on earth loss than nineteen hundred years since, the wise men 
 and rulers of that day heede<l liini not. Yet the mere ideas uttered 
 by hiui liavo done more than all the armies, powers and inventions 
 of the race to elevate mankind. In com]>arisr)n with thoni, the con- 
 quests of Alexander and Cjvsar are as grains of sand. 
 
 With all the light shed upon the world by him, but little, if any, 
 progress was made by the masses for the first tiftcen hundred years 
 after they had crucilied his body. 
 
 During that period, however, millions nominally professed his doc- 
 trines, and most of the nations of Europe claimed to rule in his 
 name. 
 
 Eleven hundred years after the sermon on the mount, " the Eng- 
 lish were generally in the habit of selling their children and other 
 relations to be slaves in Ireland, without having the pretext of dis- 
 tivss or famine, till the Irish, in a national synod, agreed to eman- 
 cipate ail the English slaves in the Kingdom." (3 Hal/avi, Middle 
 Ages, 371.) 
 
 In the year 1214, a few of the higher intellects of England wrung 
 from King John, Magna Charta, whereon by degrees that natiou 
 has finally reared a high development of civilization. 
 
 Before they practically carried into effect, to any considerable 
 extent, the j)rinciples announced l>y that great charter, that nation 
 had to Avade through turmoil and blood, for five centuries. 
 
 Long after its promulgation, tyranny and despotisui continued hunt- 
 ing out victims for the stake and the rack, until the better portion 
 of humanity looked in vain for an asylum upon the known globe. 
 
 In this dark hour, October 11, 1492, another great event startled 
 mankiud. On that day Columbus discovered the new world. 
 
 In his wisdom the Creator has seemingly reserved this continent 
 to be the garden of his New Jerusalem and the school house of 
 his people. 
 
 When the old world had become so corrupt and down-trndden, 
 that practically, Christianity had no place to lay its head, the 
 Almighty inspired the groat soul of Columbus to seek out this new 
 continent as .an asylum fur the oppressed. 
 
 The spirit of tyranny after this time continued to run so high that 
 the friends of man were crucified or banished to this continent. 
 
10 
 
 Freedom of thought or religious toleration was not permitted in 
 the old world. 
 
 Experience has shown that no people will become developed to a 
 full manhood where freedom of speech is not tolerated. 
 
 Although Jesus had distinctly taught the equality of all men, and 
 the divine right of the ivdvidual to freedom, yet up to that age his 
 doctrine had been practically ignored. The state and church were 
 everything — man was nothing. 
 
 It was after this and on the 10th of December, 1520, that Luther 
 asserted a degree of religious freedom by burning the bull of the 
 Pope. 
 
 But while the oppressions in the east were preparing the good 
 seed to be sent to the new world, Satan was not idle. 
 
 Those who worshipped money and other material things, instead 
 of God and his attributes of justice and truth, settled Jamestown, 
 Virginia, in 1608, and soon after brought slavery with them. The 
 friends of right were behind and did not land at Plymouth until 
 December 22d, 1620. 
 
 The spirit of freedom began to gain power, so far as the white race 
 was concerned, in England, and the result was the beheading of 
 Charles I., in January, 1649. 
 
 Although the iron soul of Cromwell for a time nominally sustained 
 the rights of the masses, yet the latter were not sufficiently educated 
 to walk alone after their leader was taken from them. 
 
 The reaction in England again brought into power the conserva- 
 tives, who soon hunted out of the kingdom many of her noblest souls. 
 
 The last hope of man now seemed centered upon the colonies of 
 America. 
 
 After more than a hundred years of contest in this wilderness 
 with the elements and in war, after going through more of hardship 
 than did the children of Israel in Egypt, finally a portion of our peo- 
 ple were aroused to assert some of their God-given rights. 
 
 The declaration of the equality of all men, July 4, 1776, was the 
 outbirth of those times, and makes an era in the history of the world, 
 which must be handed down to all future generations, while man 
 shall deserve freedom and record history. 
 
 The great soul of Jefferson seemed inspired for the occasion, and 
 he attempted, for the first time, to build a foundation for a nation 
 upon the laws of God, which should deserve to be called a christian 
 covernment. 
 
C11APTP]R II. 
 
 Our Defiance of God and ins Justice. 
 
 Let us consulor how fur short we have come from practically car- 
 rying into oflect these great princi[iles. 
 
 Since this country establLslied its separation from Great Britain, 
 Its strides in material greatness and iutelligcncc have been the won- 
 der of modern times. 
 
 General education has been diffused among the greater portion of 
 the white race. 
 
 The power of invention has outrun the most vivid imagination. 
 
 The privileged class travel with ten times more speed and comfort 
 than of old, and their messages are sent on the wings of lightning. 
 
 In our vast strides we have said: What next can come? what 
 shall surprise us? 
 
 That next has come, and God has asked us if we have obe^-ed his 
 laws, and been just to his children? 
 
 Jesus taught that God was represented in every man. Hence the 
 saying: — " I was in prison and ye came unto me." " Inasmuch as 
 ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me." 
 
 Every man has the right to educate himself, and perfect his soul 
 for a future and eternal existence. 
 
 Even Calhoun admitted this doctrine substantially, when he says: 
 
 " I assume as an incontestible fact, that man is so constituted as 
 to be a social being. * * * In no otlier state could he attain to 
 a full development of his moral and intellectual faculties, or raise 
 himself in the scale of being much above the level of the brute crea- 
 tion." 
 
 Therefore any man, state, institution or nation which deprives the 
 poorest, blackest or weakest man of those God-given rights, is di- 
 rectly fighting against (Jod and his laws, and will sooner or later find 
 it hard " to kick against the pricks." 
 
 " For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
 
 Judged by this standard, are we practicing Christianity ? 
 
 We speak of the whole nation, North and Soiith. We roust as- 
 sume our share of guilt according to our liglit and opportunitv. 
 
12 
 
 Because, if those residing at the North have more light, so much 
 more their responsibility. 
 
 If we have the ten talents and bury them, so much the lower 
 must be our fall. 
 
 If we are blessed with knowledge and wisdom — see the evil and 
 proclaim it not, but hide our light under a bushel — so much worse 
 will be our condition, and seven devils will return in place of our 
 one. Because, the greater the light, the greater the condemnation. 
 
 Every one's experience has taught him this. 
 
 Thus, we should not blame the poor and ignorant in our midst, 
 when but few of our educated lawyers, savans and clergy speak the 
 truth boldly, and let their light shine before the world. 
 
 If any authority is needed, Paul, on Mars Hill, declared : " The 
 times of this ignorance God winked at." 
 
 A practice that was comparatively a small evil in one condition of 
 the world, under greater light and progress becomes a fatal one, 
 which will overthrow a nation. 
 
 The same with nations as with individuals- 
 Tried by this standard, the leading men of this nation are edu- 
 cated at least equal to any that ever lived. 
 
 We have the benefit of the full light of Christianity. 
 
 We have the example of that Man who is the light of the world. 
 
 With such knowledge, we have no cloak for our wickedness. 
 Hence the time has arrived when we, as a nation and a people, must 
 choose between right and wrong — between God and the devil. 
 
 Paul, speaking to the learned -men of Athens, says: 
 
 " Because he hath' appointed a day in the which he will judge 
 the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." 
 (17 Acts.) 
 
 That day is upon this nation noio. 
 
 That day was upon Babylon long ago. 
 
 She was judged and found wanting. 
 
 That day was upon Jerusalem when she heard Jesus, but refused 
 to follow his precepts and practice truth and right. 
 
 What is Babylon now ? A desert. 
 
 What Jerusalem ? A den of thieves. 
 
 It is therefore appai*ent that no people can be truly christian until 
 they live up to that standard which requires them to do unto others 
 as they would have others do unto them. 
 
 We are called upon to preach and practice truth. It is our duty 
 to light as well as to love each other, and deal justly by all. 
 
13 
 
 Yet our own natluu in lier greatness, with licr commerce upon 
 every sea, and her name 'popular over the world, with a class of her 
 citizens rich as Crwsus, while others are robbed of their wages, has 
 in effect said : Who is God that we should foar him ? Are we not 
 rich ? Arc we not learned ? Are we not powerful ? Do we not build 
 magnificent churches and worship the bones of the prophets ? There- 
 fore we care not for man, the child of the Most High. 
 
 Have we not said, protect the rights oi' projjerti/ and su.staiu the 
 statutes made by us, cwt\ if man is crushed ? 
 
 Jesus taught that institutions, states, nations, churches and Sab- 
 baths were made for man — not man for them. 
 
 Have we not defied that teaching, and made property greater than 
 man ? 
 
 Let us cite the case of The People rs. Toynbee, in the great State 
 of 2sew York, decided by her highest court. (13 N. Y. 378.) 
 
 In that case a white person owned a black bottle, about twelve 
 inches long and three inches in diameter, filled with intoxicating 
 liquor, worth about two dollars, which was seized by the police, and 
 destroyed by direction of the magistrate in Brooklyn, in pursuance 
 of the statutes of New York. That court declared the statute un- 
 constitutional, on the ground it invaded the right of the individual. 
 
 At this same time, and daily, colored men, with the light of divinity 
 in their faces, were dragged through the larger half of our country 
 as slaves. Millions were in this condition. By the power of brute 
 force they were captured and kept from the reach of arms wherewith 
 to defend themselves. 
 
 They were denied the privileges of education and their other God- 
 given rights, and kept in ignorance. 
 
 By force and fraud they were robbed of their earnings, and treated 
 as beasts of the field. 
 
 The idle man rioted upon their productions, in defiance of justice. 
 
 The least effort made by the slave prisoner, for his liberty and 
 rights, was defeated by taking his life. 
 
 In short, the iniquity of the country in sustaining such an insti- 
 tution, was too monstrous to be descrihicd or realized. 
 
 Yet how few of us saw the condition of the poor slave, and fed him 
 when he was an hungered, or clothed him when he was naked, or 
 visited him in his prison bunds, or even spoke a kind word in his 
 behalf in the pulpit or in the forum. 
 
 "NVhile the highest court of the great civilized State of New York 
 
14 
 
 in eifect held the possession of the black bottle to be a sacred right, 
 the highest court of this christian nation, enrobed at Washington, 
 decided that the black man had no rights, and the nation could not 
 hear his cry for justice and liberty. 
 
 " Matter was made for man, and not man for matter." 
 
 Yet we had thixs in our insolence exalted property above man, and 
 set God and his laws at defiance. 
 
 The student must have read history in vain, not to see that the 
 same general principles which were applicable to ancient nations, are 
 equally applicable to ours. 
 
 Those wise utterances of the ancient prophets, who were true 
 statesmen, are equally applicable to this day and nation. 
 
 Let us consult their teachings, and trace the result upon those 
 people who refused to heed them. 
 
 Of Babylon, the Almighty, through Isaiah, spake : 
 
 " I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their 
 iniquity ; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and 
 will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 
 
 " I will make ma7i more precious than fine gold. 
 
 " And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, * * shall be as when 
 God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
 " It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from gen- 
 eration to generation." (13 Isaiah.) 
 
 But our worldly conservatives say : We are wiser than of old. We 
 have our great city of New York, with a million of inhabitants, and 
 with ingenuity to make ships and weapons to conquer the world. 
 Why should we fear God, and be compelled to do right ? 
 
 So said the men of Babylon, only two thousand four hundred and 
 three years ago. She far exceeded New York in population, wealth 
 and power, and was built upon a river fifteen hundred miles in length, 
 while our Hudson is less than three hundred. 
 
 But where is Babylon now ? 
 
 Exactly where New York will be within two hundred years from 
 this day, unless we repent as a nation, and cease fighting against 
 God, and let his children be free. 
 
 We need go no further back than Jamestown, to verify this pro- 
 phecy. Two hundred years since it was a prosperous town upon the 
 banks of the James river, teeming with commerce and slavery. 
 
 Now, there is not a building left, to show where it reared its proud 
 head. 
 
 " The greatest fall of man is sinning against the light of God 
 placed within his own spirit. 
 
15 
 
 " To sin ajrainst is to knowiiifrly violate. 
 
 " If a man know of a tiutli that which his Father rcquircth, j'ct 
 of himself goeth directl)- opposite thereunto, great is the fall of tliat 
 man." 
 
 All slave-holders do not neeessarily fall under this condemnation. 
 By education many have been led to believe that it was right to 
 enslave persons of color. Many of the noblest men and women of 
 our times have been slave-holders. As individuals they could do 
 scarcely nothing to undo the heavy burthens resting upon millions 
 of their fellows. The huge pyramid of error, ignorance and selfish- 
 ness upon them was so vast, that nothing but the volcano of war 
 could shake its foundation. 
 
 Slavery had so debauched the nation, that freedom of speech at 
 the North was in danger. 
 
 The doctrine has recently been announced, that those who preach 
 or speak against slavery, arc as wicked as those who are guilty of 
 treason. 
 
 In other words, that Luther, "Wesley and Beecher, for preaching 
 against sin and agitating the world, are as guilty as the murderers, 
 pirates and robbers they denounced. That Jefferson and Franklin, 
 for writing against the evils of slavery, were as wicked as the wrong- 
 doers they described. 
 
 A nation which will exalt to office men who are thus perverted, 
 can only be purified by fire. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Constitution no Cloak for Slavery : Recognizing 
 Slavery de facto does not Legalize or Guarantee 
 
 IT. 
 
 Some, who desire to find a cloak for tlieir wickedness, try to shield 
 themselves under the constitution of the United States, and say that 
 in time of peace the majority have no power to do right and cease 
 fighting against the Creator's laws. 
 
 In other words, that the general government, created by that 
 constitution, has no power " to provide for the common defence and 
 general welfare of the United States," or to prohibit slavery, poly- 
 gamy, treason, or the establishment of an aristocracy, or king, pro- 
 vided they are created by a state or county, without the aid of the 
 national government. 
 
 Such a construction is a libel upon that wise instrument, and upon 
 the memory of those sainted men who made it. 
 
 There is no clause in it upholding or sustaining slavery. There 
 is no clause in it authorizing congress to establish slavery, horse- 
 stealing or piracy, or anything ehe which shall not be deemed for 
 the general welfare, and there is no clause in it which prevents 
 congress from establishing justice and securing the blessings of 
 liberty. 
 
 Some suggest that slavery is right because Jesus did not specially 
 denounce it by name. 
 
 The same argument would sanctify burglary, because he did not 
 specially mention that as against the golden rule. 
 
 It is also suggested by some that slavery is protected by the con- 
 stitution, because it existed when that instrument was framed. 
 
 Piracy, murder and other crimes then existed, and were expected 
 to linger with mankind for generations to come, yet such facts then 
 existing is no argument that the constitution meant to protect crime. 
 
 But recognizing the existence of slavery de facto does not legalize, 
 sanction, or in any manner guarantee its existence. 
 
 In 1772, the famous case of Somerset vs. Stewart was decided by 
 Lord Mansfield, in the Court of King's Bench, England. In hia 
 
17 
 
 decision he hold that slavery had no logal existence in England. lie 
 said : 
 
 " So Iii^di an act of dominion must be recognized hy the law of 
 the country where it is used. The state of slavery is of such a 
 nature that it is incapable of being inti-oduccd on any reason, moral 
 or political, but o7i/i/ by positive law. It is so odious that nothing 
 can support it but positive law." {HoweVa State Trials.) 
 
 Previous to this decision, slavery had existed in England de facto. 
 Tlu- trade in men and wtmien had constituted an important item of 
 commerce. Laws had been passed authorizing their sale on exccn- 
 tion; in fact everything had been done, by all the departments of 
 the British government, to regulate, recognize and sanction human 
 slavery that they could do, short of actually establishing it by posi- 
 livi law. In 1G97, 8, 9, 10, William III., chap. 2G, the parliament 
 of Great Britain had recognized its existence, by encouraging the 
 slave trade as " beneficial" and *' advantageous" to the kingdom, and 
 spoke of the importation of negroes into England, where they were 
 held as slaves. The act itself was entitled, " An act to settle the 
 trade to Africa." 
 
 Again, in 1749. the parliament of Great Britain passed " An act 
 for extending and improving the trade to Africa," commencing with 
 this preamble : 
 
 " "Whereas the trade to and from Africa is very advantageous to 
 Great Britain, and is necessary for the supplying the plantations and 
 colonies thereunto belonging with a sutlieient number of negroes at 
 reasonable rates, and for that purpose tlie said trade ought to be open 
 and free to all his majesty's subjects. Therefore be it enacted, &c." 
 
 A written constitution or statute is intended to carry out the object 
 of the makers. The framers of our constitution had read the New 
 Testament, were in the habit of praying for the cause of justice, and 
 many of them had signed the delaratiou of July 4, 1770. They 
 professed to be christians, and were endeavoring to establish a 
 government upon the christian basis, which declares that we should 
 do unto others as we would that others should do unto us. 
 
 Therefore thnr constitution must be interpreted with those great 
 principles as our lights. 
 
 Many cases can be cited, decided by our most eminent jurists, 
 holding that our constitution and laws are to be construed in the 
 light of Christianity. 
 
 A judge imbued witli this spirit will thus construe that instrument. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 It is claimed by those taking an opposite view, that art. 4, sec. 2, 
 sub. o, gives the right to hold slaves. 
 
 That section is treating mainly of the rights of individuals, and 
 placing restrictions upon the states. 
 
 Subdivision 1 says: "The citizens of each state shall be entitled 
 to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states." 
 
 The Attorney General has recently decided, what the courts had 
 never denied until recently, that a colored man is a citizen. 
 
 Subdivision 3, relied upon, does not u"se the word slaves. It 
 merely says that no person held to service or labor, escaping into 
 another state, " shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
 therein, (that is, by any law of such state,) be discharged from such 
 service or labor." It does not say that he shall not be discharged 
 under a law of congress, or that congress shall not prevent states 
 from creating slaves. 
 
 If congress prohibits slavery, or if by the martial law slavery has 
 ceased to exist, of course there will be no slaves to escape, and of 
 course none to surrender or deliver up. 
 
 " No state shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender 
 in payment of debts." Yet congress is not thereby prohibited from 
 doing that act. 
 
 Since this was written, the Supreme Court of New York have 
 decided this question in the case of Hayne vs. Powers. In that case 
 the court lay down this rule : 
 
 " To say, as matter of judicial construction, that a limitation and 
 restriction upon the power of an inferior, by a .superior, implies the 
 same limitation and restriction upon the power of the superior, would 
 be in the last degree unwarrantable, without any known rule of con- 
 struction. The mere statement of such a proposition is its sufficient 
 refutation." 
 
 Sub. 2 of the same section declares: "A person charged in any 
 state with crime, who shall flee to another state, shall be delivered 
 up," &c. 
 
 It might as well be said that this clause recognizes crime, and 
 therefore authorizes it, as to say the other clause, sec. 3, recognizes 
 slavery, and therefore authorizes it. 
 
 Jesus said : "For ye have the poor always with you." As well 
 might be claimed as recognizing poverty, and hence if a poor man 
 was like to earn too much, if colored, he might be robbed of three- 
 
19 
 
 fourths of his oariiiiig.s, for fear ho would become rit-li, and we might 
 have nt> poor mon loft to sustain the IJiblc. 
 
 On the contrary, the constitution declares its object to be "to 
 estal)lish justice and secure the blessings of liberty." 
 
 To accomplish that object, art. 1, sec. 8, sub. 1, expressly declarea, 
 congress shall have power " to collect taxes &c. ; to pay the debts 
 and provide for the common defence and grncral welfare of the 
 United States." 
 
 Sub. 17 of the same section provides that congress shall also have 
 power " to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
 carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all olhei' powers, 
 vested bj- this constitution in the government of the United States, 
 or any department thereof." 
 
 It is plain, therefore, that if the general welfare requires us to 
 establish peace, and protect the lives of our fellow citizens, and for 
 that purpose to prohibit slavery, congress has full power to do so. 
 Under the same power the government has bought Louisiana and 
 Florida. louder the same implied power it has built forts and cast 
 weapons of war. If all these were deemed necessary- for the common 
 defence or general welfare, who shall say that the extermination of 
 slavery is not equall}' so ? 
 
 The government has as much right to use the public money to pay 
 loyal men for slave property emancipated, as it would have to pay 
 for the construction of fortifications, provided slavery is fully exter- 
 minated in principle and power, so as to leave the nation safe, and 
 make the common defence complete. 
 
 AVhat is for the general welfare of mankind, we are aware, has 
 alway.s been, to a certain extent, a disputed question, and probably 
 will continue to be until each man is in the millennial condition. 
 
 In regard to all overt acts or conduct, government is instituted to 
 control the actions of individuals, and its decision must necessarily 
 be final, so far as human tribunals are concerned. In the languaf^e 
 of Calhoun, " This controlling power, wherever vested, or by whom- 
 soever exercised, is government." 
 
 Each individual must obey or be punished. 
 
 If human statutes or governments require what the individual 
 conscience does not approve, he is not bound to obey, but has the 
 full right to follow the higher law and become a martyr. 
 
 True, he may lose his life, but he has saved his soul. He feara 
 
20 
 
 not those who kill the body, but rather fears to fight against God 
 and his own conscience. 
 
 Therefore, if the government determine that the general welfare 
 requires slavery to die in order to secure the objects of the consti- 
 tution, one of which is to "insure domestic tranquillity," there is no 
 appeal from such decision except to those who have the right of 
 suffrage. 
 
 Laws have been passed at every session since the government was 
 organized, which could only be sustained under that general clause, 
 or as implied powers, and which are not within any of .the other 
 specified grants of power. 
 
 As progress has been made in many things, so the present day of 
 trial in this nation has educated the government to look to its powers 
 and duties. In the language of Judge Marshall, in the McCullouch 
 case, " The question respecting the extent of the powers actually 
 granted is perpetually arising, and will probably continue to arise as 
 long as our system shall exist." 
 
 The important acts of the last congress, which have been passed 
 almost unanimously, and are sustained by the great majority of the 
 people, fire valid only upon the construction of the constitution herein 
 stated. Does not the same power which gives congress the right to 
 enact what is called the conscription law, also give the right to pre- 
 vent war and domestic insurrections by abolishing slavery ? 
 
 When our constitution was framed, its makers were aware that it 
 would not execute itself, that it must be executed by men, and that 
 its construction from time to timezvould be according to the condition 
 of intelligence in the masses. 
 
 They were also aware that man or his institutions had not yet 
 arrived at perfection. They conceded slavery was an evil, and soon 
 expected to see a people virtuous enough to do away with it. 
 
 That idea is 'conceded by Jefi"erson in his letter on slavery to 
 Edward Coles, written August 25th, 1814, wherein he says : 
 
 "I had always hoped that the younger generation, receiving their 
 early impressions after the flame of liberty had been kindled in every 
 breast, and had become, as it were, the vital spirit of every Ameri- 
 can, that the generous temperament of youth, analogous to the motion 
 of their blood, and above the suggestions of avarice, would have 
 sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved their love 
 of liberty beyond their own share of it. * * * Yet the hour of 
 emancipation is advancing in the march of time. It will come ; and 
 whether brought on by the generous energy of our own minds, or by 
 
21 
 
 the blooily process of St. Domingo, * • • ib a loaf of our liistory 
 not yd tunioJ over," (A'««(/a//\s Life of JcJ'vison, vol. 3, p. (344.) 
 
 All were aware it couM not lonji; cxi.st under 'this government, 
 wnlesa the constitutional rights of the white race were invaded liy 
 " abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.^^ 
 
 The history of the world proves that great truths uttered by a 
 single individual will revolutionize the opinions of mankind, if they 
 have a fair opportunity fur promulgation. 
 
 Hence, within the past thirty years, the advocates of slavery have 
 changed their tactics. 
 
 Conceding slavery to be a sin, they knew it could not exist under 
 the full light of a free press and free speech. Since that time, there- 
 fore, they have taught in their schools, presses and churches, that 
 slavery was right and divine. Whoever would not subscribe to that 
 doctrine was bani.shed or killed. 
 
 All contrary doctrines were excluded from the people. 
 
 Fortunately for humanity this country produced Calhoun, a man 
 great and bold enough openly to promulgate those doctrines, lie 
 seemed to be raised up by Providence for this great work. He was 
 too honest to be a hypocrite, too pure in his intentions to be afraid, 
 too great to be despised. He was the only man, North or South, 
 with sufficient power and influence to unite the advocates of slavery 
 upon a platform broad enough to take issue with justice. 
 
 To sustain slavery in his view, he denied it to be a sin. To sus- 
 tain that propo.-^ition he denied that the colored person was a man. 
 
 Conceding such person to be a man, his whole argument falls to 
 the ground, and his construction of the constitution gave congress 
 full power to abolish slavery. 
 
 If this great man could not demonstrate that the general govern- 
 ment had not power over slavery, it would seem folly for us to 
 doubt it. 
 
 The human race have not yet reached the end of knowledge, and 
 liave reasonable grounds to expect further progress in that direction. 
 When Fulton discovered the wonderful powers of steam, and pro- 
 mulgated the same to the world, succeeding generations did nut 
 remain idle, but have profited by his experience, and added their 
 improvements to the great stock of wisdom for the benefit of mankind. 
 
 Jcsus preached his doctrines more than 1,800 years since, and yet 
 for the first 1,500 years, and up to the time of Luther, no man was 
 permitted to enjoy freedom in religious matters. 
 
22 
 
 If the princes, potentates, and rulers of this world, in church and 
 state, so falsely or ignorantly construed Christianity for 1,500 years, 
 is it remarkable that the princes of slavery and selfishness in this 
 nation should have falsely construed the constitution for 70 years 
 past. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Union KDrRLSENis the only Soveiieign Power. 
 
 There can be but one supreme power. There can be but one 
 sovereignty and but one nation within the same territory. 
 
 That sovereignty in this nation is represented by the general 
 government. 
 
 " This constitution and the laws of the United States, which shall 
 be made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supkeme law of the 
 land ; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereliy, any- 
 thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the. contrary not- 
 withstanding." {Art. 6, sec. 2.) 
 
 That government must construe its own powers. 
 
 If an individual or state alleges that the legislative branch of 
 such government has overstepped its powers, some tribunal must 
 decide that question. 
 
 That tribunal is the Supreme Court of the United States, estab- 
 lished by the general government. 
 
 State sovereignty is an impossibility under the above clause. 
 Hamilton distinctly so stated in the convention, and his view sub- 
 stantially prevailed. {Secret Debates, page 129.) 
 
 The existence of state powers or state rights, and individual 
 rights, is fully conceded, but it is a misnomer to call a state a .soL'e- 
 reign power. The people made both governments, and they made 
 the one supreme and sovereign, and the other inferior and subordi- 
 nate. The same distinction exists as between the supreme court and 
 an inferior court in all judicial sj-stems. 
 
 It is true the people did not give full or absolute power in all 
 mutters to the general government, neither did tlu-y give such power 
 to the state government. 
 
 "Where the people had not restrained themselves by the national 
 constitution, they were at liberty to give the residue of the govern- 
 mental power to the state. In no case have the people given all of 
 such residue to any state government. Certain inalienable rights of 
 the individual are not granted to any government in this country. 
 
 There is no doubt that many and vastly important rights are left 
 
24 
 
 to the state, and by many eminent men state sovereignty has been 
 assented to, but upon examination it will be found to be as impossi- 
 ble as two kings with supreme power over the same kingdom, or two 
 generals commanding the same army, each with supreme power. 
 
 The very proposition shows its own absurdity. The devil might 
 as well be compared with the Almighty, and both declared to be 
 supreme. We might as well confound truth with falsehood, right 
 with wrong. 
 
 In mathematics it might as well be asserted that a circle has two 
 centres. 
 
 Previous to July 4, 1776, these colonies made no claim to sove- 
 reign power or to existence as a nation, or separate nations. The 
 sovereign power was then vested in Great Britain. When we sepa- 
 rated from her it was by the joint act of all the people within the 
 colonies. 
 
 We assumed the position of an independent nation, not as several 
 nations. As a unit we fought, succeeded, made peace, and were 
 recognized among the family of nations. 
 
 Hamilton, in substance, concedes this doctrine. After quoting 
 the closing part of the declaration, he says : 
 
 "Hence we see that the union and independence of these states 
 are blended and incorporated in one and the same act, which, taken 
 together, clearly imports that the United States have, in their ori- 
 gin, full power to do all acts and things which independent states 
 may of right do, or in other words, full power of sovereignty." (2 
 Hainil toil's icorks, 358.) 
 
 In the old articles of confederation, the experiment of a nation 
 with several heads was tried. 
 
 In the second article it was declared: " £acA state retains its 
 sovereignty, freedom, and indejjendeiice.''^ 
 
 Experience soon taught that we were not one nation, and had no 
 government by which to prevent war and violence between the seve- 
 ral states. 
 
 The present constitution was adopted within a few years after, by 
 which we were united as one nation, and in which no such words 
 were retained ; but it professes to be made by " the people of the 
 United States," and to be made for " the United States of America " 
 as a nation, not for " the several states in their sovereign capacity." 
 
 In the language of Ch. Justice Marshall, delivering the unani- 
 mous opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of McCullouch vs. The 
 State of Maryland : 
 
25 
 
 "The cnvommout of the Union, then, is cmplintieally and truly a 
 povoninient of tlie )>e()ple. In furiu and in Kubslanco it emanates 
 from tliom. Its j)o\vers granted by them, and are to be exereised 
 direetly on them and for their benefit." (4 Wheat., 31G ; 4 Con- 
 detiseil K., 40(3.) 
 
 The people being made one nation, a government to protect and 
 maintain it beeamo a necessity, therefore a matter of divine ordina- 
 tion. 
 
 A disquisition on government by Calhoun, is probably the ablest 
 work ever written on that subject. lie there says : 
 
 "There is no diflTietilty in forming government." " Necessity will 
 force it on all communities in some form or another." 
 
 " Constitution is the contrivance of man, while government is of 
 divine ordination. Man is left to perfect what the wisdom of the 
 Infinite ordained, as necessary to preserve the race." 
 
 " Governments must be able to repel assaults from :jl)road as well 
 as to repress violence and disorders within." (The works of Cal- 
 hoini, vol. 1, p. 8.) 
 
 " Exigencies will occur in which the entire powers and resources 
 of the community will be needed to defend its existence. When this 
 is at stake, every other consideration must yield to it. Self-preser- 
 vation is the supreme law as well with communities as individuals." 
 [lb.,page\0.) 
 
 Applying these doctrines to the present condition of affairs, can we 
 doubt that not only the general welfare of the United States, but its 
 self-preservation as a nation, gives the government full power to 
 remove all institutions or obstacles in the way of that object ? 
 
 Paley says : 
 
 *' There necessarily exists in every government a power from which 
 the constitution has provided no appeal ; absolute, omnipotent, un- 
 controllable, arbitrary and despotic." 
 
 To show that the people of that generation had no doubt of the 
 power of congress to prohibit slavery, or do anything else for their 
 general welfare, we refer to the amendments to the constitution pro- 
 posed at the first session of congress in 1780, and soon after ratified 
 by the states. 
 
 " Of these amendments, article 1 provides : 
 
 "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
 religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the 
 freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peacea- 
 bly to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of 
 grievances." 
 
26 
 
 This amendment was voted for in congress by the great men who 
 had framed the constitution, and it was approved by Washington. 
 By adopting it they conceded that without it congress had implied 
 power to do the acts therein prohibited. It was foreseen that con- 
 gress being the judge of what was for the general welfare, might 
 abolish slavery, establish a church, or abridge the freedom of speech. 
 
 Where matters are thus left to the legislative discretion, it is well 
 settled that the courts cannot review that discretion and declare 
 such acts void. 
 
 In the language of the court in the case of McCullouch vs. The 
 State of Maryland, above quoted : 
 
 "But where the law is not prohibited, and is really calculated to 
 effect any of the objects entrusted to the government, to undertake 
 here to inquire into the degree of its necessity, would be to pass the 
 line which circumscribes the judicial department, and to tread on 
 legislative ground. This court disclaims all pretensions to such 
 power." {i Co7id. R., 4:S2.) 
 
 Hence the necessity of this amendment taking away from congress 
 the power and discretion of making certain laws, but not taking 
 away the power to prohibit slavery and leaving congress the full 
 judge of its own powers, where not restricted. 
 
 To show that the matter was not overlooked, but was intended, by 
 referring to the discussions in the convention called by Virginia to 
 ratify the constitution, it will be found that Gov. Randolph then 
 said : 
 
 " I hope there is none here who, considering the subject in the 
 calm light of philosophy, will make an objection dishonorable to 
 Virginia ; that at the moment they are securing the rights of their 
 citizens an objection is started, that there is a spark of hope that 
 those unfortunate men now held in bondage may, by the operation 
 of the general government, be made free." 
 
 The above construction is in effect given by the supreme court in 
 the case last cited. ♦ 
 
 " That this idea was entertained by the framers of the American 
 constitution, is not only to be inferred from the nature of the instru- 
 ment, but from the language. Why else were some of the limita- 
 tions, found in the ninth section of the first article, introduced ? It 
 is also, in some degree, warranted by their having omitted to use 
 any restrictive term which might prevent its receiving a fair and 
 just interpretation. In considering this question, then, we must 
 never forget that this is a constitutioii we are expounding." (4 
 Cond. B., 473.) 
 
Thomas Jefferson, in bis Notes on Virginia, speaking of slavery, 
 says : 
 
 " And can tlio liberties of a nation he thought soonro when we 
 have riMuovcil their only firm hasis, a conviction in the niiudM of the 
 people that these liberties arc the gift of God? That they are not 
 to be violated but with his wrath. Indeed, 1 tremble for uiy country 
 when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep 
 forever. 
 
 "But we must wait with patience the workings of an over-ruling 
 Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these 
 our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be 
 full — when tears shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, 
 doulitloss a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and, by 
 diffusing a light and liberality among their oppressors, or at length 
 by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to things of this 
 world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality." 
 
 The present war is that exterminating thunder in the hands of 
 man, guided by Providence. 
 
 Did George Washington, while he was helping to frame this con- 
 stitution, understand that he was throwing the sanctions of the 
 national government around an institution which he declared ought 
 to be abolished, and that his vote should not be wanting for that 
 object ? Hear him in his letter to La Fa3-ctte : 
 
 *' The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so con- 
 ppicuous on all occasions, that I never wonder at fresh proofs of it. 
 But your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Caj-enne, with a 
 view of emancipatidn, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. 
 "Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the 
 minds of the people of this country." 
 
 Again, to Robert Morris : 
 
 " There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do 
 to see some plan adopted for the abolition of slavery. But there is 
 only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, 
 and that is by legislative authority ; and this, so far as my suffrage 
 will go, shall not be wanting." 
 
 Did Dr. Franklin think the constitution he had just assisted in 
 drafting had, by its guarantees, bound the federal government to 
 sanction and sustain that institution which he was then so earnestly 
 praying them to destroy, and which prayer, in 1790, was repeated 
 in these words? "that congress would take measures 'to secure the 
 blessings of liberty' to the people of the United States, without dis- 
 tinction of color." 
 
28 
 
 Did lie understand that the national government had no power 
 conferred upon them to grant the prayer of his petition, and was he 
 praying in mockery of their weakness ? 
 
 Did Mr. Madison think he was building an eternal wall of defence 
 around that institution, by the guarantees of the constitution, when 
 he said "it would be wrong to admit the idea that there could be 
 property in man." Was he a man that would impose upon the 
 national government an obligation to sanction, sustain and defend an 
 institution like the one he described in the very first congress, under 
 the constitution. May 13th, 1789 : 
 
 " I should venture to say it is as much for the interest of Georgia 
 and South Carolina (to abolish the slave trade) as of any state in the 
 Union. Every addition they receive to their number of slaves tends 
 •to weaken them and render them less capable of self defence. In 
 case of hostilities with foreign nations, they will be the means of 
 inviting attack, instead of repelling invasion. It is a necessary duty 
 of the general government to protect every part of the empire against 
 danger, as well external as internal. Everything, therefore, which 
 tends to increase this danger, though it may be a local affair, yet, if 
 it involves national expense or safety, it becomes a concern of every 
 part of the Union, and is a proper subject for the consideration of 
 those charged with the general administration of the goverment." 
 
 Did Judge Wilson think the constitution of the United States had, 
 by its sanctions and guarantees, become the bulwark of slavery, 
 when he told the people of Pennsylvania " that it had laid the foun- 
 dation for banishing it out of the country?" 
 
 Mr. Calhoun, in the last speech he ever made, (March 4th, 1850,) 
 in effect conceded this power of congress to abolish slavery, and also 
 conceded that unless something was done to convince the country 
 that slavery ivas 7iot a sin, that it would be abolished by the general 
 government throughout the states. 
 
 On the next day Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, dissented from Mr. 
 Calhoun, and contended that the South could hold their slaves in 
 defiance of the 'general government, without any amendment of the 
 constitution ; and Mr. Calhoun reiterated his assertion, that without 
 further guarantees, " that unless there be a provision in the consti- 
 tution to protect us against the consequences, the two sections of this 
 Union will never live in harmony." 
 
 The last administration approved a resolution, March 2, 1861, 
 which had been passed by both houses of congress, saying no future 
 amendment should be made to the constitution authorizing congress 
 to abolish slavery. 
 
29 
 
 This resolution was conceived in fraud, and intended indirectly 
 to smuggle into the constitution a restriction upon the power of 
 congress, where none had before existed. 
 
 Tliorc was no other excuse fur such an amcnduiont. If congress 
 ■was already restrained in that matter, sucli proposed amendment was 
 wholly unnecessary ; and the amendment could be annulled in the 
 future by the same power that made it. 
 
 Fortunately the people have not yet ratifled that amendment. 
 
 Our unworthy agents were willing to put the yoke upon thirty 
 millions of people, which should attempt forever to hold the poor in 
 bondage ; but before the people had tinie to perfect that inifjuity, God 
 Bcnt this war upon them for their good, and just in time to save them. 
 
 By proposing that amendment, congress indirectly admitted the 
 existence of such power, otherwise the amendment was unnecessary. 
 
 John J. Crittenden and nearly all the great lights of slavery 
 gave that construction by voting for such amendment. 
 
 It is said that a committee of congress, at its first session, denied 
 such power, on the petition of Dr. Franklin and others, that con- 
 gress should step to the very verge of its constitutional power in 
 opposition to slavery. 
 
 Suppose they did, were the committee wiser than Franklin, Wash- 
 ington and Madison, who made that constitution ? That committee 
 and other politicians ever since have sought the votes of slave-hold- 
 ers, and hence have caused their opinions to conform to the opinions 
 of ihose who would continue them in office. 
 
 When the occasion demands it, the eyes of the people will be so 
 far opened as to see that power clearly given. 
 
 Daniel Webster, in his celebrated reply to Mr. Ilayne, January 
 26, 1830, said : 
 
 " This government, from its origin to the peace of 1815, had been 
 too much engrossed with various other important concerns to be able 
 to turn its thoughts inward." 
 
 It may truly be said that since that time this nation has been so 
 intent upon raising cotton, building railroads, and increasing its 
 material prosperity, that it has not found time to be just until war 
 had called us to reflect. 
 
 All earthly laws and institutions are made by human beings, and 
 the higher their development, the more just will be the laws they 
 will promulgate. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Slavery is War. 
 
 We have seen that the day comes to all nations, institutions and 
 individuals, when they are to be tried in the light of Truth and Right. 
 
 When we were in a state of partial peace and of material prosperity, 
 we refused to listen to God and our consciences. Ever since we 
 announced to the world, July 4, 1776, the rights of man, we have 
 failed practically to assert them. A state of war has existed here 
 ever since. A war of the rich against the poor black. What is 
 war ? As defined by all authors, it may be a contest between nations 
 by force, or any other state of contest between large parties by vio- 
 lence. 
 
 If a single individual seizes another, and takes his goods by force, 
 society calls it robbery. If he takes his life, we call it murder. 
 
 If a large number associate together, and by force take from others, 
 society calls it war. Therefore slavery is war. Large numbers of 
 persons have associated, and by force taken the liberty and labor of 
 the poor and weak. That state of war has continued over seventy 
 years, but the African race, and those having a sprinkling of their 
 blood, have until recently been the only victims. 
 
 But as sure as God reigns, the whole human family are bound 
 together by one invisible tie, centring in the Creator, and no wrong 
 can be inflicted upon the least of these without affecting all, sooner 
 or later. 
 
 • " Is true freedom but to break 
 Fetters for our own dear sake ; 
 And with leathern hearts forget 
 , That we owe mankind a debt? 
 
 No ! True freedom is to share 
 
 All the chains our brothers bear, 
 And with heart and hand to be 
 Earnest to make others free." 
 
 We may flee into the wilderness, and the same principle is there. 
 We may surround ourselves by high walls, and shut our eyes and 
 ears, but our conscience is here. We may go upon the mountain- 
 top — lo ! God is there. 
 
 As a necessary result, this institution of slavery has now raised its 
 
31 
 
 demon hoad, and cxtoiuled its war against the white race as well as 
 the black. 
 
 Mr. Bo3'cc, of South Carolina, said in 1^51 : 
 
 " I ohject, in strong terms as I can do, to the secession of South 
 Carolina. Such is the intensity of my conviction upon the sulijcct, 
 that if secession should take place, 1 shall consider ,the institution 
 of slavery doomed, and that the great CJnd, in our Miiidness, has 
 made us the instruments of its destruction." 
 
 England did not secure the rights of her people hy " Magna 
 Charta," A. D. i'214, until, in the language of his historian, " the 
 tyrant John had ravaged the country in a most dreadful manner. 
 The inhabitants were tortured, massacred and pillaged, and their 
 castles, towns and villages burnt." 
 
 Nothing else would awaken the conservative and the down-trodden 
 to assert their God-given rights. 
 
 Slavery has already — 
 
 1. Debauched most of the public men of the uutiun for forty years 
 past. 
 
 2. It has kept four millions of the white race at the South, in 
 ignorance, wickedness and poverty. 
 
 3. It has made tyrants of the great majority of its leaders. 
 
 4. It has corrupted public opinion throughout the North, to an 
 extent to hinder the progress of civilization. 
 
 5. It has made us a stumbling block in the eyes of the liberals of 
 all Europe. 
 
 G. It has made us weak and less respected in the eyes of foreign 
 governments. 
 
 7. It has deprived over three millions of our fellow beings of free- 
 dom, in defiance of God and his laws, and in direct violation of the 
 constitution made by us for their protection as well as* ours. Even 
 this was not enough to arouse the nation, and slavery has, 
 
 8. Added a thousand millions to our debt, and millions to our 
 taxes. 
 
 9. It has butchered in cold blood thousands of white persons re- 
 siding within its locality, fur not raising the hand of treason. 
 
 10. It has butchered in battle over one hundred thousand of our 
 sons and brothers who have gone forth to fight for our freedom, aiij 
 left widows and orphans scattered over the land, with sorrows too 
 sacred to be spoken ; and it defiantly intends to butcher more, iinl-'^a 
 we take its life. 
 
32 
 
 Thus our nation is being tried by fire and blood, because nothing 
 else had or would produce a state of humility and justice in our 
 minds. 
 
 Yet nothing else would give us courage to attack that profane and 
 wicked prince of slavery, whose day is come, and when iniquity shall 
 have an end. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord God : Remove the diadem, and take off the 
 crown ; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high," " I will 
 overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he 
 come whose right it is, and I will give it to him." • 
 
 Thus this nation is about to remove the diadem from slavery, and 
 agitation will continue until that result is attained, and our laws 
 shall be made upon the principles of our constitution and of right, and 
 our judges shall decide in accordance with justice. When Presidents 
 and other officers act upon that principle, then he has come who has 
 a right to rule, and we can truly be called a christian nation. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Proclamation the great Event of the last 
 Eighteen Hundred Years. 
 
 Looking at the history of the world in thi^ light, the Procla- 
 JiATiON of January 1, 18(13, is the greatest event within the last 
 eighteen hundred years. 
 
 If our people are sufTicieutly educated by war, suffering and 
 mourning, it will be sustained, and for the first time on earth we 
 sh;ill realize a government founded upon eternal principles of riL'ht, 
 where the low are exalted, and all are secured in the rights which 
 they have inherited from their Creator. Upon no other foundation 
 can nations expect success. 
 
 When slaver3' fired its first gun upon the white race on this con- 
 tinent, April 11, 1801, this people were not prepared to do ju.slice 
 and ask God to take their side. On the contrary they said, we care 
 not for him, or for his oppressed children. AVe have countless hosts, 
 brave men, and will put down the war upon us, and leave it in full 
 fury against the down-trodden race. 
 
 AVhen the Union army was about to cross the Potomac in May, 
 ISGl, Gen. Mansfield, its commander, issued an order that no slave 
 ehould be permitted within its lines. That order raised a direct 
 issue with the Almighty, forgetting that " He is present wherever 
 his child is found." 
 
 Like Sennacherib of old — * 
 
 " The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 
 And his cohorts were gleuiuing in purple and gold; 
 And the sheen of their speiirs wus like stars on the sea, 
 When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Uallilee. 
 
 " Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, 
 That host with their banners at sunset were seep ; 
 Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, 
 That host on the morrow lay withered and strown." 
 
 The true prophet expected the disaster at 3Ianassas, as soon as 
 that order was issued. That same commander afterwards was slaugh- 
 tered by slavery upon the field of battle. 
 
34 
 
 Thus the nation has struggled on for nearly two years, trying to 
 conquer without God on their side. 
 
 What should we have gained hy crushing, even exterminating, 
 every man enrolled in its army, as long as slavery, in spirit and 
 power, remained to poison our institutions ? 
 
 The same as man would gain, if he heaped up silver like dust, and 
 yet lost his own soul. 
 
 While the country in great part was mourning over the last dis- 
 aster at Fredericlcsburgh, in December, the angels above saw it was 
 a necessity, and that without it, the proclamation of January 1st 
 would never have been born. 
 
 It seemed like a last dreadful struggle to succeed without asking 
 the aid of the God of Battles, by doing justice to the oppressed. 
 
 Instead of desponding, the country now has reason to rejoice and 
 be exceedingly thankful for many things. 
 
 We have a President far above any that the nation deserved. He 
 has obeyed the still small voice within his conscience, and dared to 
 do right, although surrounded by the wicked of this world. He can- 
 not himself now appreciate the blessings which posterity will shower 
 upon him for his sublime proclamation. 
 
 The same spirit that has sustained slavery in this nation, has 
 hatched forth every other vice known to man. Among others, it 
 has foisted into place and power, the hypocrite and the selfish man — 
 the man who worships the golden calf, and the slimy politician. 
 
 The seat of government, where so much money and patronage are 
 dispensed, necessarily attracts the most corrupt of that class. 
 
 " Where the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together." 
 
 That this nation has been so fortunate as to see an honest man — 
 one who loves truth and right — elevated to the head of this govern- 
 ment, seems providential. 
 
 The representative is ordinarily no higher in character and prin- 
 ciples than the majority of the body by whom he is selected. Hence 
 but few honest men obtain oiEce. 
 
 They cannot consistently resort to those corruptions generally 
 necessary to secure place. 
 
 Occasionally some sudden turn of events or unforeseen emergency 
 will put forward a person intelligent and just beyond his peers or 
 his constituency. 
 
 Such a man was placed at the head of this nation, for this great 
 trial. 
 
35 
 
 Like all men chosen 1>y Providence for great occasions, in his 
 j-otith he min^Kul with tho poor, and received his education mainly 
 from that in,-<jiiration which an hone^<t intent is sure to bring. 
 
 Yet we must remenihcr that an}' man standing alone is weak, and 
 may not be able to resist, at all times and forever, the evil influences 
 surrounding him. 
 
 It therefore becomes every lover of good order and right to sus- 
 tain him by proclaiming these trnthr to the country. 
 
 We cannot have peace until we are willing to be just and truthful. 
 
 licfore high heaven we declared, in 1770, " that all men are cre- 
 ated equal." 
 
 I'pou our knees before the Almight}-, with tliat profession we 
 called for Lis aid, and were answered. 
 
 After long success we forgot our vows, and through Chief Justice 
 Taney denied that we intended what was then said. 
 
 In the Dred Scott decision he said : 
 
 " The general words above quoted would seem to embrace the 
 whole human family, and if they were used in a similar ins^trument 
 at this day, M'ould lie so understood, liut it is too clear for dispute, 
 that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included." 
 
 Thus adding falsehood and hypocrisy to our crimes, while robbing 
 the poor of their liberty. 
 
 This was said in direct conflict with a previous decision of the 
 same court in Gibbons vs. Ogden (9 Wheafon, 1, 209), where it is 
 laid down as the rule on this point, that the framcrs of the constitu- 
 tion '' must be understood to have employed words in their natural 
 sense, and to have intended what they said ■ * * * that there 
 is no other rule, than to consider the language of the instrument * 
 • * in connection with the purpose for which it was used." 
 
 As we have seen, the day now has come when we are commanded 
 to repent. 
 
 AVe are also commanded by God to " speak every man the truth 
 to his neighbor." (8 Zack., IQ.) 
 
 That command is addressed to all. Can we honestly be silent ? 
 
 "We appeal to the clergy — that class who mould the education of 
 the world — to speak forth in trumpet-tones in favor of God and 
 human rights. " Cry aloud and spare not, and show my people 
 their transgressions." 
 
 We appeal to the lawyers — that class whose profession loads them 
 to advocate the right and defend the helpless — to speak forth on this 
 
36 
 
 great occasion in behalf of those who are not allowed to speak for 
 themselves. 
 
 " They are slaves who fear to speak 
 For the fallen and the weak." 
 
 The ladies have a great mission to perform. While the men fight 
 the battles of their country, the ladies have a higher and holier mis- 
 sion to perform — that of educating the country to love justice and 
 do mercy to all classes and races, until they realize that — 
 
 " Grod hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all 
 the face of the earth." (17 Ads, 26.) 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Nation, through Congress, must settle this Ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Upon congress, as the law-making power of the nation, the great- 
 est responsibilities rest. 
 
 ^Mighty questions will arise in the history of a people which are 
 too great to be settled by the courts. . 
 
 In the contest between Henry and Edward, for the crown of Eng- 
 land, to suspend the civil war, Henry, then in possession of the 
 crown, proposed to leave the question of the right and title thereto 
 to the judges of the King's Bench, Edward readily consented, 
 knowing he would run no risk. If the court decided in his favor he 
 was satisfied that Henry would acquiesce. If they decided against 
 him, Eiiward intended to take the crown by force, without regard to 
 the decision of the judges. 
 
 Upon that case the judges returned the celebrated answer : " That 
 thi-y had no jurisdiction of the question ; that the nation only could 
 decide who was the true King." 
 
 Alexander Hamilton seemed to have been designed by Providence 
 with sufficient foresight to shape this government broad enough to 
 meet all emergencies. 
 
 As early as September 3, 1780, in a letter to James Duane, he 
 iised these prophetic words, while we were living under the articles 
 of confederation, wlih no central power to make one nation : 
 
 " The defects of our present system, and the changes necessarj' to 
 save us from ruin. ♦ * * The fundamental defect is a want of 
 power in congress." {Hamilton s Works, vol. 1, -p. 150.) 
 
 Seven years afterwards, experience and necessity gave birth to 
 our present constitution, which united us into one nation, and gave 
 those additional powers to congress. 
 
 That constitution was adopted for all time, with no right of seces- 
 sion. 
 
 When certain delegates in the convention of New York were talk- 
 ing about a conditional ratification to settle that question, in July, 
 17b8, Madison wrote to Hamilton : 
 
38 
 
 " A conditional ratification is not valid. * * * The constitu- 
 tion requires an adoption in toto and forever.^'' 
 
 With that construction put upon it in advance by one of its chief 
 creators, it was ratified, and secession is not countenanced. 
 
 By frequent elections all necessity for revolution by force is 
 avoided. 
 
 Through a convention, the majority of the electors can modify the 
 constitution without bloodshed or commotion. 
 
 Notwithstanding it was foreseen that great emergencies might 
 arise which would call out the full powers of government to pre- 
 serve us. 
 
 The supreme court haVe said: 
 
 " This could not be done by confiding the choice of vieans to such 
 narrow limits as not to leave it in the power of congress to adopt 
 any which might be appropriate, and which were conducive to the 
 end. This provision is made in a constitution intended to endure 
 for ages to come, and consequently to be adapted to the various cri- 
 ses of human afiairs." (4 Cond. R., 478.) 
 
 That crisis is upon this nation now. All the nations in the world 
 recognize it. 
 
 Our supreme court have recently decided in the case of the 
 Schooner Brilliant, &c. vs. The tJnited States, that the blockade is 
 valid, and among the implied powers which the President may exer- 
 cise on such occasions. The court say : 
 
 " They cannot ask a court to affect a technical ignorance of the 
 existence of a war, which all the world acknowledges to be the 
 greatest civil war known in the history of the human race, and thus 
 cripple the arm of the government and paralyze its powers by subtle 
 definitions and ingenious sophisms." {Am. Law Reg., vol. 2, p. 
 339.) 
 
 The last congress passed many acts which will live in history as 
 among the wisest devised by man. Yet more remains to be done. 
 
 When the cohorts of Satan desire to defeat justice or sustain vice, 
 every one of their votes are given boldly for then* cause. 
 
 Would that those in congress, who profess to love freedom and 
 equal rights, had equal courage and would act up to their convictions 
 of duty and leave the consequences to God. 
 
 The rebel states, by their own act, have voluntarily repealed, so 
 far as within their power, their birth and existence as states. 
 
39 
 
 Congross could repeal the several acts admitting such states, and 
 rcmaud the same to the ooiuiition of teriitoiies. 
 
 Although they would thereby lose their condition as states in the 
 I'nion, yet the land would remain under the jurisdiction of congress, 
 upon which new territories could be organi'/ed. 
 
 If any inhabitants remain therein who do not like a republican 
 government, construed practically in favor of justice and freedom, 
 there is no clause in the constitution forbidding their migrating to a 
 more congenial country and associations. 
 
 The magnitude of the questions now involved, shows that they can 
 only be settled by the majority of this nation. The army alone can- 
 not do it. The .South alone cannot do it. The nation alone has the 
 power. 
 
 We have tried compromises with Satan and slavery, but pe^cc did 
 not come. 
 
 In the language of Calhoun, in his last speech in the senate, but a 
 few weeks before his death ; 
 
 " Having now shown what cannot save the Union, I return to the 
 question : How can the Union be saved ? There is but one way by 
 which it can with any certainty, and that is by a full and final settle- 
 ment, on the princijdes of justice, of all the questions at issue 
 between the two sections." 
 
 '* Such a settlement would go to the root of the evil and remove 
 all cause of discontent." {Works of Calhoun, vol. 4, p. 571.) 
 
 " At all events, the responsibility of saving the Union rests on the 
 North and not on the South. The South cannot save it by any act of 
 hers, and the North may save it without any sacrifice whatever, unless 
 to do justice, ami to perform her duties imdcr the constitution, should 
 be regarded by her as a sacrifice." {Id., iu'l.) 
 
 "We are aware that in Mr. Calhoun's argument he assumes a 
 colored person is not a man, and therefore has no claim to justice. 
 •Correcting that fact, and conceding the African race to belong to 
 the human family, and Mr. Calhoun shows us the onl}' true solution 
 of this cri-is. 
 
 The responsibility is upon the North, The South is weak, and 
 tliev intentionally gave the general government the power, and it 
 only remains for the North " to perform her duties under the consti- 
 tution," by declaring freedom to all men, and thus carry into efl'ect 
 the object of the constitution, " by establishing justice, securing the 
 blejssings of liberty, and insuring domestic tranquillity." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A State cannot Legally make a Slave. 
 
 It is suggested by some who desire the right, that although the 
 proclamation has put an end to slavery in South Carolina, and no 
 slave is now held legally within her borders, yet that South Carolina 
 as a state, after the Union is restored, can establish slavery, and 
 make slaves of free men. 
 
 If a state has such power, of course it is not restricted to color, 
 and it can make slaves of such portions of the white race as the ma- 
 jority, by physical force, shall determine. 
 
 Any government, which is not restricted by a written constitu- 
 tion, and is sustained by a majority of its people, has the physical 
 power to enact any law, no matter how unjust. 
 
 The true object of government, as ordained by the Creator, is 
 simply to protect the individual against wrongs. 
 
 Whenever each person becomes just, he will be a law unto him- 
 self, and do no wrong to his neighbor. Then there will be no occa- 
 sion to resort to government for protection. 
 
 The form of government may nominally remain, but it will become 
 obsolete, and the execution of active powers ■will be no longer evoked. 
 
 Until then, the Mosaic law is a necessity, and the strong arm of 
 government will be required to enable society to exist and perfect 
 itself. 
 
 As long as governments are administered by imperfect beings, so 
 long will they be liable to abuse. 
 
 To prevent that abuse, the most proper and reliable safeguard is 
 the right of suffrage, and the right to change rulers at reasonable 
 times by election, thus avoiding the necessity of a revolution. ( Works 
 of Calhoun, vol. 1, p. 12-14.) 
 
 As the majority would thereby have the power to oppress the mi- 
 nority, or weaker races, unless restrained, a written constitution, 
 with guarantees and restrictions, becomes a necessity for the protec- 
 tion of the latter. 
 
 It is a fundamental principle of our government that natural 
 rights, such as life, liberty, &c., are inalienable and supreme, and 
 
41 
 
 above tLe authority, of all governments ; that governments are In- 
 stitutions of the people for the protection of these rights and liber- 
 ties, and that it is incompetent for them to enact laws for their des- 
 truction. Hence the presumption always is, in cases of doubtful 
 interpretation, that the legislature intended to do or require nothing 
 contrary to natural right and justice ; and unless the language of the 
 enactment is so clear and explicit that it is impossible to avoid the 
 contrary conclusion, the courts are bound so to interpret them ; or, 
 to use the language of the Supreme Court of the United States, in 
 the case of United States vs. Fisher (2 Crunch, 390) : " Where 
 rights are infringed ; where fundamental principles are overthrown ; 
 where the general system of the law is departed from, the legislative 
 intent must be expressed with irresistible clearness, to induce a court 
 of justice to suppose a design to eifect such objects." 
 The proposition maintained by law writers is this : 
 
 " No government or authority whatever can do that which is sub- 
 versive of the ends for which it owes its existence." 
 
 Pufifendorf says, " that it is God who imposed the law of nature 
 upon the human race, and dictated the establishment of civil socie- 
 ties to serve as instruments of enforcing these laws." 
 
 Domat declare,s, "that sovereignties can have no other rights but 
 such as have in them nothing contrary to the use which God requires 
 them to make of said power. The sovereign power can only be 
 legitimately exercised for the end to be obtained, and that end is the 
 protection and preservation of the lives, liberties and property of the 
 citizens, and not for the destruction of either. That the wise and 
 the good and the just is the circle of the divine law, within which 
 the human sovereignty must move ; that the law being the embodi- 
 ment of all perfection and justice, its spirit as well as its letter denies 
 the right of man to do an unjust act, or to infringe upon natural 
 right." {Domat Pub. Law, B. 1.) 
 
 " The sovereign power can only be called into exercise for the 
 attainment of the great end which that compact was designed to 
 secure, and cannot be converted into an engine to defeat the end 
 mankind had in view. When they entered into their social com- 
 pact, and the moment this inviolate and sacred rule is departed from, 
 there is criminal abuse of power from which no obligation to obedi- 
 ence can arise." {Vattel, B. 4, sees. 45, 46.) 
 
 John Locke : " Though the legislature be the supreme power, it 
 cannot be arbitrary over the lives and fortunes of the people. 
 
42 
 
 " The legislative power, in the utmost bouuds of it, is limited to 
 the public good of society. 
 
 " It is a power that has.no other e7id than the preservation, and 
 therefore can never have a right to destroy, enslave or designedly 
 impoverish the subject." {Locke's Works, v. 5, ch. 11, p. 416.) 
 
 Robert Hall takes the same view, and denies the correctness of 
 the reasoning of Burke and others, who ascribe despotic power to 
 parliament. 
 
 The doctrine of the omnipotent power of parliament now only 
 exists in theory. It was denied in effect by William Pitt and Lord 
 Thurlow, in their opposition to the bill annulling the East India 
 Company, in 1783. 
 
 In the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Justice Chase 
 could not submit to the omnipotence of state legislation, or that it 
 was absolute or without control, although its authority should not 
 be expressly restrained by the constitution. He held "that the 
 people of the United States enacted their government to establish 
 justice, to promote the general welfare, to secure the blessings of 
 liberty, and to protect their persons and property from violation. 
 The purposes for which men enter into society determines the nature 
 of the social compact. As they are the foundation of legislative 
 power, they will determine the proper objects of it." {Calder ys. 
 Bull, 3 Dallas Rep., 386.) 
 
 In G-orham vs. Stonington, (4 Conn. Rep.,) Hosmer, J., held: "If 
 there should exist a case of direct infraction of vested rights, too 
 palpable to be questioned and too unjust to be vindicated, he could 
 not avoid considering it a violation of the social compact, and within 
 the control of the judiciary." 
 
 In Wilkinson vs. Leland, in the U. S. Court, (2 Peters' Rep., 
 654,) same doctrine held by Webster and sustained by the court. 
 
 In the Supreme Court of South Carolina, (1 Bay's Rep., 252 — 
 Bowman vs. Middleto7i,) it set aside an act of the legislature as 
 being against common right, on the ground that it took away the free- 
 hold of one man and vested it in another, without any compensation 
 or any previous attempt to determine the right, declaring, the act 
 ipso facto void. 
 
 Again, the same court held that a statute framed against common 
 right and common reason, was so far void as it was calculated to 
 operate against those principles. But they said the court would not 
 do the legislature that injustice, to say that such was their intention. 
 
43 
 
 and tliprpfore wouKl give it such u i-oiistruction as would be consist- 
 ent with the dictutew of natural reason, though smh cfmstrut-tion 
 might he contrary to the letter of sueh statute. 
 
 It being the well settled theory i>f our go\ernnicnt, us before ob- 
 perved, that men's iia'itrnl ri'jhts arc the true basis of all govern- 
 mental power and authority, and the inalienability of those rights 
 the limits of that authority, henee when the American judge is called 
 to sit in judgment upon an enactment of the legislature, it is his first 
 business to see that the subject of enactment is within the scope of 
 the constitutional authority of the legislature. He will then con- 
 strue the act, if possible, to niean nothing inconsistent with the nat- 
 ural and inalienable rights of man. But if he finds the language too 
 clear and explicit to admit of any other construction, he will next 
 examine into the constitutional authority by which such a particular 
 law was enacted ; and if the constitution docs not in direct, positive 
 and unequivocal terms thus authorize such legislation, the judge will 
 liold the law to be unconstitutional and void. But if, on examina- 
 tion, he should find an express, unequivocal grant of authority in any 
 state constitution to pass laws destructive of liberty and the rights 
 (if man, he would then hold the grant void, for want of authority in 
 tiie people to make such a grant ; for to admit the right of the people 
 to establish a government destructive of the rights of man, is to deny 
 the inalieuability of those rights, which is to deny the authority of 
 the people to establish a government in defence of them, and thus 
 deny the source of all governmental authority, except what proceeds 
 from lirute furce. 
 
 " What in principle constitutes a despotism ? It is where tlie will 
 of an individual or individuals is placed above the rights of man, and 
 arms itself with power to crush the individual ; and it matters not 
 in princijile whether that will originate in a single individual or in 
 twenty millions. The will and the power to crush the individual 
 constitutes the despotism." 
 
 Fortunately, our constitution of the United States forbids any 
 state government to execute despotic powers. 
 
 In addition to the well settled principles of liberty, before quoted 
 from common law authority, the constitution of the United States 
 expressly prohibits the making of a slave. Article 5 of the amend- 
 ments expressly declares that "no jterson shall be deprived of life, 
 liberty or property, without due process of law." 
 
 Due process of law, ever since the days of Magna Charta, has been 
 
44 
 
 defined to mean a trial and conviction, in the courts in the ordinary 
 course of the law, for a wrong done or crime committed. 
 
 The legislative authority, under that constitution, does not even 
 extend to taking a foot of land from one person and selling it to 
 another. 
 
 The New York Supreme Court, in Taylor vs. Porter, by Judge 
 Bronson, held : 
 
 " That though no constitutional inhibition interfered, the legisla- 
 tive power did not reach to such an unwarrantable extent. That 
 neither life, liberty or property, except when forfeited by crime, or 
 when the latter is taken for public use, falls within the scope of its 
 power, and that when it steps beyond the bounds of its power, its acts, 
 like those of the most humble magistrate in the land, are utterly 
 
 void." (4 mil.) 
 
 While slavery existed de facto, it might be argued that the slave 
 was not deprived of liberty, because he never had any to lose. 
 
 If that argument is sound so far as the border states are concerned, 
 it can have no application in those states where the proclamation has 
 already made them legally free. 
 
 If in defiance of the constitution, of right, and of the laws of God, 
 the legislature of South Carolina can make a single person a slave, 
 then, indeed, there is nothing to restrict it from following the pre- 
 cedent of Herod, and enacting that all male children, under a cer- 
 tain age, shall be slain. Before this war is closed, God will so edu- 
 cate this people that they will, for their own protection, see that the 
 constitution shall not again be violated by making a single slave 
 within our borders. 
 
CIIAPTKR IX. 
 
 The National Government bound to Protect every 
 Person within its Boundaries. 
 
 But conceding that sucli state has no just j)owcr or constitutional 
 authority to make a slave, it is asktHl how tlic nati(»n can prevent it ? 
 By the same power that the nation proposes to collect the duties at 
 Charleston and disperse the rebel armies at Richmond. The gene- 
 ral government is bound to execute every right guaranteed by the 
 constitution. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United Statds have in several instances 
 recognized this doctrine. 
 
 In the case of I*rigg vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the 
 court have said : 
 
 " If the constitution guarantees a right, the natural inference cer- 
 tainly is, that the national government is clothed with appropriate 
 authority and function to enforce it." Again: " The fundamental 
 principle applicalde to all cases of this sort, would seem to be that 
 where the end is ref|uired the means are given ; and where a duty is 
 enjoined the ability to perform it is contemplate to exist on the part 
 of the functionaries to whom it is entrusted." (IG Peters, G15.) 
 
 Again : 
 
 " The national government, in the absence of all positive provi- 
 sions to the contrar}-, is bound, through its own proper departments, 
 legislative, judicial and executive, as the case may require, to carry 
 into eflfect all the rights and duties imposed upon it by the constitu- 
 tion." {lb., 616.) 
 
 And again : 
 
 " A right implies a remedy, and where else would the remedy be 
 deposited than where it is deposited by the constitution." And 
 finally : " The end being given, it has been deemed a just and neces- 
 sary implication that the means to accomplish that end are also 
 given ; or in other words, that the power Hdws as a necessary conse- 
 quence to accomplish the end." (lb., 010.) 
 
 " The exrcittirc power shall be vested in the President." {Art. 
 2, aec. 1, sub. 1.) 
 
 He is enjoined " to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." 
 (Art. 2, stx. 3.) 
 
46 
 
 That ^^ power" is vested in the executive department. 
 
 It is impossible to execute that power unless congress by law gives 
 him the means to enforce it. 
 
 The means placed by congress in the hands of the executive, for 
 the last two years, have been money and white men. 
 
 So far those means have failed to accomplish the end. 
 
 Congress, therefore, have the power expressly given to furnish 
 any and all means necessary, and " to make all laws which shall be 
 necessary and proper for carrying into execution all other powers 
 vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, 
 or in any department or officer thereof." [Art. 1, sec. 8, svb. 17.) 
 
 The enactments necessary to enable the President to enforce the 
 laws, and preserve the Union, are those which will free every slave, 
 and enroll all able bodied friends, without regard to color, in the 
 armies of the nation. 
 
 The principles laid down by Ch. J. Marshall, as the unanimous 
 opinion of the Supreme Court, in the case of McCulloch vs. The State 
 of Maryland, fully sustain this doctrine. (4 Cond. B., 473.) 
 
 In tliat case the court say : 
 
 " There is no phrase in the constitution which, like the articles of 
 confederation, excludes incidental or implied powers ; and which re- 
 quires that everything granted shall be expressly and minutely des- 
 cribed. 
 
 " A constitution, to contain an accurate detail of all the subdivi- 
 sions of which its great powers will admit, and of all the vieaiis by 
 which they may be carried into execution, would partake of the pro- 
 lixity of a legal code, and could scarcely be embraced by the human 
 mind." 
 
 Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, in an official letter to 
 President Washington, February 23, 1791, takes the same view : 
 
 " That every power vested in a government is in its nature sove- 
 reign, and includes, by force of the term, a right to employ all the 
 vieaiis requisite and fairly applicable to the attainment of the ends 
 of such power, and which are not precluded by restrictions and ex- 
 ceptions specified in the constitution, or not immoral, or not contrary 
 to the essential ends of political society." {Vol. 4, p. 105.) 
 
 Calhoun concedes the same doctrine : 
 
 " None can deny that the government of the United States has the 
 power to acquire territories, either by war or treaty ; but if the 
 potoer to acquire exists, it belongs to congress to carry it into exe- 
 cution." [Works of Culhoiin, vol. 4, p. 564.) 
 
47 
 
 Yet no one will pretend that there is any express clause autho- 
 rizing congress to actjuirc territory. It is an inherent power of sove- 
 reignty. Jefferson doubted it. He thought the general government 
 had no more authority to acquire Louisiana than it liml to aholish 
 slavery. 
 
 The proclamation having been i.xsued as a war measure by virtue 
 of the " power " vested in the oxocutivc as comniandfr-in-chiof, \vc 
 have seen that congress has full authority to pass all laws to carry 
 that power into effect. 
 
 The Supreme Court say upon that subject, at page 478 of the case 
 last cited : 
 
 " The subject is the execution of those great cowers on which the 
 welfare of a nation essentially depends." 
 
 Upon the expediency and necessity of that proclamation, the ex- 
 ecutive is the only judge. (4 Co7id. R., p. 477.) 
 
 To enact laws to make it effectual, devolves upon congress. 
 
 Proper for that purpose would bo a law allowing every slave the 
 benefit of the writ of habeas corpus, and all other measures to insure 
 his future freedom. 
 
 iSuch laws could be executed as soon as we are ready to collect the 
 direct taxes in the rebellious territories. To aid in that work, the 
 slaves will be more necessary, than was the United States Bank, to 
 transmit the taxes after their collection. 
 
 The constitution guarantees rights to each individual, as follows: 
 
 1. "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus- 
 pended," unless in rebellion, &c. Yet slavery has suspended it for 
 the last fifty years. 
 
 2. " The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privi- 
 leges and immunities of citizens in the several states." 
 
 Yet no citizen of a Xortliern state could in the South read the dec- 
 laration of independence or the Bible to the bondmen, or be allowed 
 the freedom of speech in the presence of white men. 
 
 3. " The United States shall protect each state against domestic 
 violence." 
 
 Slavery says no. It will have domestic violence at the expense of 
 the old and the young. 
 
 4. " The rights of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
 papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall 
 not be violated." 
 
 Slavery says it will seize without right or warrant. 
 
48 
 
 5. " No person sliall be deprived of life, liberty or property with- 
 out due process of law." 
 
 For seventy years past slavery has said, we defy your constitution 
 and will hang white men without either process or law. 
 
 6. "In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right 
 to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury." 
 
 Slavery says the white man shall have neither, but shall be hung 
 without trial or jury. 
 
 It is therefore evident the white person can never be secure in his 
 constitutional rights as long as slavery lives. 
 
 Those who desire to excuse vice say, why not leave the slavery 
 question to Providence instead of the government ? 
 
 Why not leave forgery, slavery, robbery and other crimes to Pro- 
 vidence ? 
 
 If society, through the law and by means of government, has no 
 right to protect the weaker race against slavery, it has no right to 
 protect the weaker man against the highwayman. 
 
 It has been suggested that the proclamation only frees the slave 
 during the war, and that after the restoration of peace he may be 
 legally captured by authority of the state and returned to bondage. 
 
 As well might ships captured, condemned and sold be reclaimed 
 after the war. Who supposes that our officers and soldiers will be 
 held liable in a state court, after the war is terminated, in trespass 
 for property taken for the army or bridges burned ? Title acquired 
 or divested by acts of war is as conclusive as by judicial sales. This 
 is not an open question. 
 
 The slave once emancipated legally remains so forever. Nothing 
 but brute force can re-enslave him, and no nation worthy of existence 
 will ever tolerate it. 
 
 Nothing could more surely degrade us and sooner produce our 
 downfall, unless we shall basely ask the negro to fight for our Union 
 and then leave him unprotected in the hands of his tyrant master, 
 without shielding him by the constitution and laws. 
 
 Every person compelled to obey a government is entitled to its 
 protection. 
 
CIIAPTER X. 
 
 A RnriRLiCAN Government, as guaranteed by the 
 Constitution. 
 
 We find in the 4tli soi'tinn of the 4th article of the Constitution of 
 the United States the fdlldwiiig guarantee : 
 
 " Tlie Tnitcd States; shall guarantee to every state in this Union 
 a republican form of govornniont, and shall protect each of thcni 
 against invasion ; and on application of the legislature, or of the 
 executive when the legislature cannot be convened, against domestic 
 violence." 
 
 Here we find a guarantee of a republican form of government to 
 every state in the Union. 
 
 This clause has generally been understood to guarantee to every 
 state in the Union, as such state, that each of their sister states 
 should sustain a repul)lican form of government ; and that it was the 
 right of each state, under the federal constitution, to demand that 
 the government of every other state in the Union should be republi- 
 can in form. But this is not the real meaning of that clause, al- 
 though the eflfect of it will be to secure to each state a republican 
 form of government. It has a meaning more vital to the cause of 
 human freedom, and one that bears more directly upon the sacred 
 immunities of the American citizen than such a construction could 
 possilily give to it. 
 
 We must again recur to the question, who made the constitution 
 of the United States ? The answer is, the people. "Who made the 
 several guarantees therein contained ? The people. With whom 
 were they made ? With one another ; each with all and all with 
 each ; they are the mutual guarantees of all and each. For what 
 purposes were they made ? " To establish justice, insure domestic 
 tranquillity, provide for the common defence, and secure the bless- 
 ings of liVicrty to themselves and their posterity." 
 
 All these guarantees are joint and s^neral in their character. Let 
 it, then, be constantly kept in mind that the people of the United 
 States, in their original sovereign capacity as individuals, were the 
 only parties to this instrument. That as such, the}', in the exercise 
 
 9 
 
50 
 
 of their native sovereignty, formed this constitution, and made with 
 each other the guarantees therein contained for their mutual and 
 individual protection. 
 
 The great Hamilton takes the same view when he says : 
 
 " The constitution is a compact made between the society at large 
 and each individual. The society, therefore, cannot, without breach 
 of faith, and injustice, refuse to any individual a single advantage 
 which he derived under that compact, no more than one man can 
 refuse to perform his agreement with another." [Ha milt oil's Works, 
 vol. 2, p. 322.) 
 
 The States, as such, were no parties to that instrument, although 
 through the people they were all parties to it. To the states, as 
 such, no guarantees were made, although, through the people com- 
 posing the states, all the guarantees were made to them. Let these 
 things be kept in mind in fixing the meaning and force of this 
 guarantee of a republican form of government to every state. 
 
 With this view, we say this guarantee was designed to be a pledge 
 of all the people of the Union to each individual ; that the rela- 
 tion which the state government should ever bear to him should 
 be that of a republic ; that is, that its treatment of him as a subject 
 of that government should be consistent with the principle that it 
 was his government, as established by his authority, for the protec- 
 tion of his natural, inherent rights. We say it was a guarantee to 
 the individual , not to the state as such, not to the voting people as 
 such, nor to a majority of them, but to all, whether enjoying the 
 franchise of suffrage or not. 
 
 We repeat, it is not a guarantee to all the states in the Union that 
 each particular state government shall be republican in structure ; 
 but it is a guarantee to all the people of each state that their particu- 
 lar state government shall be of a republican character. 
 
 Is it asserted that the intention of this guarantee is only to secure 
 each state in the Union against the inconvenience and danger of 
 allowing any other than republican governments to be united with 
 them ? We answer, if that were their only intention they signally 
 failed to express it. The language used expresses no such intention. 
 Had they only said, the United States shall guarantee that every 
 state in this Union shall be of a republican form of government, such 
 an intention might have been claimed with some degree of propriety ; 
 but when they said, " The United States shall guarantee to every 
 state in this Union," &c., it means quite another thing. 
 
51 
 
 By the langun/»e used, the guarantee of a repuMican form of gov- 
 erimicnt is either to thr sfafe, as such, or to the jieople composing the 
 state ; and it is that their particular form of government shall be 
 r«|.iililitan. 
 
 Hut it was nut to the .--tate, as such, that the guarantee was niailt>. 
 Because in the first place : The states, as such, stood in no need of 
 suili guarantee. The people of the state had full power at any time 
 to determine the particular form of their own government, whether 
 oppressive or just, liberal or despotic ; and if they desired a repuldi- 
 can form of government, they could have whichever they chose, 
 without any guarantee whatever from the national government. 
 
 It cannot be said thai the majdrity of the people wished to be 
 secured against their own juliirt tolitiom, whicli mi^ht, on failure 
 of their present system, demand a dilfercnt form of government ; and 
 yet the doctrine that the guarantee was made to the state, as such, 
 would imply that. No, it was not the slat<\ but the individual, 
 crushed and overwhelmed by an insolent and tyrannical majority, that 
 needed such a guarantee; and to him, as a citizen of the United 
 States, whether in the majoritj' or minority, is that guarantee given, 
 to secure him not only from individual but also from governinenlal 
 oppression. 
 
 Aud, in the second j)lace : This guarantee was not made to the state, 
 as such ; because if it were so, should a majority of the state resolve 
 to change the form and structure of their government, in other 
 words, to annihilate it and establish another, that being or subject 
 to whom the guarantee was made would cease to exist, and there 
 would be no one left to receive the enforcement of it, unless by scire 
 facias the new government should be made a party to the guarantee. 
 
 And in the third place : The states, as such, were not parties in 
 the formation of the national government, and therefore would not 
 be subjects of guarantees from the pcojde of the United States, ex- 
 cept through the people composing the state. 
 
 All the ends sought to be accomplished by the formation of the 
 national government are better secured by considering this guarantee 
 as made with all the people of the several fitates, securing to each 
 the benefit of a republican form of government, and pledging to them 
 the faith and power of the nation that their relation to the state gov- 
 ernment sliall ever be that of free citizens, for whose benefit and by 
 whose authority, in common with their fellow citizens, that govern- 
 ment was established and to be administered. By giving this con- 
 
-'■■■ 2 
 
 struetion to that clause, v,e uot only secure to each individual the 
 benefits of a republican form of government, but we secure the same 
 to each state, and also to all the states, that every state in the Union 
 shall possess a government republican in form. 
 
 And this construction is sustained by a decision of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States ; they say : 
 
 " If by one mode of interpretation the right must become shadowy 
 and unsubstantial, and without any remedial power adequate to the 
 end ; and by another mode it will attain its just end and secure its 
 manifest purpose, it would seem, upon principles of reasoning abso- 
 lutely irresistible, that the latter ought to prevail." • 
 
 The only objection that can be urged to this construction is, that 
 it gives to all the citizens of the United States the benefits of a free 
 government, and brings them all within its absolute protection. 
 
 Hamilton says : 
 
 " The rights, too, of a republican government are to be modified 
 and regulated by the principles of such a government. These prin- 
 ciples dictate that no man shall lose his rights without a hearing 
 and conviction before the proper tribunal ; that previous to his dis- 
 franchisement, he shall have the full benefit of the laws to make his 
 defence." [Ha?nilto?i's Wo7ks, vol. 2, p. 320.) 
 
 He also uses this language in the Federalist, No. 52 : 
 
 " The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as 
 a fundamental article of republican government." 
 
 We are aware that the section of the constitution under considera- 
 tion has never been executed by a general law of congress, applica- 
 ble to all of the states. It has frequently been applied to new states 
 when they are admitted, and as a fundamental law such states have 
 been forever prohibited from establishing or tolerating slavery. 
 
 The executive department acted under it in the case of the Dorr 
 rebellion in Rhode Island. Upon that question Chief Justice Taney 
 used this language : 
 
 " It rested with congress, too, to determine the means proper to 
 be adopted to fulfill this guarantee." {Luther vs. Borden, 7 Hoiv., 
 42.) 
 
 The Supreme Court have settled the same doctrine in the celebra- 
 ted case of Prigg vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, before 
 quoted. In that case it is expressly held that : 
 
 " If the constitution guarantees a right, the natural inference cer- 
 
53 
 
 taiiily is, that tho nntioiinl povcrniiiont is clfjtliod witli appropriate 
 authurit}- and prutcrtioii to ciifVirco it." (!•> Vctirf, (ilo.) 
 
 That decision was made under the cdausc of the constitution in 
 regard to fugitives from service, hut in which no express declared 
 powers were given to the general government on that subject. 
 
 True, many of the friends of freedom put a different construction 
 upon that clause, but they were overruled by the great body of 
 American statesmen and lawyers — by the majority of the people, and 
 by the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court. 
 
 The niiiinrity .were compelled to submit or become martyrs. 
 
 The nation are therefore now cstoj)pcd from denying the same 
 powers to the general government, under a clause of the constitution 
 substantially the same. The same rule should be applied in both 
 eases, even if the great emergency now upon us shall verify the pre- 
 dictfou of Randolph and secure entire freedom in America through 
 the agency of the general government. 
 
 In execution of section 4, article 4, congress has power, by law, 
 to define and declare : 
 
 1. What is a republican form of government as applied to each 
 state. It should not be left to the executive as heretofore, in the 
 case of Rhode Island, to decide, but should be previously regulated 
 and settled by law, so that all could understand their duties. 
 
 ■J. It^ow a state should be organized, giving the loyal people the 
 right to legally and formally elect their executive and two branches 
 of the legislature, even if their existing oiEcers should abdicate, as 
 they have recently done by secession. This power was only intended 
 to be exercised by congress in the last resort. 
 
 If such power does not exist in the general government, then a 
 majority of the state legislatures, against the wishes of three-fourths 
 of the people, can at any time break up the general government. 
 No such construction can be tolerated by any government. 
 
 This view is partially recognized by Hamilton in tho Federalist, 
 Iso. 59, where he says : 
 
 " Its propriety rests upon the evidence of this plain proposition, 
 that every gorernmcnt ought to cntitaiii in itself the means of its 
 own preservation.^^ 
 
 The last congress, to a certain extent, carried out this principle in 
 the case of West Virginia. 
 
 3. That the electors, to choose the most numerous branch of the 
 
54 
 
 state legislature, shall at least include the great majority of male 
 inhabitants of the proper age. 
 
 This principle is also recognized in No. 57 of the Federalist, as 
 follows : 
 
 '■ The elective mode of obtaining rulers is the characteristic policy 
 of republican government." 
 
 " The electors are to be the great body of the people of the Uni- 
 ted States." 
 
 We are aware that many of the framers of the constitution, and 
 even Hamilton himself, did not claim the power of congress to extend 
 to defining the qualification of electors ; but wisely they used lan- 
 guage which would cover such power. 
 
 No man can foresee all the great consequences which in the future 
 may turn upon acts which at the time seem unimportant to him. 
 Hence it frequently happens that their acts, writings or laws are 
 wiser than they intend. » 
 
 Our constitution seems to have been framed by an unseen wisdom, 
 and experience has shown and is now demonstrating that it is not " a 
 covenant with hell," but the charter of true liberty. 
 
 This doctrine is also clearly recognized by the Supreme Court of 
 the United States in the case of Martin vs. Hunter's Lessees, reported 
 1 Wheat., 304, and also in 3 Cond. R., 550. 
 
 In that case the court say : 
 
 " It was foreseen that that would be a perilous and difiicult, if not 
 an impracticable task. The instrument was not intended merely to 
 provide for the exigencies of a few years, but was to endure through 
 a long lapse of ages, the events of which were locked up in the in- 
 scrutable purposes of Providence. It could not be foreseen what 
 new changes and modifications of power might be made indispensable 
 to efl'ectuate the general objects of the charter; and restrictions and 
 specifications, which at present might seem salutary, might in the 
 end prove the overthrow of the system itself. Hence its powers are 
 expressed in general terms, leaving the legislature, from time to 
 time, to adopt its own means to efl'ectuate legitimate objects, and to 
 mould and remodel the exercise of its own powers as its own wisdom 
 and the public interests should require." 
 
 4. That no state law should be enacted to take away from any 
 person (of any color) his right to life, liberty and propert}-, without 
 due process of law ; and that each person shall be entitled to the 
 benefit of the writ of habeas corpus to protect him in his liberty. 
 
 5. That no state law should be deemed republican or valid cre- 
 ating slavery. 
 
55 
 
 Any law or Ptate rcpiilation in oppo^;^ti()n to siirh national laws 
 would be \v'u\, and any individual injured could sulnnit hi.s case to 
 the highest court in the I'nited States to have conflicting laws con- 
 strued. 
 
 We arc aware that this power given to the general governmont 
 has never been exercised by congress, but that is no reason why it 
 should not be when the occasion arises. 
 
 Slavery and polygamy are fast forcing upon the nation qucstioti3 
 which will compel it to assert its undoubted powers in that behalf. 
 
 We are in the midst of the greatest war known in the history of 
 the world. The field of battle is located within this favored nation. 
 
 It must necessarily work a great moral revolution. Providence 
 has given us the occasion. Shall we not grow strong and perfect 
 what it has placed in our hands ? 
 
 If we survive this struggle and perfect our freedom by ridding 
 ourselves of slavery, we shall become the great nation of the earth, 
 and our example will guide all others. 
 
 War will be known no more among us. A future war between 
 this country and any nation of Europe would be improbable. 
 
 Our whole powers could then be turned towards developing a 
 higher civilization and perfecting man for an eternal existence. 
 
 Is not such a result worth our effort ? 
 
 We have the aid of the prayers of three millions of the oppressed. 
 
 Shall not our prayers mingle with theirs and ascend to heaven, 
 asking for this great blessing ? 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Rules of Construction. The Declaration of Independ- 
 ence Estops the Nation from Continuing Slavery. 
 
 Much is said about early history and cotemporaneous opinions, to 
 aid in construing the constitution. 
 
 Mankind are entitled to the experience of the past, and cannot 
 wisely shut their eyes to its teachings. But all wisdom has not de- 
 parted with any man or generation. If so, the continuation of the 
 human race might properly be suspended. 
 
 It has been said : " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
 which is in heaven is perfect." 
 
 The eye of faith can see in the distance the time foretold, when 
 " they shall not build, and another inhabit ; they shall not plant, 
 and another eat." 
 
 It would seem, therefore, to be true wisdom to consult all the 
 results of the past, and try to improve for the future. 
 
 With this view, the opinions of Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, and 
 those other great men who put forth our constitution, should have 
 great weight in arriving at its meaning. We are aware some of the 
 great men of those days did not claim that congress had full power 
 over slavery. 
 
 But it must be remembered that they were merely the opinions of 
 individuah, and do not estop the nation from giving a broader or 
 deeper construction, as the exigencies of the case shall require. 
 
 Not so with great fundamental acts by which a nation is brought 
 into existence. The declaration of independence was such an act. 
 It spoke in behalf of the people. They based their authority upon 
 the equal common rights of man. They claimed all their powers by 
 virtue of their common humanity, and by that claim accorded to all 
 other men the same rights and powers. 
 
 By denying to the government of Great Britain the rightful power 
 to violate these privileges in their own persons, they denied to them- 
 selves the rightful power to violate them in the persons of others ; 
 and by this solemn act of theirs, they are forever estopped from set- 
 ting up such claim. 
 
 The declaration of independence was a solemn deed of acquit- 
 tance of all rightful power to violate the natural and inalienable 
 
57 
 
 rights of man, arknn\vlcil;:o<l bcfure (.iud, in tlio presence of the 
 world. That ilcfd of iir(|iiittanoo containeti the following covenants : 
 
 Ist. That "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are gifts 
 from (iO(l to man, and tlurefore the natural and inalienable ri^^ht 
 of all. 
 
 2d. That povcrnnienta "derive all their y»sf powers from the con- 
 sent of the governed," and arc e.'^tabli.shcd for the protection of thes>e 
 natural rights. 
 
 .'M. That when govcrnmonts become destructive of these ends, for 
 which they are established, they act without authority, and the peo- 
 ple are at liberty to resist them and throw them oflF. 
 
 4th. That when the government evinces a design to disregard the 
 ends of justice, and reduce her subjects under absolute despotism, it 
 is their duty to overthrow such government and establish new 
 guards for their future security. 
 
 Who were they that thus executed this great deed of acquittance ? 
 For and in whoso behalf was it thus executed ? 
 
 They were the representatives of the thirteen united colonies, in 
 general congress assembled, and they assumed to do it in tlie name 
 and by the authority of the good people of these colonies. 
 
 They were inspired by all that was noble, great and true ; and as 
 those venerable men sat in that hall, and one by one executed that 
 deed for freedom, the sacred stillness of that hour betokened the 
 audience of angels. 
 
 Then they rose above the mortal, and uttered forth the law of 
 God. 
 
 The day on which it was published became an era in the world's 
 history. There was no battle fought or victory won by force of arms ; 
 but it was a day made holy by the advent of the great doctrines of 
 universal fnedom. 
 
 Thus we have seen that the inalienable right of all men to liberty 
 wa.s proclaimed by the representatives of the thirteen united colo- 
 nics, in congress assembled, in the name and by the authority of the 
 good people of those colonies ; that the people ratified the proclama- 
 tion in the most earnest and solemn manner, and that by so doing 
 they have denied to them.selvcs the power to trami)le upon the rightn 
 and liberties of their fellow men. 
 
 According to their views, there must be a true source of all polit- 
 ical power, and there must necessarily be a limit to all political 
 power in all just governments. This source of power was the 
 
58 
 
 people : the limit of that power was the inalienability of the right? 
 of man. Hence they repudiated the dogma that governments pos- 
 sessed absolute despotic power, or could possess any such power, foi 
 the people had no such power to delegate. Government could never 
 legitimately trample on the rights of man, for the twofold reason, 
 first, because it could never rightfully acquire any such authority ; 
 and secondly, such action must be destructive of the ends for which 
 government was created, and would reinvest the people with all their 
 original authority. 
 
 Let this, then, be remembered, in consti'uing the constitution formed 
 by these men, who, for themselves and the people they represented, 
 disclaimed all such authority, and we shall find that no language 
 found in that instrument, no force of circumstances, no historical 
 proof — not even all combined — can make that instrviment legally 
 sanction or guarantee human slavery. 
 
 Taking these rules, then, for our guide, and we have only to find 
 the guarantees of the constitution to insure the protection of every 
 citizen in the enjoyment of his natural and inherent rights. For in 
 those guarantees we find plenary power to enforce them. 
 
 If the constitution of the United States was formed for the pur- 
 poses of establishing justice among its citizens ; to provide for the 
 common defence of its citizens ; to promote their general welfare ; 
 to secure to them the blessings of liberty ; and these guarantees were 
 made for that end, then most unquestionably the federal government 
 has full power to secure these ends through the proper departments 
 thereof. If laws are to be made to enforce these guarantees, we have 
 a national legislature to enact them : if adjudication is to be had, we 
 have a national judiciary: if they only remain to be executed, we 
 have a national executive clothed with the power of the whole Union. 
 What, then, is or can be necessary to secure to all the full benefit of 
 these guarantees ? 
 
 The only thing wanting for the protection of every individual in 
 the full enjoyment of his natural and constitutional rights, is a dis- 
 position on the part of the people to enfoi-ce the guarantees of the 
 constitution. Let them no longer plead that they loould do it if 
 they could. 
 
 They have the full power, and if they neglect to repent and do 
 justice, the great laws of the Ruler of the Universe will sooner or 
 later bring them into that condition, although it be through mourn- 
 ing in every household, after a baptism of blood. 
 
CIIAPTKU Xll. 
 The Present Age calls to a Higher Duty. 
 
 Unpeh the last ailiiiini.-tr.-itiiin the <rovtriiiiiont had so low an ap- 
 preciation of its powers or duties, that it dare not defend its own 
 arsenal, but in Charleston turned it over to the state for safe-keeping. 
 
 After the inauguration of President Lincoln, for some time all was 
 douht and uncertainty. 
 
 The diplomatist and conservative were disposed to lie down and 
 tamely submit to disunion and slavery. 
 
 " All experience hath shown that mankind arc more disposed to 
 suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abol- 
 ishing the forms to which they are accustomed." 
 
 In the same spirit the government hesitated, and the slumbering 
 patriotism in the masses had not been called forth, and it was ex- 
 pected that Fort Sumter would be evacuated. 
 
 In this hour of doubt and hesitation, a private citizen, through 
 Senator King, addressed the government, 3Iarch 23, 1801, in which 
 were the following suggestions : 
 
 " 1st. It seems to me, the evacuation of Fort Sumter will be a 
 practical recognition of the Southern confcileracy. ♦ • • 
 
 "2d. It gives up the whole grc>und, and compels the United States 
 to take the affirmative — declare war in effect — to regain a foothold 
 within the seven Southern states, whereas by standing fast, it com- 
 pels the traitors to strike the first blow against the regular army, 
 and will thus turn the whole loyal sentiment of the country against 
 them. 
 
 " .Sd. If tlu' I'resident does all in his power to reinforce Major 
 Anderson with the navy at hand, his duty is fulfilled, and the coun- 
 try will sustain him. If he tamely evacuates, the whole loyal senti- 
 ment is weakened, and the Republican party will be overwhelmed at 
 the North. 
 
 "4th. What human nature admires and demamls, is courage and 
 truth, and whenever the man at the helm shows the right spirit, he 
 will be sustained and strengthened. ♦ • « 
 
 '* Let this commotion go on — the curse will fall uponSodom." 
 
 The attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter followed. The first gun 
 of slavery produced upon the country the desired effect. 
 
60 
 
 Yet the government seemed to hesitate about using its powers to 
 coerce the rebellious slave power. 
 
 It seemed to doubt its right to order the army across the Potomac 
 upon state territory. 
 
 Fortunately, the cession of Alexandria back to Virginia, brought 
 the state line near the capital, 
 
 AVhen it became apparent that the long guns of the rebels, from 
 Arlington Heights, could batter down the capital, the nation became 
 converted, and the army " invaded the sacred soil." The Rubicon 
 was passed. 
 
 Thus necessity, that great parent of invention, called into exercise 
 the coneeded but dormant powers of the executive. 
 
 The constitution says : " The privilege of the writ of habeas cor- 
 pus shall not be suspended unless, when in cases of rebellion or inva- 
 sion, the public safety may require it." 
 
 Yet in defiance of that guarantee, the writ has been suspended for 
 over seventy years in about half of the United Stetes, so far as col- 
 ored persons are concerned, and practically suspended so far as white 
 men should assume to plead their cause. 
 
 The same necessity will yet require congress to pass a law giving 
 to every person the benefit of that writ, without regard to color. 
 
 Such right can then be executed through the national courts wher- 
 ever any state or tyrant shall, without due process of law, assume to 
 hold in bondage any person not convicted of crime. 
 
 No resolution of congress, or platform of any party, of a negative 
 character, can become authority upon matters of construction. 
 
 Until congress acts affirmatively , and enacts the proper laws to per- 
 fect freedom, the direct question cannot be decided by the judiciary. 
 
 When those acts are passed, and any state or individual shall 
 question them, then, and not till then, is the Supreme Court made 
 the arbiter between the two. 
 
 In the language of Webster, in his reply to Hayne : 
 
 " Having constituted a government and declared its powers, the 
 people have further said, that since somebody must decide on the 
 extent of these powers, the government shall ^7seZ/' decide, subject, 
 always, like other popular governments, to its res'oonsibility to the 
 people." 
 
 If, therefore, the Supreme Court shall not decide what honest men 
 think to be right; shall not carry out the object of the constitution 
 as it is, " to secure the blessings of liberty," we have no remedy 
 
61 
 
 until thfit court shall be converterl, or its members changed, when it 
 will lietiilc accnrdiiig ti) the spirit of the age. 
 
 The horrors of war ami the manifcstutiona of divine wrath arc fast 
 working siu-h conver.sion. 
 
 When that convcrj»iuii takes plaeo, and the constitutinn " as it ;/•«>•" 
 shall be truly intcrprotr(l " «.t /'/ is," in the spirit of ju><ticc and 
 Christianity, instead of being, as heretoforo, the fortress of bluvery, 
 the Supreme Court will then indeed become the bulwark of FUEE- 
 DOM. The habca.s corpus, now sighed after by traitors, will then 
 become to the oppressed the angel of deliverance. 
 
 All popular governments will necessarily be interpreted to cany 
 out the views of the majority, having the controlling influence. Hence 
 the conversion of the people to a higher sense of justice will call for 
 a more just administration of the government in all of its branches. 
 
 To awaken a true sense of freedom and justice in the minds of the 
 masses, seems to require great sacrifices au<l atonements. Such we 
 have had, and many more are in store for ii.s, until we heed them. 
 
 Within a few months past, the rebel authorities seized upwards of 
 twenty colored persons upon a steamboat in Tennessee, who were 
 innocent of all crime — who were not engajred in the war — and, without 
 trial, cause or provocation, took them into the field, in the presence 
 of the civilized world and before high heaven, openly, in the day 
 time, butchered tlieuj in cidd blood as a sacrifice to the demon of 
 slavery. 
 
 When an act of this kind is committed upon a single individual, 
 it is usually done clandestinely, and the perpetrator is so abhorred 
 that he is taken from among men as unfit to live. 
 
 Yet the perpetrators of this act are open, and assume to do the 
 crime in the name of the intelligence and organized leaders of slavery. 
 
 Such an act has not its ecjual among the savages. 
 
 Such an act in Asia or Africa would startle the world. 
 
 Even a single sacrifice of a human being, to conform to a bigoted 
 religion, makes humanity shudder ; while here, we have twenty sac- 
 rificed upon the shrine of slavery, and the country has hardly heard, 
 miu'h less condemned it. 
 
 The blood of those innocent martyrs has mingled with the waters 
 of the rivers and of the ocean, and is crying to be avenged. Shall 
 we shut our ears and close our hearts longer against their wailings ? 
 
 When Governor Wise, the Pontius rilatc of Virginia, hung John 
 
62 
 
 Brown, instead of thereliy extinguishing the flames of freedom, it 
 only made them hlaze the brighter. 
 
 So, adding these children of color to the list of unnamed martyrs, 
 will not retard the downfall of the prince of evil. 
 
 Of what avail is our fighting ? Of what avail is our teaching ? Of 
 what avail is our preaching and fasting, until we have become doers 
 of the word ? The Almighty, by his prophet Isaiah, has said to us" 
 
 " Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wick- 
 edness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, 
 and that ye break every yoke ?" 
 
 "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine 
 health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go 
 before thee ; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward." 
 
 With such principles as our guide, and the power of God to pro- 
 tect our armies, they will indeed be invincible. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, called under God by the American people to 
 the highest worldly position, has officially obeyed that command. 
 
 Shall we hesitate and let all be lost ? or shall we act and receive 
 the reward ? 
 
 If we now fall short of securing entire freedom on this continent, 
 a reaction will take place here, as it did upon the restoration of 
 Charles II. in England, when the friends of humanity were hunted 
 from that nation. Then we should see our brave and true men 
 driven from this country to find an asylum — where ? 
 
 The hope af the down-trodden of Europe and the rest of the world 
 would be put back for centuries. But humanity will not fail. As 
 sure as God reigns, right will finally triumph. 
 
 " Earth is waking, day is breaking, 
 Darkness from the hills has flown; 
 Pale with terror, trembling error 
 Flies forever from her throme. 
 Then to labor, friend and neighbor, 
 With thy souVs resistless might; 
 Never fear thee, God is near thee, 
 He doth ever bless </i£ rigW."