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 ADDRESS 
 
 FREE CONSTITUTIONALISTS 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
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 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THAYER & ELDRIDGE, 
 
 116 Washington Street. 
 1860. 
 

 A 
 
 A FEW friends of freedom, who believe the Constitution of the 
 United States to be a sufficient warrant for giving liberty to all the 
 people of the United States, make the following appeal against any 
 support being given to the Republican Party at the ensuing election. 
 
 Boston, September, 1860. , 
 
 NOTE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Althoush this address was published previous to the late presidential 
 election, and was designed to have an effect upon it, it nevertheless contains 
 constitutional opinions, which are deemed of permanent importance, and 
 worthy of preservation. The opinions it expresses in regard to the Repub- 
 lican party will also be pertinent so long as that party shall occupy the 
 grounds it has hitherto done. 
 
 Boston, November, 1860. 
 
 Hjr transfer 
 
 a *o6 
 
 i 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 I. 
 
 The real question, that is now convulsing the nation, is not — 
 as the Republican party would have us believe — whether slaves 
 shall be carried from the States into the Territories ? but whether 
 anywhere, within the limits of the Union, one man shall be the 
 property of another ? 
 
 Whether a man, who is confessedly to be held as property, 
 shall be so held in one place, rather than in another ? in a State, 
 rather than in a Territory ? is a frivolous and impertinent question, 
 in which the man himself can have no interest, and which is un- 
 worthy of a moment's consideration at this time, if not at all 
 times. If he is to be a slave at all, the locality in which he is 
 to be held, is a matter of no importance to him, and of little or 
 no importance to the nation at large, or any of its people. 
 
 If there are to be slaves in the country, a humane man, instead 
 of feeling himself degraded by their presence, would desire to 
 have them in his neighborhood, that he might give them his sym- 
 pathy, and if possible ameliorate their condition. And the man, 
 who, like the Republican party, consents to the existence of 
 slavery, so long as the slaves are but kept out of his sight, is at 
 heart a tyrant and a brute. And if, at the same time, like the 
 more conspicuous members of that party, he makes loud profes- 
 sions of devotion to liberty and humanity, he thereby just as 
 loudly proclaims himself a hypocrite. And those Republican 
 politicians, who, instead of insisting upon the liberation of the 
 slaves, maintain, under the name of State Rights, the inviola- 
 
4 
 
 bilitj' of the slaveholder's right of property in his slaves, in the 
 States, and jet claim to be friends of liberty, because they cry, 
 " Keep the slaves where they are ; " " No removal of them into 
 the Territories ; " ^^ Bring them not into our neighborhood,''^ — are 
 either smitten with stupidity, as with a disease, or, what is more 
 probable, are nothing else than selfish, cowardly, hypocritical, 
 and unprincipled men, who, for the sake of gaining or retaining 
 power, are simply making a useless noise about nothing, with the 
 purpose of diverting men's minds from the true issue, and of 
 thus postponing the inevitable contest, which every honest and 
 brave man ought to be ready and eager to meet at once. 
 
 II. 
 
 We repeat, that the true issue before the country — the one 
 which sooner or later must be met — is nothing less than this : 
 Shall any portion of the people of the United States be held as 
 property at all ? 
 
 So far as the practical solution of this question depends upon 
 existing political institutions, it depends mainly upon the consti- 
 tution of the United States. 
 
 If the constitution of the United States — " the supreme law 
 of the land" — declares A to be a citizen of the United States 
 (we use the term citizen in its technical sense) then, constitution- 
 ally speaking, he is a citizen of the United States everywhere 
 throughout the United States, — " any thing in the constitution 
 or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding ; " and no 
 State law or constitution can depose him from that status, or 
 deprive him of the enjoyment of the least of those rights, 
 whicii the national constitution guarantees to the citizens of the 
 United States. 
 
 If, on the other hand, tliat same " supreme law " declares him 
 to be property, then, constitutionally speaking, he is property 
 everywhere under that law ; and his owner may, by virtue of 
 that law, carry him, as property, into any and every State in 
 the Union, and there hold him as a slave forever, — " any thing in 
 the constitutions or laws of such States to the contrary notwith- 
 standing." 
 
There can, therefore, be no such di8tinctIon made between the 
 States, as that of free and slave States. All are alike free, or 
 all are alike slave, States. They must all necessarily be either 
 the one or the other ; since the constitution of the United States, 
 being " the supreme law " over all alike, must necessarily de- 
 termine, in all alike, the status of each individual therein, rela- 
 tive to that " supreme law.^' In other \Yord3, the constitution 
 of the United States, and not any constitutions or laws of the 
 States, must determine, in the case of each and every individual, 
 ■whether he be a citizen of the United States, and entitled to the 
 benefits and protection of the national government, or not. If 
 it determines that any particular person is a citizen of the United 
 States, entitled to the benefits and protection of the national 
 government, then certainly he cannot be deprived of such citizen- 
 ship, or of the protection and benefits which that citizenship im- 
 plies, by any subordinate or State government; for, in that case, 
 the constitution of the United States would not be " the supreme 
 law of the land." If, on the contrary, the constitution of the 
 United States determines that any particular individual (native 
 or naturalized) is not a citizen of the United States, nor entitled 
 to the benefits and protection of the national government, it can 
 do 80 only because it has itself declared him to he property ; 
 since that is the only cause that can prevent his being a citizen 
 of the United States, and entitled, as such citizen, to the benefits 
 and protection of the government of the United States. The 
 declaration of no subordinate law, that he is property, can break 
 the force of that " supreme law," which declares everybody 
 (native and naturalized) a citizen, whom it does not itself declare 
 to be a slave. 
 
 The government of the United States cannot act directly upon 
 the State governments, as governments, requiring them to do this, 
 and forbidding them to do that. It must, therefore, act directly 
 upon individuals ; else it cannot act at all. It is practically a gov- 
 ernment only so far as i^ does operate upon individuals. It must 
 necessarily know, by virtue of the United States constitution, the 
 individuals upon whom it is to operate ; otherwise it would be 
 in the situation of a government not knowing its own citizens, 
 and consequently not knowing to whom its own duties were due. 
 
The rights, which the general government secures to the people, 
 are as much i^ersonal rights, and come home to each separate 
 individual as directly and fully as do the rights secured to them 
 by the State governments. And the rights secured to the 
 people by the national government, as much imply personal 
 liberty, on the part of the people, as do the rights secured to them 
 by the State governments ; for, without personal liberty, the 
 former rights can no more be enjoyed than the latter. Hence 
 the indispensable necessity that the general government should 
 know, for itself, independently of the State governmeiits, who 
 are, and who are not (if any are not) citizens of the United 
 States ; for otherwise, we repeat, it cannot know to whom its own 
 duties are due. 
 
 To say that it rests with the State governments to decide upon 
 whom the United States government shall act, or upon whom 
 it shall confer its protection or benefits, is equivalent to saying 
 that " the supreme law " is dependent upon the arbitrary will of 
 subordinate laws, for permission to operate at all as a law. It is 
 consequently equivalent to saying that the subordinate law may 
 nullify the supreme law, and exclude it from a State altogether, 
 by simply declaring that no persons whatever, within the State, 
 shall be citizens of the United States ; and consequently that 
 there shall be no persons, within the State, upon whom the 
 supreme law can operate, or upon whom it shall confer its bene- 
 fits. 
 
 We repeat the proposition, that, if the State constitutions or 
 laws can determine who may, and who may not, be citizens 
 of the United States, and enjoy the benefits of the United States 
 government, each State may nullify the constitution, government, 
 and laws of the United States, within such State, by declaring 
 that there shall be, within the State, no citizens of the United 
 States, to enjoy those benefits, or upon whom the laws of the 
 United States shall operate. 
 
 It is, therefore, indispensable to the existence and operation 
 of the government of the United States, that the constitution of 
 the United States shall itself determine upon whom the United 
 States government shall operate, and who are its citizens, " any 
 
thing in the constitutions or laws of the States to the contrary 
 notwithstanding ; " and that the State laws and constitutions 
 shall be allowed to have nothing to do with the matter. 
 
 To say that a State can make a man a slave, is only another 
 mode of saying that a State can deprive the United States of a 
 citizen, and abolish the government of the United States, so far 
 as that citizen is concerned. And to say that a State can 
 deprive the United States of one citizen, is equivalent to saying 
 that a State can deprive the government of the United States of 
 all its citizens, within the State. And to say that a State can 
 deprive the government of the United States of all its citizens, 
 within the State, is equivalent to saying that the State can 
 entirely abolish the United States government, within such State. 
 This is the necessary conclusion of the doctrine, that the States 
 can make a slave of any individual, who would otherwise be a 
 citizen of the United States. 
 
 If all the people of the States were made slaves, plainly the 
 United States government would have no citizens, upon whom it 
 could operate ; and it would, therefore, be virtually abolished. 
 And, in just so far as the people of the United States are made 
 slaves, in just so far is the United States government abolished. 
 This whole theory, therefore, that the States have a right to 
 make slaves of the people of the United States, is nothiag less 
 than a theory that the States have the right to abolish the govern- 
 ment of the United States, by withdrawing individuals from the 
 operation of its laws. 
 
 To say, as is constantly done, that the United States consti- 
 tution " recognxze^^'' as slaves, those whom the States may de- 
 clare to be slaves, is equivalent to charging the constitution 
 with the absurdity of recognizing the right of the States to make 
 slaves of the citizens of the United States. And to say that the 
 constitution of the United States recognizee the right of the 
 States to make slaves of the citizens of the United States, is 
 equivalent to charging it with the absurdity of actually recogniz- 
 ing the right of each separate State to abolish the government 
 of the United States, within such State. 
 
 It therefore results that the constitution of the United States. 
 
8 
 
 " the supreme law of the land," must necessarily fix the status 
 of every individual relatively to that law ; and that, in fixing the 
 i<tatus of each and every individual, relatively to that law — that 
 is, in determining whether an individual shall be a citizen of the 
 United States or not, — it necessarily fixes his status as a freeman, 
 or a slave. 
 
 And it necessarily does this independently of, and in defiance 
 of, any subordinate or State law ; for otherwise it could not be 
 '• supreme." 
 
 To say that the national constitution is " the supreme law of 
 the land," and yet that it depends upon each of thirty-three 
 State governments to say upon whom that supreme law shall 
 operate, or whom it shall protect, is as absurd as it would be to 
 say that one man is an absolute monarch over thirty-three States, 
 and yet that he is wholly dependent upon the consent of thirty- 
 three subordinate princes, for permission to rule over his own 
 subjects. 
 
 If the constitution, laws, and government of the United States 
 are to be limited, in their operation within each State, to such 
 individuals as the States respectively may designate, then each 
 State may, so far as its own territory is concerned, determine who 
 may, and who may not, send and receive letters by the United 
 States mall ; who may, and who may not, go into a United 
 States custom-house for purposes of commerce ; who may, and 
 who may not, go into a United States court-house ; and so on. 
 If this were the true relation between our general and State 
 <'0vernments, then the United States constitution, instead of 
 declaring that " this constitution, and the laws of the United 
 States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties 
 made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United 
 States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in 
 every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitu- 
 tion or laws of any State to tlie contrary notwithstanding," ought 
 to have declated that this constitution, and the laws and treaties 
 made by the United States In pursuance thereof, shall have effect, 
 within each State, only so far as such State shall consent, or only 
 upon 5=uch Individuals as such State shall designate. 
 
III. 
 
 Another proof that the general government must determine 
 for itself, independently of the State governments, who are, and 
 who are not, citizens of the United States, is found in that provi- 
 sion of the constitution, which declares that " the United States 
 shall guarantee to every State of this Union a republican form of 
 government." 
 
 Although the constitution presumes that the State governments 
 will be representative governments, yet this provision for " a re- 
 publican form of government" certainly requires that the United 
 States shall guarantee to the States something more than a mere 
 representative government; for a government maybe a repre- 
 sentative government, and yet the constituent body — or the body 
 enjoying the right of suffrage — be so small, and the principles of 
 the government so exclusive and arbitrary, as to make the go- 
 vernment a perfect tyranny, as to the great body of the people. 
 A guaranty, therefore, of a representative government simply, 
 would have been of no practical value to the people. 
 
 It is plain, too, from another part of the constitution, that the 
 constitution does not mean to imply that a representative form of 
 government is necessarily a republican form of government ; be- 
 cause if it did, it would have made some specific provision as to 
 the extent of the suffrage to be enjoyel by the constituent body. 
 Whereas it leaves that matter to be regulated at the discretion of 
 the States respectively.* 
 
 It is certain, therefore, that the " republican form of govern- 
 ment," which the United States are bound to guarantee to the 
 States, is something essentially different from, and more than, a 
 representative government, representing such portions only of the 
 whole people as may chance to get the power of a State into their 
 hands, wielding it arbitrarily for their own purposes. 
 
 What, then, is implied in this " republican form of govern- 
 
 * " The House of Representatives shall be composed of members, chosen every 
 second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State 
 shall have the requisite qualifications' for electors of the most numerous branch of 
 the State legislature."—^;-;. /., see. 2. 
 
10 
 
 ment ? " This certainly^ if no more, is implied — for this must 
 necessarily be implied in the very terms, " a republican form of 
 government," — viz., that at least all the members of the republic 
 shall enjoy the protection of the laws. 
 
 Whatever other disagreements there may be in men's minds, 
 as to the essential requisites of " a republican form of govern- 
 ment," certainly no man in his senses can deny so self-eviient a 
 proposition as this, — that such a government necessarily implies 
 that all tbe acknowledged meinbers of the rqmblic must be under 
 the protection of the laws. 
 
 This being admitted, it follows that the United States must 
 guarantee to each State a government, that shall give the protec- 
 tion of the laws to all the acknowledged members or citizens of the 
 State. 
 
 But who are the acknowledged memhQvs, or citizens of a State ? 
 We answer, that, whomsoever else they may, or may not, include, 
 they must certainly include all the citizens of the United States, 
 within the State. This must necessarily be so ; because it would 
 be absurd to suppose that those people, in the various States, who 
 united to form the national government, and thereby made them- 
 selves citizens of the United States, would also unite to guarantee 
 a republican form of government for each of the separate States, 
 unless they themselves were personally to have the benefit of this 
 guaranty. It certainly cannot be supposed that they would be 
 so foolish and suicidal as to unite to guarantee to others a govern- 
 ment within the States, the benefits of which could be denied to 
 themselves, or the power of which could be turned against them- 
 selves for purposes of oppression. 
 
 This guaranty, then, on the part of tho United States, of a 
 " republican form of government " for each State, is a guaranty 
 of a government, under which at least all the citizens of the 
 United States, u'ithin the State, shall have the protection of (he laws. 
 
 From this proposition it follows inevitably that the United 
 States government must determine, independently of the State 
 government, who are the citizens of the United States, tvithin a 
 State; for, otherwise, it could not know when it had fulfilled this 
 guaranty to them of the protection of a republican form of go 
 
11 
 
 vernment. The guaranty itself might be wholly or partially de- 
 feated, at the pleasure of the State government, if it were left to 
 the State government itself to determine who were, and who were 
 not, among those citizens of the United States, within the State, 
 for whose benefit this guaranty had been made. And the State 
 government might very likely have great motive to defeat the 
 guaranty, either in whole or in part. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that this guaranty of a republican 
 form of government to the citizens of the United States, within a 
 State, is a guaranty against the oppressions of any anti-republi- 
 can form of government, that may succeed in obtaining power in a 
 State. Yet clearly the United States could not protect its own 
 citizens against such anti-republican government within the 
 States, unless it could determine, independently of the State go- 
 vernments, who its own citizens, within the States, were. 
 
 We insist that this argument is entirely conclusive to prove 
 that the United States Government must determine, for itself, 
 who are its own citizens within the respective States ; and that the 
 constitutions and laws of the States themselves can have nothing 
 whatever to do with the matter. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Still further proof that the constitution of the United States, 
 and not the constitution or laws of the States, controls the citizen- 
 ship of every person born in the country, is found in the fact that 
 a simple act of congress is acknowledged by all to be sufficient, 
 in defiance of all State laws and constitutions, to confer the privi- 
 lege of United States citizenship upon persons of foreign birth. 
 It would certainly be very absurd to give to congress such a 
 power in regard to foreigners, if neither the United States con- 
 stitution, nor the United States government had any similar 
 power in regard to the natives of the country ; for, in that case, 
 the constitution would do more for foreigners than for natives. 
 
 V. 
 
 We therefore hold it demonstrable, at least, if not self-evi- 
 dent, that the constitution of the United States, " the supreme 
 
12 
 
 law of the land," must, »imply hy virtue of its supremacy, fix the 
 status of every individual in the United States, independently of 
 the State governments ; that it must operate directly upon each 
 and every individual, native or naturalized, declaring him enti- 
 tled, as a citizen of the United States, to the protection and bene- 
 fits of the national government, or declaring him to be property, 
 subject only to the will of his owner, and therefore entitled to 
 no personal protection at all, either from the general or State 
 governments. 
 
 VI. 
 
 If it rests with the State governments to say whether the na- 
 tives of the country shall be citizens of the United States, and 
 liave the protection of the national government, or be property, 
 subject only to the will of their owners, then certainly it rests 
 equally with the State governments to say whether naturalized 
 persons shall be citizens or slaves ; for naturalization by the 
 United States government can at most but put the persons na- 
 turalized on a level with the natives. And that is all that the 
 principle of naturalization implies. 
 
 This question therefore, as to the power of the States to con- 
 vert men into property, is not one that concerns the natives of 
 the country alone. It concerns all immigrants as well ; since the 
 general government can certainly have no more power to protect 
 immigrants against being reduced to property ,thanit has to pro- 
 tect those born on the soil. 
 
 VII. 
 
 There are, then, three decisive proofs that the United States 
 government must determine for itself, independently of the State 
 governments, who are, and who are not (if any are not) citizens 
 of the United States. 
 
 The first of these proofs is, that otherwise the United States 
 government could not know its own citizens, or consequently 
 know to whom its own proper and ordinary duties were due. 
 
13 
 
 The second proof is, that otherwise the United States govern- 
 ment could not know when it had fulfilled its guaranty of " a re- 
 publican form of government " to the citizens of the United States, 
 within the States respectively. 
 
 The third proof is, that otherwise the United States con- 
 stitution and laws could either do more for foreigners (by natu- 
 ralization) than they can do for those born on the soil ; or else 
 naturahzation itself, by the United States government, would 
 be an utterly useless process for protecting the persons naturalized 
 against being reduced to property by the State government. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Assuming it now to be settled, that the constitution of the 
 United States fixes the status of every person, as a citizen or a 
 slave ; and that it does so, " any thing in the constitution or laws 
 of any State to the contrary notwithstanding ;" let us ascertain 
 what its decision on this point is. To do so, we have only to 
 ascertain by and for whom the constitution of the United States 
 was established. This the instrument itself has explicitly in- 
 formed us. It declares itself to have been established by " the 
 people of the United States," for the benefit of " themselves 
 and their posterity." From this declaration of the constitution 
 itself there can be no appeal. And the instrument is to be in- 
 terpreted throughout consistently with this declaration. Thus 
 interpreted, it implies that all the then " people of the United 
 States," with their " posterity," were to be citizens of the 
 United States, and, as such, to have the benefit and protection 
 of the general government ; and consequently that none of 
 them could be lawfully reduced to the condition of property. 
 It also authorizes congress to naturalize all persons of foreign 
 birth, coming into the country, without discriminating between 
 those that may come in voluntarily, and those that may be 
 brought in against their will. It also authorizes Congress " to 
 punish offences against the law of nations ; " and thus authorizes 
 the punishment of all attempts to enslave the people of other 
 nations, whether they come here voluntarily, or are brought here 
 
u 
 
 by force. It also, without making any discrimination as to per- 
 sons, authorizes the writ of habeas corpus^ which denies the 
 right of property in man. It also requires the United States to 
 " guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of 
 government ; " under which at least all the citizens of the United 
 States, within the State, shall have the protection of the laws. 
 In these various ways, the constitution of the United States, 
 " the supreme law of the land," has made the principle of 
 property in man impossible anywhere within the United States ; 
 and has empowered the general government to maintain that 
 principle, in opposition to any subordinate or State government. 
 
 We are aware that the supreme court of the United States, 
 in the Dred Scott case, have asserted that the phrase, " the 
 people of the United States," did not mean all the people, but 
 only all the white people, of the United States. And they at- 
 tempt to fortify this opinion by saying that the Declaration of 
 Independence itself did not mean to assert that " all men were 
 created equal," but only that all white men were created equal. 
 To this view of the case we will, at this time, offer no other an- 
 swer than this : that, if this famous clause of the Declaration of 
 Independence is to be interpreted according to this opinion of 
 the supreme court, the whole instrument must also be inter- 
 preted in accordance with it ; and the necessary consequence 
 would then be, that the Declaration of Independence absolved 
 only the ivhite people of the country from their allegiance to the 
 English crown, leaving the black people still subject to that alle- 
 giance, and entitled to corresponding protection. Thus Queen 
 Victoria would have now, in our midst, four millions of subjects, 
 whose rights she ought at once to take care of, as she would un- 
 doubtedly be very willing to do. 
 
 We are also aware, that, although " the idea that there could 
 be property in man " was studiously excluded from the constitu- 
 tion itself, it is nevertheless historically known that an under- 
 standing existed, outside of the constitution, among some of the 
 framers, and other politicians of that day, that, if the honest cha- 
 racter of the instrument itself should be successful in securing its 
 adoption by the people, these framers and others would then use 
 
15 
 
 their inflaence to give to the instrument an interpretation favora- 
 ble to the maintenance of slavery. And we are aware that it is 
 now claimed that this outside understanding ought to be substi- 
 tuted, as it hitherto has been, for the instrument itself, and 
 acknowledged as the real constitution, so far as slavery is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Our answer on this point is, — that this outside understanding 
 could have existed among but a small portion of the whole 
 people ; that they dared not incorporate it in the constitution 
 itself; that, instead of being any part of the constitution itself, 
 it was but a traitorous conspiracy against the very constitution, 
 which they, with others, induced the people of the United States 
 to adopt ; that it could have had no legal effect or validity, even 
 among those who were actually parties to it ; and that we, of 
 this day, would not only be slaves, but idiots, if we were to allow 
 the criminal purposes of these men to be substituted for the 
 constitution ; and thus suffer ourselves, in effect, to be governed 
 by a set of dead traitors and tyrants, who no longer have any 
 rights in this world ; who, when living, dared put only honest 
 purposes into the constitution ; and who, if now living, would de- 
 serve to be punished for their treason and their crimes, rather 
 than reverenced as patriots and statesmen, and taken as authori- 
 ty as to the true meaning of the constitution. 
 
 The fraudulent interpretation given to the constitution at large, 
 in respect to slavery, has been accomplished mainly by means of 
 the fraudulent interpretation given to the one word " free," in 
 the clause relative to representation and direct taxation. The 
 conspirators against freedom, with their dupes, have, from the 
 foundation of the government, claimed that this word was used 
 to describe a free person, as distinguished from a slave. Where- 
 as it had been used in England for centuries, and in this 
 country from its first settlement, to describe a native or natural- 
 ized person, as distinguished fro7n an alien. Thus our colonial 
 charters guaranteed that persons born in the colonies should " be 
 free and natural subjects, as if born in the realm of England." 
 When the troubles arose between this and the mother country, 
 in regard to taxation, our fathers insisted that they were ^\free 
 
16 
 
 British subjects," and therefore could not be taxed without their 
 consent. And, up to the Revolution, the words /reg and/re<?me?2, 
 if not the only words used, were the words principally used, to 
 designate native or naturalized persons, as distinguished from 
 aliens. 
 
 After the Revolution, the word "/ree " continued to be used in 
 this political sense, through the country generally. And, at the 
 time the constitution of the United States was adopted, it was 
 so used in the constitution of Georgia, Art. XI. ; in the general 
 naturalization law of Georgia, passed Feb. 7, 1785, Sec. 2 ; 
 in a statute of Georgia, passed Feb. 22, 1785, granting lands 
 to the Count D'Estaing, and making him " 2kfree citizen " of the 
 State; in the constitution of South Carolina, Sec. 13; in a 
 statute of South Carolina, passed March 27, 1787, naturalizing 
 Hugh Alexander Nixon ; in the constitution of North Carolina, 
 Sec. 40 ; in the constitution of Pennsylvania, Sec. 42 ; in nu- 
 merous acts of the legislature of Massachusetts, from the year 
 1784 to 1789, naturalizing the individuals named in them; in 
 the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut, then continued 
 in force as constitutions ; in the Articles of Confederation, Art. 
 IV., Sec. 1 ; and in the Ordinance of 1787. The statutes and 
 constitutions of several of the States used the words freeman 
 2im\ freemen in a nearly similar, if not in precisely the same, 
 sense. 
 
 Usage, therefore, — even the usage of the then strongest 
 slaveholding States themselves — and all legal ru'es of interpre- 
 tation applicable to the case — and especially that controlling 
 rule, which requires a meaning favorable to justice, rather than 
 injustice, to be given to the words of all legal instruments what- 
 soever — required that the word "/ree," in the constitutional 
 provision relative to representation and direct taxation, should be 
 understood in this political sense, to distinguish the native and 
 naturalized inhabitants of the country from aliens, and not to 
 distinguish free persons from slaves. 
 
 But slavery, which can be maintained only by force and fraud, 
 has hitherto succeeded in palming off upon the country a false 
 interpretation of the word "/r^e." And it is only by giving a 
 
17 
 
 fraudulent meaning to the word " free," that men have been made 
 to believe that the constitution recognized the legality of slavery. 
 Without the aid of this fraud, the other clauses, now held to 
 refer to slaves, could probably never have had such a meaning 
 fastened upon them ; since there is nothing in their language 
 that justifies such a meaning. 
 
 If we wish to enjoy any liberty ourselves, or do any thing for 
 the liberation of others, it is time for us to emancipate ourselves 
 from our intellectual and moral bondage to the frauds and crimes 
 of dead slaveholders and their accomplices, and either read and 
 execute our constitution as it is, or tear it in pieces. If the 
 language of our constitution is not to be considered as conveying 
 its true meaning, nor interpreted by the same rules by which all 
 our other legal instruments are interpreted ; if it is to be pre- 
 sumed, as it ever heretofore has been, that neither honest men, 
 nor honest motives could have had any part in the formation or 
 adoption of the constitution ; but we are to search, outside of the 
 instrument, for the private motives of every robber, kidnapper, 
 hypocrite, scoundrel, and tyrant, who lived at the time it was 
 adopted, and acce,pt those motives, in place of those written in 
 the instrument itself, as the only lawful principles of the govern- 
 ment, — ; if such is the true mode of ascertaining the legal import 
 of written constitutions, the sooner they are all given to the 
 flames, the better it will be for the liberties of mankind, and the 
 better we shall vindicate our own claims to the possession of 
 common honesty and common sense. If we dare not correct the 
 frauds of the past, and interpret our constitution by the same 
 rules by which it ought to have been interpreted from the first, — 
 if, in other words, we dare not decide for ourselves what the true 
 principles of our constitution are, and whether those principles 
 have been obeyed or violated by those appointed to administer it 
 — we are ourselves wretched cowards and slaves, fit to be used as 
 instruments for enslaving each other. 
 
 But, independently of the constitution of the United States, 
 we know that slavery has never had any constitutional existence 
 in this country, for these reasons : — 
 
 1. The colonial charters, the constitutional law of the colonies, 
 
18 
 
 required the legislation of the colonies to " be consonant to 
 reason, and conformable, as nearly as circumstances would allow, 
 to the laws, customs, and rights of the realm of England." 
 This made slavery illegal up to the time of the Revolution. 
 
 2. Of all the State constitutions established and existing in 
 1787 or 1789, when the constitution of the United States was 
 framed and adopted, not one established or authorized slavery. 
 It was, therefore, impossible that the slavery then existing could 
 have been legal. 
 
 3. Even of the statute law of the States, on the subject of 
 slavery, in 1787 and 1789 (admitting such statute law to be, 
 as it really was not, constitutional), none described the persons 
 to be enslaved with such accuracy as that many, if indeed any, 
 individuals could ever have been identified by it as slaves. 
 
 On the 19th of August, 1850, Senator Mason, of Virginia, 
 confessed, in the Senate of the United States, that, so far as he 
 knew, slavery had never been established by positive law in a 
 single State in the Union. And in the United States House of 
 Representatives, on the 14th day of March last, Mr. Curry, of 
 Alabama, said, — 
 
 " No law, I believe, is found on our statute books authorizing the intro- 
 duction of slavery ; and, if positive precept is essential to the valid exis- 
 tence of slavery, the tenure by which our slaves are held is illegal and 
 uncertain." 
 
 He also, in the same speech, said, — 
 
 " It has been frequently stated in congress, that slavery was not intro- 
 duced into a single British colony by authority of law ; and that there is 
 not a statute in any slaveholding State legalizing African slavery, or ' con- 
 stituting the original basis and foundation of title to slave property.' " 
 
 And he made no denial of the truth of this statement. 
 
 Thus we have abundant evidence that slavery had never had 
 any legal existence in the country, up to the adoption of the con- 
 stitution of the United States. And, if it had no legal existence 
 at the time of the adoption of the United States constitution, 
 that constitution necessarily made citizens of all the then people of 
 the United States ; for there can be no question that it made citi- 
 zens of all, unless of such as were then legally held in bondage. 
 
19 
 
 But, even if the constitutions and statute-books of every State 
 had legalized slavery in the most unequivocal manner, the con- 
 stitution of the United States would nevertheless have given 
 freedom to all ; because it made " the people of the United 
 States," without discrimination, citizens of the United States ; 
 and was thenceforth to be " the supreme law of the land," 
 " any thing " then existing in, as well as ever afterwards to be 
 incorporated into, " the constitution or laws of any State to the 
 contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 The adoption of a new constitution is a revolution ; and the 
 object of revolutions is to get rid of, and not to perpetuate, old 
 abuses and wrongs. All new constitutions, therefore, should be 
 construed as favorably as possible for the accomplishment of that 
 end. For this reason, in construing the constitution of the 
 United States, no notice can be taken of (with the view of per- 
 petuating) any abuses or crimes tolerated, or even authorized, 
 by the then existing State governments. 
 
 What excuse, then, has any one for saying, that, constitution- 
 ally speaking, our country is not a free one ? free for the whole 
 human race ? and especially for all born on the soil ? 
 
 IX. 
 
 The palpable truth is, that the four millions of human beings 
 now held in bondage in this country are, in the view of the con- 
 stitution of the United States, full citizens of the United States, 
 entitled, without any qualification, abatement, or discrimination 
 whatever, to all the rights, privileges, and protection which that 
 constitution guarantees to the white citizens of the United 
 States, and that their citizenship has been withheld from them 
 only by ignorance, and fraud, and force. 
 
 Such being the truth in regard to this portion of the citizens 
 of the United States, it is the constitutional duty of both the 
 general and State governments to protect them in their personal 
 liberty, and in all the other rights which those governments 
 secure to the other citizens of the United States. 
 
 It is as much the constitutional duty of the general govern- 
 
20 
 
 ment, as of the State governments, to protect the citizens of the 
 United States in their personal liberty ; for if it cannot secure 
 to them their personal liberty, it can secure to them no other 
 of the rights or privileges which it is bound to secure to 
 them. 
 
 To enable the general government to secure to the people 
 their personal liberty, it is supplied with all necessary powers. 
 It is authorized to use the writ of Jiabeaa corpus, which of itself 
 is sufficient to set at liberty all persons illegally restrained. It 
 is authorized to arm and discipline the people as militia, and thus 
 enable them to do something towards defending their own liberty. 
 It is authorized " to make all laws which shall be necessary and 
 proper for carrying into execution " the powers specifically enu- 
 merated. That is to say, it is authorized " to make all laws 
 which shall be necessary and proper for carrying " home to each 
 individual every right and every privilege which the constitution 
 designs to secure to him ; and the United States courts are 
 required to take cognizance " of all cases in law and equity 
 arisinof under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and 
 treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority.'' 
 In other words, they are authorized to take cognizance of all 
 cases in which the question to be tried is the right which any 
 individual has under the constitution, laws, or treaties of the 
 United States. The United States are also bound to guarantee 
 to all the citizens of the United States, within the States, the 
 benefits of a republican form of government. There is, then, 
 obviously no lack of powers delegated to the general government, 
 to secure the personal liberty of all its citizens. 
 
 That it is as much the duty of the general, as of the State, 
 governments to secure the personal liberty of the people of the 
 United States, will be obvious from the following considera- 
 tions : — 
 
 The people of the United States live under, and are citizens of, 
 two governments, the general and the State governments. These 
 two governments are mainly independent of each other ; having, 
 for the most part, distinct powers, distinct spheres of action, and 
 owing distinct duties to the citizen. The purpose of the general 
 
21 
 
 government is to secure to the individual the enjoyment of a 
 certain enumerated class of rights and privileges ; and the object 
 of the State governments is to secure him in the enjoyment of 
 certain other rights and privileges. But both governments have 
 at least one duty in common, viz., that of securing personal 
 liberty to the citizen. This must necessarily be a duty common 
 to both governments, because the enjoyment of each of the 
 classes of rights and privileges before mentioned, to wit, those 
 that are to be secured by the general government, and those 
 that are to be. secured by the State governments, necessarily im- 
 ply the possession of personal liberty on his part ; since without 
 this liberty, none of the other rights or privileges to be secured 
 to him by either government, can be enjoyed. It is necessary, 
 therefore, that each government should have the right to secure 
 his liberty to him, else it cannot secure to him the other rights 
 and privileges which it is bound to secure to him. It is as 
 necessary that the general government should have power to 
 secure to him personal liberty, in order that he may enjoy all 
 the other rights and privileges which the general government is 
 bound to secure to him, as it is that the State governments 
 should have power to secure his personal liberty, in order that he 
 may enjoy all the other rights and privileges which it is the 
 duty of the State governments to secure to him. It would be 
 absurd to say that the general government is bound to secure to 
 him certain rights and privileges, which implied the possession of 
 personal liberty on his part, as an indispensable pre-requisite to 
 his enjoyment of them, and yet that it had no power of its own 
 to secure his liberty ; for that would be equivalent to saying that 
 the general government could not perform its own duties to the 
 citizen, unless the State governments should have first placed 
 him in a condition to have those duties performed, — a thing 
 which the State governments might neglect or refuse to do. 
 
 The State governments have evidently no more right to 
 interfere to prevent the citizen's enjoyment of the rights and 
 privileges intended to be secured to him by the general govern- 
 ment, than the general government has to interfere to prevent 
 his enjoyment of the rights and privileges intended to be secured 
 
22 
 
 to him by the State governments. For examj)le, the State gov- 
 ernments have no more right to prevent his going into the 
 post-offices, custom-houses, and court houses, which the general 
 government has provided for his benefit, than the general gov- 
 ernment has to prevent his travelling on the highways, or going 
 into the schools, or court-houses, which the State governments 
 have provided for his benefit. 
 
 This proposition seems to us so manifestly true as to need no 
 elaboration. And yet, if either of these governments can reduce 
 him to slavery, it can deprive him of all the rights and privileges 
 which the other government is designed to secure to him. In 
 other words, it can deprive that other government of a citizen, 
 and thus abolish that other government itself, so far as that citi- 
 zen is concerned. Certainly a State government has no more 
 power to do this wrong towards the national government, than 
 the national government has to do a similar wrong towards a 
 State government. In short, neither government has any con- 
 stitutional power to deprive the other of a citizen, by making him 
 a slave. 
 
 Furthermore, each of these two governments has an equal right 
 to defend their common citizens against being enslaved by the 
 other. If, for example, the general government were to 
 attempt to enslave its citizens within a State, the State govern- 
 ment would clearly have the right to defend them against such 
 enslavement ; because they are its citizens as well as citizens of 
 the United States. And, for the same reason, if a State govern- 
 ment attempt to enslave its citizens within the United States, 
 the general government clearly has the same right to resist such 
 enslavement, that the State government would have in the other 
 case ; because they are citizens of the United States, as well as of 
 the State. 
 
 This power of each government to resist the enslavement of 
 their common citizens by the other, is clearly a power necessary 
 for its self-preservation ; a power that must, of necessity, belong 
 to every government that has the power of maintaining its own 
 existence. It must, therefore, as much belong to the general as 
 to the State governments. 
 
23 
 
 Still further : The principal, if not the sole object of our havin;^ 
 two governments for the same citizen, would be entirely defeated, 
 if each government had not an equal right to defend him against 
 enslavement by the other. What is the grand object of having 
 two governments over the same citizen ? It is, that, if either 
 government prove oppressive, he may fly for protection to the 
 other. This right of flying from the oppression of one govern- 
 ment to the protection of the other, makes it more difficult for 
 him to be oppressed, than if he had no alternative but sub- 
 mission to a single government. This certainly is the only im- 
 portant, if not the only possible, advantage of our double system 
 of government. Yet if either of these two governments can 
 enslave their common citizen, and the other has no right to inter* 
 fere for his protection, the principal, if not the only, benefit of our 
 having two governments, is lost. 
 
 But our governments, instead of regarding this gieat and pri- 
 mary motive for their separate existence, have hitherto ignored 
 it, and acted upon the theory, that it is the duty of each to go to 
 the assistance of the other, when the latter finds its own strength 
 inadequate to the accomplishment of its tyrannical purposes. 
 This we see in the case of fugitive slaves. When a citizen of the 
 United States, reduced to slavery by a State government, or by 
 a private individual with the consent and co-operation of the 
 State government, makes his escape beyond the jurisdiction and 
 power of the State government, the United States government 
 pursues him, recaptures him, and restores him to his tyrants. 
 Thus the citizen, instead of finding his security in the double 
 system of government under which he lives, finds in it only a 
 double power of oppression united against him. What grosser 
 violation of all the rational and legitimate purposes of our double 
 system of government can be conceived of than this ? 
 
 If these views are correct, it is just as much the constitu- 
 tional duty, and just as clearly the constitutional right, of the 
 general government to protect the people of the United States 
 against enslavement by the State governments, as it is the consti- 
 tutional duty and right of the State governments, to protect the 
 same people against enslavement by the general government. 
 
24 
 
 The general government is as much set as a guard and a shield 
 against enslavement by the State governments, as the latter are 
 as guards and shields against enslavement by the former. 
 
 This view, too, of the object to be accomplished by our double 
 system of government, — viz., the greater security of the citizen 
 against the oppression of his government, — presents, more clearly 
 perhaps than has before been done, the necessity that the gene- 
 ral government should determine for itself, indt.pendently of the 
 State governments, who are its own citizens, and whoare entitled to 
 its protection ; for otherwise the general government could have 
 power to protect against a State government only those whom the 
 State government should consent to have thus protected against it- 
 self. It would be an absurdity to say that the general government 
 was established to protect the people against the State govern- 
 ments, and yet that it is left to the State governments them- 
 selves to s«y whom the general government may thus protect. 
 To allow the State governments the power to say whom the gene- 
 ral government may, and whom it may not, protect against 
 themselves (the State governments), would be depriving the gene- 
 ral government of all power to protect any. It would be like 
 allowing a man to protect, against a wolf, all lambs except those 
 whom the wolf should choose to devour. 
 
 The conclusion necessarily is, that the general government 
 must determine for itself, independently of the State govern- 
 ments, who are its citizens, and whom it will protect ; and, if the 
 general government makes this determination, it can, under the 
 constitution of the United States, make no other determination 
 than that all the native and naturalized inhabitants of the United 
 States are its citizens, and entitled to its protection. 
 
 X. 
 
 There is still another point of great practical importance to 
 be considered. It is this : If those now held in bondage in this 
 country are, in the view of " the supreme law of the land," citi- 
 zens of the United States, entitled to the full privileges of citi 
 zenship erpially with all the other citizens of the United States, 
 
25 
 
 then it is not only the constitutional right and duty of both the 
 general and State governments to protect them in the enjoyment 
 of all their rights as citizens, but it is also not merely a moral 
 duty, hut a strictly legal and constitutional right, of all the other 
 citizens of the country to go, in their private capacity as indivi- 
 duals, to the rescue of those enslaved. 
 
 It is as much a legal right of one citizen to rescue another from 
 the hands of a kidnapper, as to rescue him or her from a rob- 
 ber, ravisher, or assassin. And all the force necessary for the 
 accomplishment of the object may be lawfully used. 
 
 AVhen the government fails to protect the people against rob- 
 bers, kidnappers, ravishers, and murderers, it is not only a legal 
 right, but an imperative moral duty, of the people to take their 
 mutual defence into their own hands. And the constitution re- 
 cognizes this right, when it declares that " the right of the peo- 
 ple to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed ; " for " the 
 rght of the people to keep and bear arms " implies their right 
 to use them when necessary for their protection.* 
 
 We claim it as a legal and constitutional right to travel in all 
 parts of our common country, and to perform the common offices 
 of humanity towards all whom we may find needing them. And 
 if, in our travels, we chance to see a fellow-man in the hands of 
 a kidnapper or slaveholder, we claim the right to rescue hi n, at 
 any necessary cost to the kidnapper. And, if any part of our 
 country be unsafe for single travellers, or small companies of 
 travellers, we claim the right to go in companies numerous 
 enough to make ourselves safe, and to enable us to rescue all 
 whom we may find needing our assistance. 
 
 And it is the legal duty of both the United States and all 
 
 * If, instead of going to the rescue of a fellow-citizen, whom we see set upon by 
 a robber, ravisher, kidrapper, or murderer, we connive at the crime, either by 
 declaring the act legal, or encouraging the idea that it can be committed with impu- 
 nity, we thereby make ourselves accomplices in the crime. By this rule, if the per- 
 sons enslaved in this country are, in the view of the United States Constitution, 
 citizens of the United States, equally with the other ciuzens of the United States, 
 and we nevertheless connive at and encourage their enslavement, cither by declar- 
 ing it legal, or by holding out the hope that it can be done with impunity, we are, 
 not merely in the view of the moral law, but in the view of the constitution of the 
 United States, criminal accomplices in their enslavement. 
 
26 
 
 State courts — judges and juries — to protect us in the exercise 
 of these riiihts. 
 
 XL 
 
 We call particular attention to the duties of juries in this 
 matter. We believe in that noblest, and incomparably most 
 valuable, of all the judicial opinions ever rendered by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, in which they declared, by 
 the mouth of John Jay, the first, and great, and honest Chief- 
 Justice, that even in civil suits (as well as criminal) juries have 
 a right to judge of the law as well as the fact.* 
 
 We also believe with the United States House of Representa- 
 tives, who, in 1804, by a vote of 73 yeas to 32 nays, resolved 
 to impeach Samuel Chase, one of the Justices of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, for, as they said, " endeavoring 
 [in the trial of John Fries for treason] to wrest from the jury 
 their indisputable right to hear argument, and determine upon 
 the question of law^ as well as the question of fact, involved in 
 the verdict, which they were required to give," and declared 
 such conduct " irregular," and " as dangerous to our liberties as 
 
 * This being a case, in which a State was a party, it was tried by a jury in the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, From the preliminary remarks of the Chief- 
 Justice, it will be seen that the judges were unanimous in the opinion given. He 
 said : 
 
 "It is fortunate on the present, as it must be on every occasion, to find the 
 opinion of the court unanimous. We entertain no diversity of sentiment ; and we 
 have experienced no difficulty in uniting in the charge, which it is my province to 
 deliver 
 
 "It may not be amiss here, gentlemen, to remind you of the good old rule, that 
 on questions of fact, it is province of the jury, on questions of law, it is the province 
 of the court, to decide. But it must be observed that by the same law, which 
 recognizes this reasonable distribution of jurisdiction, you have nevertheless a right 
 to take upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law, as well as the 
 fact, in controversy. On this, and on every other occasion, however, we have no 
 doubt you will pay that respect which is due to the opinion of the court ; for, as on 
 the one hand, it is presumed that juries are the best judges of facts, it is, on the 
 other hand, presumable that the court are the best judges of law. But still both 
 objects are lawfully within your power of decision." (State of Georgia, vs. Brails- 
 ford ; III. Dallas, Rep. 1.) 
 
 This was in the year 1794. 
 
27 
 
 it is novel to our laws and usages ; " and that on " the rights of 
 juries [to determine the law, as well as the fact] ultimately rest 
 the liberty and safety of the American people." 
 
 We believe more than this. We believe that jurors, under 
 our constitution, not only have the right to judge what the laws 
 are, and whether they are consistent with the constitution, but 
 that they have all the ancient and common-law right of jurors to 
 judge of the justice of all laws whatsoever, which they are 
 called upon to assist in enforcing, and to hold all of them invalid 
 which conflict with their own ideas of justice. And that they are 
 under no legal or moral obligation to hold valid every iniquitous 
 statute, which they may suppose the letter of the constitution can 
 possibly be interpreted to cover. It is their duty, as it is the 
 duty of congresses and judges, to strive to see how much justice, 
 and not how much injustice, the constitution can be made to 
 authorize. 
 
 We believe that juries, and not congresses and judges, are 
 the palladium of our liberties. We do not at all admit, as is 
 now almost universally assumed to be the fact, that the people of 
 this nation have ever given their rights and liberties into the 
 sole keeping of legislators and judges. We hold that the 
 assumption of the supreme court of the United States to decide, 
 authoritatively for the people of this country, what their rights 
 and liberties ai'e, and what is the true meaning of the constitu- 
 tion, is an assumption of absolute power — an entire and flagrant 
 usurpation — authorize>l by no word or syllable of the constitu- 
 tion ; and that it should not be submitted to for a moment, unless 
 we all of us design to be slaves. 
 
 We believe, too, that the practice of selecting jurors by 
 judges and marshals, the servile and corrupt instruments of the 
 government, who will of course select only those known to be 
 favorable to the tyrannical measures of the government, is as 
 utterly unconstitutional, as it necessarily must be destructive of 
 liberty. We believe that juries should be, in fact, what they 
 are in theory, viz., a fair epitome or representation of " the 
 country," or people at large ; and that to make them so, they 
 must be selected by lot, or otherwise, from the whole body of 
 
28 
 
 male adults, ^vithout any choice or interference by the govern- 
 ment, or any of its officers ; and that when selected, no judge or 
 other officer of the government can have any authority to ques- 
 tion them as to \Yhether they are in favor of, or opposed to, the 
 laws that are to be put in issue. 
 
 In short, we believe it to be the purpose of our systems of 
 government to maintain in force only those principles of justice 
 which the people generally can understand, and in which they are 
 agreed; and not to invest one portion of the people, either 
 minority or majority, with unlimited power over the others. 
 
 Evidently the only tribunal known to our constitution, and to 
 be relied on for the maintenance of such principles, is the jury. 
 
 We, therefore, hold that all legislative enactments and judicial 
 opinions should be held subordinate to that general public con- 
 science, which is presumed to be represented in the jury-box, by 
 twelve men, taken indiscriminately from the whole people, and 
 capable of giving judgments against persons or property only 
 when they act with entire unanimity. And we believe it to be 
 the primary and cajtital object of our constitutions thus " to get 
 twelve honest men into a jury-box," to do justice, according to 
 their own notions of it, between man and man, and to see that 
 only such measures of government shall be enforced as they shall 
 all deem just and proper. 
 
 We believe that, under this system of trial by jury, it will be 
 safe for one human being to go to the rescue of another from the 
 hands of kidnappers, ravishers, and slaveholders. We believe, 
 also, that a government, so powerful and so tyrannical as to 
 restrain men from the performance of these primary duties of 
 humanity and justice, ought not to be suffered to exist. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Turning now from our constitution, as it is in theory, and 
 looking at our government, as it is in practice, what do we 
 find ? Do Ave find our national government securing to all its 
 citizens the rights which it is constitutionally bound to secure to 
 them? No. It does not know, nor even profess to know, /or 
 
29 
 
 iUelf, who its own citizens are. It does not even profess to have 
 any citizens, except such as the separate States may see fit to allow 
 it to have. It dares not perform the first political duty towards 
 the people of the United States individually, without first humbly 
 asking the permission of the State governments. It ventures 
 timidly, and hat in hand, within each State, as if fearful of being 
 treated as an intruder, and obsequiously inquires if the State 
 government will be pleased to allow " the supreme law of the 
 land " the privilege of having a few citizens within the State, to 
 save it from falling into contempt, and becoming a dead letter ? 
 Shamefacedly confessing its own barrenness, it simply offers itself 
 as a dry nurse to any political children whom the States may see 
 fit to commit partially to its care. Some of the States, confiding 
 in its subserviency and desire to please, graciously suffer the 
 forlorn and harmless creature to busy itself in various subordinate 
 services, such as carrying letters, &c , for all their citizens. 
 Others, less gracious towards it, or less disposed to allow their 
 citizens the luxury of such a servant, give it strict orders to do 
 nothing for these, those, and the others of their people — the 
 exceptions amounting, in some States, to one-half of the whole 
 population. And the submissive creature follows these instruc- 
 tions to the letter, living, as it does, in perpetual fear lest the 
 slightest transgression, on its part, should be followed by its 
 summary dismissal from the political household. The only dig- 
 nity left it is its name. It still calls itself the United States 
 Government ; fancies it has citizens of its own, whom it protects ; 
 plumes itself, in the eyes of the world, on its greatness and 
 strength ; talks contemptuously, and even indignantly, of those 
 governments that suffer their subjects to be oppressed; and 
 ostentatiously proffers its protection to those of all lands who 
 will accept it. Yet all the while the affrighted and imbecile 
 thing sees its own citizens snatched aAvay from it, at the rate of 
 a hundred thousand per annum, by the State governments, and 
 dares neither lift its finger, nor raise its voice, to save one of them 
 from the auctioneer's block, the slave-driver's whip, the ravisher's 
 lust, the kidnapper's rapacity, or the ruffian's violence. The 
 number of its living citizens (to say nothing of the dead) of 
 
30 
 
 whom it has thus been robbed, amounts at this day to some four 
 millions ; and the number doubles in every twenty-five years. 
 Nevertheless, its greatest anxiety still is lest its servility and 
 acquiescence shall not be so complete as to satisfy these kidnap- 
 pers of its citizens. The only symptom of courage it dares ever 
 exhibit, as against a State, is when it attempts some rapacious or 
 unequal taxation, or commits the unnatural crime of pursuing its 
 own flying citizens, not to protect them, but to subject them 
 again to the tyranny from which they have once escaped. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 While the government of the nation is thus prostrate and de- 
 graded, the people of the nation — at least that portion of them 
 who show themselves in political organizations — instead of being 
 alive to the authority of " the supreme law of the land," and the 
 rights of the people under it, are divided into four wretched, in- 
 famous factions, all of whom agree in the political absurdity, that 
 the status of a man, relative to " the supreme law of the land," is 
 fixed by some subordinate law ; that the rights of a man under the 
 constitution of the United States are fixed by the constitutions and 
 laws of the separate States. All of them agree, therefore, that the 
 States may convert at least four millions citizens of the United 
 States into property, with their posterity through all time. All of 
 them agree in, and proclaim, the inviolability of property in man, 
 within the United States, where alone the United States govern- 
 ment has any jurisdiction of the question ; and disagree with each 
 other only as to the inviolability of property in man, outside of the 
 United States, where the United States have no political jurisdic- 
 tion at all. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 We repeat that the United States has no political jurisdiction 
 at all, outside of the United States. By this we mean that it has 
 no political jurisdiction over people inhabiting the new countries 
 west of the United States, which the United States has hitherto 
 
31 
 
 assumed to govern, under the name of " Territories." And we 
 feel bound to make this assertion good. 
 
 Where does the constitution grant congress any power to 
 govern any other people than those of the United States ? Even 
 the war-making power would not authorize us to hold a conquered 
 people in subjection indefinitely, but only so long as they should 
 remain enemies, or refuse to do justice. The treaty-making 
 power is no power to make treaties adverse to the natural rights 
 of mankind. It, therefore, iiScludes no power to buy and sell 
 mankind, with the territories on which they live. It no more im- 
 phes a power, on our part, to purchase foreign people, and govern 
 them as subjects, than it implies a power to sell a part of our own 
 people to another nation, to be governed as subjects. 
 
 The only other power which can be claimed as authorizing such 
 a government, is granted in the following words : 
 
 " The congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all 
 needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory [land] or 
 other property, belonging to the United States." 
 
 Here is no grant of general political power over people^ 
 either within or without the United States ; but only a power to 
 control and dispose of, as property, the land — for " territory" is 
 but land — and other property, belonging to the United States. 
 
 To make this idea more evident, let us divide the provision 
 into two parts, and read them separately as follows : 
 
 1. " The congress shall have power to dispose of the territory 
 [land] or other property, belonging to the United States." 
 
 Here plainly is no grant of political power over people. 
 
 2. " The congress shall have power to make all needful rules 
 and regulations respecting the territory [land] or other property 
 belonging to the United States." 
 
 Here is plainlv no more grant of political power in connection 
 ■with the land, than in connection with any " other property " be- 
 longing to the United States. 
 
 The power to " make all needful rules and regulations respect- 
 ing land or other property belonging to the United States," is no 
 grant of general pohtical power over people. 
 
 The power granted is only such a degree of power over land 
 
32 
 
 and other property belonging to the United States, as may be 
 necessary to secure such land and other property to the uses of 
 the United States. 
 
 That this power is not one to establish any organized govern- 
 ment over people, is proved by the fact that the power is cer- 
 tainly as ample in regard to " territory and other property," 
 within any of the United States, as to territory and other prop- 
 erty, outside of the United States. If, therefore, the power in- 
 cluded a power to set up an or^nized government or territory 
 outside of the United States, it would equally include a power to 
 set up an organized government within each State, to the exclu- 
 sion of the State authority, wherever the United States had 
 " territory or other property " within a State. But nobody ever 
 dreamed that the power authorized any such political monstrosity 
 as this. 
 
 There is nothing in the language of the constitution, that im 
 plies that the land or other property spoken of, is outside of the 
 United States. And as ours is distinctly a government of the 
 United States, and not of other countries, the legal presumption 
 is that the land and other property — more especially the land — 
 belonging to the United States, is to be found within the United 
 States, and not in other countries. 
 
 The United States have no rightful ownership of the unoccu- 
 pied lands west of the United States. It is against the law of 
 nature, and therefore impossible, that they should have any such 
 ownership. Land is a part of the natural wealth of the world, 
 created for tbe sustenance of mankind, and offered by the Cre- 
 ator as a free gift to those, and those only, who take actual pos- 
 session of it. And actual possession means either actually living 
 upon it, or improving it, by cutting down the trees, breaking up 
 the soil, throwing a fence around it, or bestowing other useful 
 labor upon it. Nothing short of this actual possession can give 
 any one a rightful ownership of wilderness lands, or justify him in 
 withholding it from those who wish to occupy it. Governments, 
 which are but associations of individuals, can no more acquire any 
 rightful ownership in wild lands, without this actual possession, 
 than single individuals can do so. Until such lands are wanted 
 
33 
 
 for actual use, they must remain free and open for anybody and 
 everybody, who chooses, to take possession of, and occupy them. 
 Governments have no more right to assume the ownership of these 
 lands, and demand a price for them, than they have to assume 
 the ownership of the atmosphere, or the sunshine, and demand a 
 price for them. They have no more right to claim the ownership 
 of such lands, than of the birds and quadrupeds that inhabit them ; 
 or than they have to claim property in the ocean, and to demand 
 a price of all who either sail upon it, or take fish out of it. 
 
 It is no answer to say that our government bought these lands 
 of France or Mexico, for neither France nor Mexico had any 
 rightful property in them, and could, therefore, convey no right- 
 ful title to them. Even in lands purchased of the Indians, the 
 United States acquire no rightful property, except only in such 
 as the latter actually cultivated, or occupied as habitations. Those 
 which they merely roamed over in search of game, they had no 
 exclusive property in, and could accordingly convey none. 
 
 The United States, therefore, have no rightful property in wild 
 lands, even within the United States. Still less, if possible, have 
 they any such property in wild lands outside of the United States. 
 
 There is nothing in the constitution that implies that the United 
 States have any property in wild lands, either within or without 
 the United States. " The territory [land] or other property be- 
 longing to the United States," spoken of in the constitution, 
 must be presumed to be such land and other property as the United 
 fetates can rightfully own ; and not such as they may simply as- 
 sume to own, in violation of the law of nature, and the natural 
 rights of mankind. 
 
 There is just as much authority given to congress, by the 
 constitution, to assume the ownership of the atmosphere, both 
 within and without the United States, and " to dispose of, and 
 make all needful rules and regulations respecting " it, as there is 
 for their assuming such a power over wild lands, either within or 
 without the United States. 
 
 This power granted to congress must be construed consist- 
 ently, and only consistently, with the law of nature, if that be 
 possible, and with the general purposes of the government. It 
 
u 
 
 must, therefore, if possible, be construed as applying to occiqned, 
 instead of ivild lands, and to those lying within, rather than to 
 those lying beyond, the geographical limits of the United States. 
 And this is possible. " The power to dispose of, and make all 
 needful rules and regulations respecting the territory [land] and 
 other property belonging to the United States," and lying and 
 being within the United States, is a power constantly needed in 
 carrying on the daily operations of the government. It is needed 
 in re<mrd to every post-office, court-house, custom-house, or other 
 real or personal property, whether absolutely owned, or tempora- 
 rily occupied, by the United States. The power applies as well 
 to lands and buildings temporarily leased, as to those absolutely 
 owned ; because a lease is a partial ownership. 
 
 The constitution specially provides that " over all places pur- 
 chased hj the consent of the legislature of the State in which the 
 same shall he, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock- 
 yards, and other needful buildings, congress shall have power to 
 exercise exclusive legislation^ But inasmuch as the States 
 might not give their consent — and could not even be expected 
 to give their consent — to this '-'■ exclusive legislation^^ over all 
 the " places " which the United States might purchase (or lease) 
 for post-offices, court-hoases, and " other needful buildings," it 
 was necessary that congress, instead of a " power to exercise ex- 
 clusive legislation^^ over such "jt?/aces," should have power — 
 without excluding the general jurisdiction of the States — "to 
 make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory 
 [land, " places "J or other property " thus owned or occupied by 
 the United States, in order to secure them to the uses, for which 
 the United States designed them. AVithout such a power, the 
 United States could not establish even a post-office, without first 
 getting the consent of the legislature of the State in which it 
 was to be established. 
 
 We have, therefore, no need — in order to find " territory " 
 [land, " places "] for this power to apply to — to assume that the 
 United States, in violation of the law of nature, are the owners 
 of wild lands, either within or without the United States. Still 
 less have we need to assume that our government has power to 
 
35 
 
 exercise absolute political authority over peoples outside of the 
 United States, in violation of the natural right of all men to go- 
 vern themselves. 
 
 Peoples living outside of the United States, are, to us, for- 
 eign nations, to all intents and purposes. And it is of uo im- 
 portance whether those peoples are many or few ; whether those 
 countries are thinly or densely populated ; whether the countries 
 are contiijuous to, or distant from the United States. In either 
 case they are alike independent of us. Whether they are well, or 
 ill governed, or have no government at all, is, politically speaking, 
 no concern of ours. 
 
 Peoples settling on the lands west of the United States, are 
 therefore, so far as we are concerned, independent nations, over 
 whom we have no more political jurisdiction, than over the peo- 
 ple of Canada, or England, or France, or Japan. AVhether they 
 have any organized governments at all, is no aifair of ours, any 
 more than whether the Indian tribes have, or have not, organized 
 governments. 
 
 The fact that anj cf these peoples were once citizens of tha 
 United States, does not affect the question. We acknowledge 
 and maintain the natural right of all men to renounce their 
 country. And when our people leave their country, by making 
 their permanent homes beyond its limits, they do renounce it. 
 And if they ever wish to come into the Union, they must be ad- 
 mitted as States, the same as any other nation, that should wish 
 to come into the Union, would have to do. 
 
 Por these reasons we have, constitutionally, no political juris- 
 diction whatever over those countries west of the United States, 
 which we are in the habit of governing under the name of " Ter- 
 ritories." * 
 
 * This question of the power of congress to govern countries outside of the 
 United States, has been twice before the supreme court of the United States. In 
 both cases, although the court declared that " the possession of the power was un- 
 questioned," their efforts to show in what part of the constitution the power 
 was to be found, seemed to be very unsatisfactory, even to themselves. 
 
 In the first case, the court said : — 
 
 " In the meantime, Florida continues to be a territory of the United States, 
 governed by virtue of that clause in the constitution, which empowers congress 
 
36 
 
 XV. 
 
 If any of our citizens are carried off by force into those 
 countries, and there held as slaves, we have the right, by force of 
 arms, if need be, to compel their restoration, the same as if they 
 
 ' to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory, or other pro- 
 perty of the United States.' 
 
 " Perhaps the power of governing a territory belonging to the United States, 
 which has not, by becoming a State, acquired the means of self-government, may 
 result necessarily from the facts, that it is not within the jurisdiction of any par- 
 ticular State, and is within the power and jurisdiction of the United States. The 
 right to govern, may be the inevitable consequence of the right to acquire, terri- 
 tory. Whichever may be the source whence the power is derived, the posuision of 
 it is unquestioned." (Am. Ins. Co. vs. Canter; I. Peters, 542.) 
 
 Here three possible sources of the power are suggested ; but which one of the 
 three is the true source, the court seem wholly unable to decide. It would seem 
 to have been much more in keeping with judicial propriety and integrity, to have 
 definitely determined the source of the power, before declaring that " whichever 
 may he the source whence the poxoer is derived, the possession of it is unquestioned." 
 How the court can say that " the possession of a power is unquestioned," so 
 long as they are unable to determine in what part of the constitution the power is 
 to be found, is, to say the least of it, very mysterious. Nothing, evidently, short of 
 that infallible discernment, which supreme courts assume to possess, could authorize 
 them to affirm thus positively the existence of a power, the source of which they 
 could not discover. 
 
 We assume that it has already been shown that the first of these suggestions, 
 viz., that the power to govern territory, outside of the United States, is included in 
 " the power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the 
 territory, or other property belonging to the United States," is wholly unfounded. 
 
 The second suggestion, viz., that the power " may result necessarily from the 
 facts that the territory is not within the jurisdiction of any particular State, and 
 is within the power and jurisdiction of the United States," assumes the whole 
 point in dispute, which is — whether territory and people, outside of the United 
 States, are " within the power and jurisdiction of the United States." 
 
 The third suggestion, viz., that " the right to govern, may be the inevitable con- 
 sequence of the right to acquire, territory," again assumes the whole point in dis- 
 pute, which is — whether the United States have the right to acquire — that is, 
 to purchase — territory and peoples outside of the United States. 
 
 It is plainly against the law of nature, and therefore impossible, for govern- 
 ments to acquire any rightful ownership of wilderness lands, and withhold them 
 from, or demand a price for them of, those persons, who wish to take actual pos- 
 session of them, and cultivate them. As it is impossible for any nation to have 
 any rightful property in wild lands, it is impossible for one nation to convey any 
 such ownership to another. It is, therefore, impossible that the United States can 
 " acquire " — that is, purchase — any such ownership. 
 
 It is also against nature, and therefore impossible, that any government should 
 own its people, as property, and have the right to dispose of them, as property. 
 It is, therefore, impossible that the United States can " acquire," by treaty, any 
 ownership of people outside of the United States, or consequently any right to 
 govern them. 
 
37 
 
 had been carried into any other country. And that is all the 
 political power which our constitution gives us over slavery in 
 those countries. We have no more power to assume general 
 
 In the case of Dred Scott, the same question came again before the court. And 
 the court (19 Howard, 443) cited and adopted the opinion previously given, viz., that 
 " whichever may be the', source whence the power is derived, the possession of it is 
 wiquestioned." But they offered no new argument in its support, except the inti- 
 mation (p. 447) that the power to admit new States into the Union might " author- 
 ize the acquisition of territory, not fit for admission at the time, but to be admitted 
 as soon as its population and situation entitle it to admission." 
 
 But there would be just as much reason in saying that, because A has the right 
 to admit B as a partner in business, therefore he has a right to buy him, and hold 
 him as a slave, until he is fit to be admitted as a partner. 
 
 The court confess (p. 446) that — 
 
 " There is certainly no power given by the constitution to the federal government 
 to establish or maintain colonies, bordering on the United States, or at a distance, 
 to be ruled and governed at its own pleasure ; nor to enlarge its own territorial 
 limits in any way, except by the admission of new States. , . . No power is given 
 to acquire a territory to be held and governed iJermanently in that character." 
 
 But they say (p. 447) that — 
 
 " It [the territory] is acquired to become a State, and not to be held as a colony, 
 and governed by congress with absolute authority; and as the propriety of admit- 
 ting a new State is committed to the sound discretion of congress, the power to 
 acquire territory for that purpose, to be held by the United States until it is in a 
 suitable condition to become a State, upon an equal footing with the other States, 
 must rest upon the same discretion. It is a question for the political department 
 of the government, and not for the judicial ; and whatever the political department 
 of the government shall recognize as within the limits of the United States, the 
 judicial department is also bound to recognize, and to administer in it the laws of 
 the United States," &c. &c. 
 
 This pretence of the court, that although the United States have no power to 
 buy territory, and govern it as a colony for ever, they nevertheless have a right to 
 buy it and govern it as a colony, until congress, in the exercise of its discretion, 
 shall see tit to admit it as a State, is an entire fabrication and fraud. There is 
 nothing whatever, in the constitution, that i-equires congress ever to admit a 
 territory as a State. And if congress have authority to buy territory, and govern 
 it as a colony at all, they have a right to hold it, and govern it as a colony for ever. 
 
 The truth is, that all our constitutional law on this subject — that is to say, all 
 the constitutional law that has been practically acted upon by congress — instead 
 of being found in our own constitution, is found only where nearly all the rest of 
 our constitutional law is found, viz., in the tyrannical practices of other govern- 
 ments ; and especially in the tyrannical practices of the English Government. Be- 
 cause other governments usurp the ownership of wild lands, and demand a price 
 for them, our government does the same. Because other governments have 
 colonies, and govern them against their will, our government usurps authority to 
 db the same. And because other nations claim to own their colonies as property, 
 and assume to sell them as such, our government claims the right to buy any that 
 may be in the market. When, in truth, it has no more right to buy the people of 
 other nations, than to sell those of our own. 
 
38 
 
 political jurisdiction there, in order to prevent our people being 
 carried there as slaves, than we have to assume similar jurisdic- 
 tion over any other parts of the earth, in order to prevent our 
 people being carried into them as slaves. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Whether, therefore, property in man be, or be not, lawful in the 
 United States, we have no general political jurisdiction over it 
 outside of the United States. And we have no more jurisdiction 
 over it in the territories, or countries west of the United States, 
 than we have in any other territories or countries in the world, 
 outside of the United States. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 If any portion of our people are, in the view of our constitu- 
 tion, lawful property within the United States, then, constitution- 
 ally speaking, their owners have the right to carry them out of 
 the United States into any other part of the world, and there 
 hold them, or lose them, according to the laws that prevail there. 
 If, on the other hand, no part of our people are, in the view of the 
 constitution, lawful property within the United States, then, 
 constitutionally speaking, we are bound to prevent any of them 
 being carried out of the country as slaves, no matter what part 
 of the world they may be carried to. And this is all we have 
 to do with slavery outside of the United States. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Neither has congress any authority to determine the question 
 whether new States shall be admitted into the Union as slave- 
 holdinfr or as non-slaveholdin"; States. All new States admitted 
 into the Union must come into it subject to the constitution of 
 the United States as " the supreme law." If this " supreme 
 law " declares one man to be the proporty of another, then, 
 constitutionally speaking, he is and must be such property as 
 
39 
 
 much in the new States as in the old ; and congress has no 
 power to prevent it. If, on the other hand, that supreme law 
 declares that there is no property in man, then congress has no 
 power to set aside this supreme law in favor of any new State, 
 any more than in favor of any of the old ones. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Finally, even if it were admitted that congress has power 
 under the constitution to govern countries outside of the United 
 States, under the name of " territories," still the law of pro- 
 perty, as established by the ccnstitution witJiin the United States^ 
 would necessarily be the law of those territories ; for the con- 
 stitution would be as much the supreme law of the territories as 
 it is of the United States. If, therefore, the constitution makes 
 a man property within the United States, it would necessai'ily 
 make him property in the territories. If, on the other hand, 
 the constitution makes every man free within the United States, 
 it would necessarily make every man free in the territories. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Whether, therefore, we have or have not political jurisdiction 
 over the " territories," so called, the whole question of slavery, 
 so far as our government is concerned, must be settled by deter- 
 mining whether the constitution of the United States, " the 
 supreme law of the land," does or does not make a man a slave 
 within the United States. If it does make him a slave anyivhere 
 within the United States, it makes him a slave everyivhere within 
 the United States — in oli States and new States — and also in 
 the territories, if our government has political jurisdiction over 
 the territories. If, on the other hand, the constitution makes 
 everybody free within the United States, it makes everybody free 
 also in the territories, if our government has jurisdiction there. 
 
40 
 
 XXI. 
 
 In short, we have one " supreme law " on this point, extending 
 over all the States, and over any other countries (if any others 
 there be) subject to the jurisdiction of the constitution. And 
 when we shall have determined whether that supreme law makes 
 a man property or not, either in Massachusetts or Carolina, we 
 shall have determined it for all other localities, whether States or 
 territories, within which the constitution now is, or ever shall be, 
 the *' supreme law." 
 
 XXII. 
 
 There is, therefore, no room or basis under the constitution 
 for the four different factions that now exist in this country, in 
 regard to slavery, either in the States, or in the territories. 
 There is room only for this single question, viz. : Does the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, " the supreme law of the land," 
 make one man the property of another ? All who take the 
 affirmative of this question, and intend to live up to that principle, 
 are bound, in consistency, to unite for the maintenance of it in all 
 the States, and in all the territories (if the government has 
 jurisdiction in the territories). All those who take the negative 
 of the same question, and intend to live up to that principle, are 
 bound, in consistency, to unite their forces for carrying that prin- 
 ciple into effect throughout the United States, and throughout 
 the territories (if congress has jurisdiction over the territo- 
 ries). And there is no middle ground whatever, on which any 
 man can consistently stand, between these two directly antago- 
 nistic positions. 
 
 We ask all the people of the United States to take their posi- 
 tion distinctly on the one side or the other of this question, at 
 t'le ensuing election ; and not to waste their energies or influ- 
 ence upon any of the frivolous and groundless issues, which 
 divide the four different factions now contending for possession of 
 the government. 
 
41 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Of all these factions, the Republican is the most thoroughly 
 senseless, baseless, aimless, inconsistent, and insincere. It has 
 no constitutional principles to stand upon, and it lives up to no 
 moral ones. It aims at nothing for freedom, and is sure to 
 accomplish it. The other factions have at least the merits of 
 frankness and consistency. They are openly on the side of 
 slavery, and make no hypocritical grimaces at supporting it. 
 The Republicans, on the other hand, are double-faced, double- 
 tongued, hypocritical, and inconsistent to the last degree. We 
 speak now of their presses and public men. Duplicity and 
 deceit seem to be regarded by them as their only available 
 capital. This results from the fact that the faction consists 
 of two wings, one favorable to liberty, the other to slavery ; 
 neither of them alone strong enough for success ; and neither of 
 them honest enough to submit to present defeat for their princi- 
 ples. How to keep these two wings together until they shall 
 have succeeded in clutching the spoils and power of office, is the 
 great problem with the managers. The plan adopted is, to make, 
 on the one hand; the most desperate efforts to prove that their 
 consciences and all their moral sentiments are opposed to slavery, 
 and that they will do every thing they constitutionally can, against 
 it ; and, on the other, to make equally desperate efforts to prove 
 that they have the most sacred reverence for the constitution, and 
 that the constitution gives them no power whatever to interfere 
 with slavery in the States. So they cry to one wing of their 
 party, " Put us in power, and we will do every thing we comti- 
 tutionally can for liberty." To the other wing, they cry, " Put 
 us in power. You can do it with perfect safety to slavery — for 
 constitutionally we can do nothing against it, where it is." 
 
 It is lucky for these Jesuitical demagogues that there happen 
 to be, bordering upon the United States, certain wilderness 
 regions, over which the United States have hitherto usurped 
 jurisdiction. This gives them an opportunity to make a show of 
 living up to their professions, by appearing to carry on a terrific 
 war against slavery, outside the United States, where it is not ; 
 
42 
 
 ■while, u'ithi'A. the United States^ " where- it z\<t," they have no 
 political quarrel with it whatever, but only make a pretence of 
 having very violent moral sentiments. 
 
 Outside of the United States, where slavery is not, and where 
 the United Statea really have no jurisdiction, the battle is made, 
 by these men, to appear to be a real battle of statutes, at least, 
 if not of principles. Within the United States, where slavery 
 is, and where the United States have jurisdiction, the contest is 
 plainly a mere contest of hypocrisy, rhetoric, and fustian, and a 
 selfish struggle for the honors and spoils of office. 
 
 In this warfare, in which it is understood that slavery is not to 
 be hurt, the weapons employed are mostly absurd, bombastic, and 
 fraudulent watchwords, in preference to any constitutional prin- 
 ciples, that might be dangerous to the object assailed. Among 
 the watchwords are these : " Freedom National, Slavery Sec- 
 tional;^' '■'■Free Labor and Free Men;^^ '■'■ Non-extenmn of 
 Slavery ; " " Down with the Slave Oligarchy, ^^ &c., &c. All 
 these, as used by the Republicans, are either simple absurdities, 
 or fair-sounding falsehoods. 
 
 Take, for example, " Freedom National, Slavery Sectional.''^ 
 This is both an absurdity and a falsehood, on its face ; for how 
 can freedom be national, so long as any section of the nation can 
 be given up to slavery ? " Freedom National,^' to have any 
 sense, implies a paramount law for freedom pervading the whole 
 nation ; and is inconsistent with the idea that slavery can be legal 
 in so much even as a section of the nation. But, in the mouths 
 of the Republicans, '■'■Freedom National, Slavery Sectional" 
 means simply that, for territory outside of the United States, 
 there is a paramount national law, that requires, or at least per- 
 mits, liberty ; while, within the United States, this national law 
 is, or legally may be, overborne by local or sectional laws ; and 
 thus the entire territory of the nation be given up to " sectional 
 slavery." 
 
 If there bo any territory, loithin the United States, in regard 
 to which this assumed national law of freedom is paramount, it 
 can be, at most, only the District of Columbia, and a few places 
 occupied as forts, arsenals, &c., over which congress have " ex- 
 
43 
 
 elusive legislation," — places which are but as pin-points on the 
 map of the nation. 
 
 And yet this false, absurd, self-contradictorj, and ridiculous 
 motto, which really means nothing for freedom, but gives up the 
 whole nation to slavery, if the sections (States) so choose, has 
 already had a long life, as expressing one of the cardinal princi- 
 ples of the Republican faction. 
 
 The motto, '* Free Labor and Free 3Ien,^^ in the mouths of the 
 Republicans, is as false and Jesuitical as " Freedom National^ 
 and Slavery Sectional.''^ In the mouths of honest men, it would 
 imply that they were intent upon giving freedom to labor and 
 men, that now are not free. But in the mouths of Republicans, 
 it only means that they are looking after the interests of the 
 labor and the men, that are already free ; and that, as for the 
 the labor and the men, that are not free, they may remain in 
 bondage for ever, for aught the Republicans will ever do to help 
 them out of it. 
 
 This false, heartless, and infamous watchword — for it deserves 
 no milder description — has also had a long life, as expressing a 
 cardinal principle of the party. 
 
 But " The Non-Extension of Slavery " is the transcendant 
 principle of these pretended advocates of liberty. It is in this 
 sign they expect to conquer. What does it mean, or amount to ? 
 Does it mean the non-extension of slavery in ■point of time ? No ; 
 for slavery may be extended through all time, without obstruction 
 from them. Does it mean that slavery shall not be extended to 
 neiv victims? No ; for they consent that it may be extended to 
 all the natural increase of the existing slaves, until at least the 
 850,000 square miles, now occupied by slavery, shall be filled 
 with slaves to its utmost capacity. 
 
 What, then, is the extension to which they are so violently 
 opposed ? Why, it is only this : If a slave is carried by his 
 owner from one place to another, that is an extension of slavery ! 
 
 To continue a man and bis posterity in slavery through all 
 time, in one locality, is no extension of slavery, within the Repub- 
 lican meaning of the term. But to remove him from that locality 
 to another, is an " extension of slavery " too horrible for these 
 devotees of liberty to think of. 
 
44 
 
 But these Republicans, either foolishly or fraudulently, encou- 
 rage the idea, that if slavery can but be confined within the space 
 it now occupies, it will soon die out ; whereas, in truth, so far as 
 mere space is concerned, it probably has enough already for it to 
 live and flourish in for two, three, or five hundred years. 
 
 " Doivn with the Slave Oligarchy ^^^ would, to the minds of most 
 men, convey the idea of an intention to overthro^y the power of 
 the slaveholders, by annihilating their right of property in their 
 slaves. But in the creed of the Republicans, '•'■Down tvith the 
 Slave Oligarchy " means no such thing. It means only that the 
 slaveholders shall not have so much influence in the administration 
 of the national government, and especially that they shall not have 
 so large a share of the national offices, as they have hitherto had 
 the address to secure ! And these wise Republicans imagine 
 they can overthrow the slave ohgarchy, and destroy their influence 
 in the government, at the same time that they (the Republicans) 
 maintain the inviolability of the three or four thousand millions of 
 dollars of property in men, on which the slave oligarchy rest, and 
 whence all their influence is derived. 
 
 But suppose the slave oligarchy can be overthrown, after this 
 plan of the Republicans, what right have the latter, as consistent 
 men, acting under the constitution, and pledged to its support, to 
 attempt to overthrow the slave oligarchy, so long as they (the Re- 
 publicans) concede that the oligarchy are not violating the consti- 
 tution, hy holding their fellow-men as property ? According to the 
 Republican interpretation of the constitution, the slave oligarchy 
 are just as good citizens of the United States, exercising only 
 their constitutional rights, as are the Republicans themselves. 
 Indeed, there would be nothing inconsistent in the entire slave 
 oligarchy being members of the Republican faction, in full com- 
 munion. There is nothing in the political creed of the latter, that 
 really need stick at all in the throats of the former ; and the Re- 
 publicans themselves, or, at least, a large portion of them, would, 
 no doubt, be very much delighted by such an accession to their 
 numbers. 
 
 " The Suppression of the Slave Trade " appears to be becom- 
 ing one of their party watchwords. But, if southern juries will 
 neither indict, nor convict, how is the slave trade to be suppressed ? 
 
45 
 
 and how can the Republicans ask or expect southern juries to 
 indict, or convict, for bringing slaves from Africa, so long as they 
 (the Republicans) concede the right of property in four millions 
 of native Americans ? There is plainly no consistent way what- 
 ever, of suppressing the slave trade, except by giving freedom to 
 the slaves already in the country, and all that may be brought in, 
 and thus putting an end to the slave market. And there is, pro- 
 bably, no other possible way of suppressing it. Certainly, there 
 is no other possible way of suppressing it, unless by such an 
 enormous expenditure as the nation will never be likely to incur. 
 ''^TJie Suppression of the Slave Trade " may, therefore, fairly be 
 set down as another of the fraudulent watchwords of the Repub- 
 lican faction. 
 
 Still another specimen of the hypocrisy of this faction, is to be 
 found in its name. It has taken to itself the name of Bepiiblican. 
 They are great sticklers for the constitution, and many, or most, 
 of them " strict constructionists,''' at that. The word, ^^Repah- 
 lican,'^ is found but once in the constitution, and we are bound to 
 presume that this constitutional party have chosen their name 
 with reference to the simification of that word in the constitution. 
 But do they propose " to guaranty to every State in this Union 
 a republican form of government ? " — a government that shall 
 secure to all the citizens of the United States, within the States, 
 the protection of the laws ? And do they propose that the United 
 States government shall ascertain for itself, independently of the 
 State governments, who its own citizens are, within the States, that 
 it may fulfil this guaranty to them ? Not at all. So far from it, 
 they hold, in the language of the Chicago platform, that — 
 
 •' The maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and, especially, 
 the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions, 
 according to iis own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of 
 power, on which the perfection and endurance of our political faith depend; 
 and we denounce the lawless invasion, by armed force, of any State or 
 Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 
 
 This means, if it means any thing, that the " Slave Oligarchy," 
 or any other body of men, however small, who may chance to 
 get the power of a State into their hands, may reduce anybody 
 
46 
 
 and everybody, black and white, to slavery, without interference 
 from the general government ; and that for private persons to go 
 to the rescue of their fellow-men, from these robbers, ravishers, 
 and kidnappers, would be " among the gravest of crimes." 
 
 This is giving to slavery more than it ever asked. Even the 
 Bred Scott judges themselves set up no such claim for it as this. 
 Their opinion admits that whites are citizens of the United States, 
 and, because they are such, cannot be enslaved by the States. 
 Those judges are, in fact, " nonextensionists,''^ and have a much 
 better claim to that title than the Republicans ; for they conceded 
 that slavery could not be extended beyond the limits of a single 
 race ; whereas the Republicans acknowledge no such, or any 
 other, limit to slavery in the States ; or what is the same thing, 
 to slavery in the United States. 
 
 AVe believe that no body even of southern men, respectable 
 either for numbers, or as representatives of southern sentiment, 
 have ever attempted to carry this doctrine of State Bights to 
 such lengths, in behalf of slavery, as it is here conceded to them 
 by the pretended friends of liberty. In fact, these men have 
 been attempting, for years, to rival, at least, if not to outdo, even 
 southern men, in their advocacy of this trumpery doctrine of 
 " jState Bights.'" And they have at length succeeded in abso- 
 lutely outdoing them. And their motive has been, that they 
 might gain the reputation of being champions of liberty at the 
 north, and at the same time avoid the necessity of performing 
 any service for liberty at the south, where alone any real service 
 was needed. 
 
 It is of no avail, as a defence for the Republicans, to say, that, 
 in another resolution, at Chicago, they declared — 
 
 ^' That the maintenance of the principles pronmlgateil in the Declaration 
 of Independence, and embodied in the federal constitution, is essential to 
 the preservation of our Republican institutions; that the federal constitu- 
 tion, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, must and shall 
 bo preserved ; and that we re-assert 'these truths to be self-evident, — that 
 all men are created ecpial ; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 
 suit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted 
 among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' " 
 
47 
 
 It is of no avail that they declare these principles, in one 
 breath, Avhen, in the next, they declare the unlimited ri^ht of the 
 States to reduce men to bondage. That they should assert such 
 opposite principles, only proves what unblushing hypocrites and 
 liars they are ; and that they are ready to assert any principles 
 whatever, from the extreme of liberty, to the extreme of slavery, 
 if they can thereby conciliate or deceive the two opposite wings 
 of their faction, and keep them together until their object of 
 gaining possession of the government of the country shall be 
 attained. 
 
 We have recently been told, on high Republican authority, 
 that slavery is a '•'■ five-headed enormity ^ Well, be it so. How 
 do the Republicans propose to combat tljis " five-headed enor- 
 mity ? " We think we have shown that they propose to combat 
 it only by an imposture, that is at least twelve-headed. This 
 twelve-headed imposture consists of these twelve separate im- 
 postures, to wit : — 
 
 1. The imposture of " Freedom National^ and Slavery Sec- 
 tional.'^ That is to say, national freedom outside of the nation, 
 and sectional slavery all over the nation itself, if the separate 
 sections (States) shall so choose. 
 
 2. The imposture of " Free Labor and Free 3Ien.'^ That is 
 to say, seeking the interests alone of the labor and the men, that 
 are already free ; and leaving the labor and the men, that are not 
 free, to their fate. 
 
 3. The imposture of " Non-Extension of Slavery ^ That is 
 to say, extending slavery through all time, and to as many new 
 victims as the States respectively may choose ; and " non-extend- 
 ing " it only by not removing the slaves from one place to 
 another ; but confining them within the narrow precincts of 
 850,000 square miles, where it is to be presumed, they will soon 
 die out from compression, suflfocation, or some other equally prob- 
 able cause. 
 
 4. The imposture of " Down ivith the Slave Oligarchy.'''' That 
 is to say, maintaining the slaveholders' right of property in their 
 slaves, but depriving them of the political influence which that 
 property naturally gives them. 
 
48 
 
 5. The imposture of "2^e Suppression of the Slave Traded 
 That is to say, the suppression of the slave trade by statutes, 
 •which slaveholding juries are expected to execute ; the suppres- 
 sion of the slave trade, -while the slave markets are kept open ; 
 the suppression of the slave trade in native Africans, while 
 maintaining the slavery of native Americans. 
 
 6. The imposture of a party, calling itself " JiepubUcan,''^ and 
 professing to be a strictly constitutional party ; and yet refusing 
 to perform the only duty which the constitution enjoins under the 
 specific name of " Republican.''^ 
 
 7. The imposture of declaring that the constitution of the 
 United States can be *' the supreme law of the land," and yet 
 have no effect in fixi^ the political status of the people. 
 
 8. The imposture of " State Rights.''^ That is to say, the 
 imposture of declaring that the States can reduce everybody, or 
 anybody, to slavery, and thus deprive them of all rights under 
 the national government ; and yet the national government have 
 no right to interfere for their protection. 
 
 9. The imposture of assuming that a government, which pur- 
 ports to be distinctly the government of the United States, and 
 of no other counti-y or people on earth, should have (as the Re- 
 publicans claim) so much more political power over countries 
 and peoples outside of the United States, than it has over those 
 within the United States. 
 
 10. The imposture of assuming that the Republicans or any 
 body else can make great conquests for liberty, and at the same 
 time do nothing at all to the injury of slavery. 
 
 11. The consummate imposture of supposing that rhetoric, and 
 fustian, and bombast, are the only weapons necessary to rid the 
 earth of tyrants. 
 
 12. The transcendent imposture of supposing that the Repub- 
 lican party itself is, or ever has been, any thing else than an 
 imposture. 
 
 ^Ye could probably find still other " heads " of this Republican 
 imposture, if we had leisure and inclination to search for them. 
 But, however many we might find, we should undoubtedly find 
 them all filled with the same kind of emptiness as those we have 
 enumerated. 
 
49 
 
 But infidelity to their own convictions of tlie true character of 
 the constitution of the United States, in its relation to slavery, is 
 the crowning inconsistency, hypocrisy, and crime of large num- 
 bers, at least, of the RepubUcan faction. 
 
 There is no reason to doubt that very large numbers of that 
 wing of the party, which is sincerely favorable to liberty, includ- 
 ing a due proportion of their public men, believe that the consti- 
 tution of the United States is not only free itself from the stain 
 of slavery, but that it gives liberty to all " the people of the 
 United States-/' " any thing in the constitutions or laws of the 
 States to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 Of the public men, who hold this belief, there is much evidence 
 before the pubhc, tending to prove — probably sufficient ration- 
 ally to prove — that William H. Seward is one ; that such has 
 been his belief for many years ; and that he has intended to 
 avow it, and act upon it, so soon as he could do so with safety 
 to his political aspirations. Nevertheless, such was the unprinci- 
 pled character of the faction on whom he relied for his ago-ran- 
 dizement, and'such the unprincipled character of the man himself 
 (notwithstanding he has been supposed to combine more ability, 
 courage, and integrity, than any other man of the faction) that, 
 on the 29th of February last, he was weak and wicked enough, 
 in view of his political exigencies, not only to ignore all constitu- 
 tional opinions favorable to liberty, but virtually to ignore all the 
 moral sentiments he had ever professed on the subject. With a 
 deliberate heartlessness, so monstrous as to be disgustino', he 
 treated of four millions of human beings — having the same 
 natural rights with himself — and having also, in his own esti- 
 mation (as we think) equal political rights with himself, under 
 the constitution he had sworn to support — we say he heartlessly 
 treated of these four millions of men, and their posterity, as so 
 much capital — not, perhaps, the best form of capital — but 
 whether, or not, the best form of capital, was for the owners to 
 judge, and for experience to determine. And if, before this ex- 
 periment should be closed, anybody should presume to recc^nize 
 them as men, and attempt to convert them from capital into men • 
 or recognize them as citizens of the United States, and go to 
 
50 
 
 their rescue (as any one, on the hypothesis of their being such 
 citizens, might legally do) such a person, said Mr. Seward, must 
 necessarily, and may justly, be hung. 
 
 Thus this shameless man stood out, and stripped himself before 
 the eyes of all people, and labored, in their presence, to cover 
 himself all over with this moral and political filth, in order to 
 deaden the hated odors of liberty, humanity, and justice, which 
 he feared might be still clinging to him, as relics of his former 
 professions (and principles, if he ever had any), and thereby fit 
 himself, if possible, to become the candidate of his faction. And 
 the infamous character of the faction itself is to be inferred from 
 the fact, that all this self-defilement, on his part, was unsuccess- 
 ful to secure for him their confidence. They feared that at least 
 the smell of liberty might still be upon him ; and, therefore, fixed 
 their choice upon one, who, if not more clear of all real love 
 for freedom, was at least less suspected of any such disquali- 
 fication. 
 
 What we have supposed to be true of Mr. Seward, we have 
 good reason to believe to be also true of several, perhaps many, 
 other Republican members of congress, viz., that, believing the 
 slaves in this country to be, in the view of the constitution of the 
 United States, full citizens of the United States, equally with them- 
 selves, they nevertheless, for the sake of gaining power, publicly 
 acknowledge and declare their enslavement to be constitutional, 
 and that the general government has no authority to liberate them. 
 
 We think the friends of liberty, in every congressional district, 
 should look sharply after their representatives on this point. We 
 do not wish to send men to congress, who will belie the constitu- 
 tion, they swear to support. We do not even wish to send them 
 there to give us essays on the moral nature of slavery. We 
 understand that matter already. But, as John Brown would say, 
 we want men there, who, believing the constitution gives liberty 
 to all, will put the thing through. 
 
 We understand the reasons given, in private, by these men, % 
 why they do not declare that slavery is unconstitutional, and that ' ^' 
 the general government has power to abolish it, to be. That the 
 people are not ready for it! That the liepublicans must first get 
 
51 
 
 possession of the government ! That is to say, these men must 
 persist in their false asseverations, that the general government 
 has no power to abolish slavery ; that they, if placed in pos- 
 session of that government, never will abolish it ; but will, on the 
 contrary, sustain it in the States where it is — they must 
 persist in these asseverations, until they get the general gov- 
 ernment into their hands ; then, as they wish it to be in- 
 ferred, they will avow the fraud by which they obtained their 
 power ; will take it for granted that the people are ready to be 
 informed what the constitutional law of the country really is ; and 
 will proceed to put it into execution, by giving liberty to all ! 
 
 Spirits of Hampden, and Pym, and Sidney, and Elliot ; of 
 Otis, and Jefferson, and the Adamses ! Did you, in the full pos- 
 session of freedom of speech and the press ; with steam and elec- 
 tricity to carry your words to the people ; with boundless wealth, 
 the moral sentiments of the world, and the constitutional law of 
 your countries, on your side — did you, under such circumstances 
 as these, resist tyranny, by asserting it to be legal, and swearing 
 that you would support it, where it prevailed ? and declaring that 
 you would only oppose its extension into new regions ? Did you 
 do all this under the pretence that the people were not ready for 
 the truth ? that you must get possession of all the high places of 
 power, before you could do or say any thing for freedom ? and 
 that, when you should have obtained these places, you would de- 
 clare the frauds and perjuries you had committed to gain them ? 
 and would then become traitors to tyranny, and faithful to 
 freedom ? Was it by such ways as these, that you prepared the 
 heaits of the people to stand by you in the great struggles which 
 you saw before you ? Or did you not rather, in the midst of 
 poverty ; with feeble means of communication and concert ; and 
 with dungeons and scaffolds before your eyes, proclaim, with all 
 your strength, that tyranny, in its veriest strongholds, was but 
 an usurpation ? confident in the truth, that, next to the law of 
 nature, the constitutional law of your countries was the strongest 
 weapon you could use in behalf of liberty ? and that fraud, and 
 falsehood, and perjury were instruments as useless and suicidal 
 as they were base ? 
 
52 
 
 Tell us, also, are the men we now have among us, the Sew- 
 ards, and Chases, and Sumners, and Greeleys, and Lincolns, and 
 Hales — are these, and such men as these, jour legitimate suc- 
 cessors ? If they are, why have not mankind spit upon your 
 memories ? i 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 It is abundantly evident, from what has now been said, that the 
 constitution of the United States, " the supreme law of the land," 
 must necessarily fix the status of every individual, within the 
 United States, either as a free person, or a slave ; and that it 
 must do this, " any thing in the constitution or laws of any 
 State to the contrary notwithstanding." It is also abundantly 
 evident that, if any person be made free by that supreme law, he 
 is free everywhere under that law ; and that, if any one be made 
 a slave by that law, then, constitutionally speaking, he is a slave 
 everywhere under that law ; and his owner may carry him, and 
 hold him, as property, wherever he pleases, within the United 
 States, free of all responsibility to the constitutions or laws of 
 the States. 
 
 It is also evident that, if the United States constitution itself 
 makes a man slave, the general government, no more than the 
 State governments, can give him his freedom. 
 
 The real issue, then, before the country, is, zvhether slavery is 
 lawful everywhere within the United States, with no poicer, 
 either in the general or State governments, to prohibit it, without 
 an amendment to the constitution of the United States? or 
 whether it be unlawful everywhere, ivithin the United States, and 
 it be the duty of both the general and State governmeiits to pro- 
 hibit it ? 
 
 We entreat all, who act politically under the constitution of 
 the United States, to keep this issue distinctly in view, and to 
 hold all men and all parties strictly to it ; and to give no vote, 
 and no word of sympathy or support, to any man, or body of men, 
 who either evade it, or hesitate, or equivocate about it. Above 
 all, give no vote or support to those public men, who give their rant, 
 
53 
 
 declamation, and pretended moral sentiments to liberty, and, at 
 the same time, give over to slavery the constitution of the country, 
 and their oaths to support it. These men are practically the best 
 supporters of slavery there now are in the country. They do it 
 a service, which no other men can. From the confidence reposed 
 in their professions, they have power to deceive honest men as to 
 their rights and duties under the constitution, and thus hold 
 them back from any direct assault, political or otherwise. And 
 this power they are exerting to their utmost for the security of 
 slavery. The open friends of slavery have nearly or quite lost all 
 power of this kind. They have also deprived themselves of nearly 
 all moral sympathy and support. By their indiscreet and head- 
 long zeal for slavery, they long ago disgusted everybody but 
 themselves. They have now succeeded in disgusting even them- 
 selves, especially in the north. Their ranks are broken, their 
 minds disaifected, and both their moral and political power in a 
 great measure wasted away. Should any one of the factions, 
 into which they are divided, succeed in filling the executive de- 
 partment of the government, that acquisition will give them no 
 real power in the country. Their possession of that department, 
 therefore, is not a thing to be dreaded. Better, far better, that 
 the presidency should be in the hands of an open, but powerless 
 enemy of liberty, than in those of a powerful, but false, perjured, 
 and traitorous friend. 
 
 We, therefore, entreat that all, who give their votes at all, at 
 the ensuing election, will give them unequivocally for freedom. It 
 will not be necessary that they should wait for, or that there 
 should be, any national nomination of candidates. It will be suf- 
 ficient that, in each State, electoral candidates be named. If any 
 of them should be chosen, they can give their votes (as the con- 
 stitution contemplated" they would give them), for the persons 
 they shall think most worthy. 
 
 But if, as is very likely to be the result, no one of these elec- 
 toral candidates should be chosen, the votes given for tliem will 
 nevertheless not have been thrown away. The great object is to 
 procure the defeat of the Republicans. If defeated on the sixth 
 of November, the faction itself will be extinct on the seventh. Those 
 
dh4 
 
 of its members who intend to support slavery, will then go over 
 openly into its ranks ; while those who intend to support liberty, 
 will come unmistakably to her side. She will then know her 
 friends from her foes. And thenceforth the issue will be dis^ 
 tinctly made up, whether this be, or be not, a free country for all ? 
 And this one issue will hold its place before the country, until it 
 shall be decided in favor of freedom. 
 
THE 
 
 UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY 
 
 ENLARGED EDITION. 
 
 By LYSANDER SPOONER 
 
 PUBLISHED AND TOR SALE BY 
 
 BELA MARSH, 
 14 BROMFIELD STREET, BOSTON 
 
 PRICE: 
 
 In paper covers, $0.75. 
 
 In cloth, 1.00. 
 
 Postage on the work, in paper, 15 cents ; in clotli, 20 cents. 
 A liberal discount will be made to Booksellers and Agents who buy to sell again. 
 
 NOTICES. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM 11. SEWARD writes to Gerrit Smith conoei-ning it as follows: 
 
 " AuBnRN, November 9th, 1865. 
 My Dear Sir: I thank you for sending me a copy of Mr. Spooner's treatise. I had 
 bought a copy of the first edition. It is a very able work, and I wish that it might be uni- 
 versally studied. The writing and publishing of such books is the most effective way of 
 working out the great reformation which this nation is required to make by the spirit of 
 humanity. 
 
 Very sincerely your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 WILLIAM 11. SEWARD. 
 The Honorable Gerrit Smith." 
 
 HON. ALBERT G. BROWN, Senator in Congress from Mississippi, in the Senate, Dec 
 
loVe 
 
 11 UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 2d, 1856, (as reported in the Congressional Globe) after describing the book, as "making an 
 argument in favor of the Constitutional power of Congress, not only to interfere with, but 
 to abolish, slavery in the southern States of the Union," said : 
 
 " The Senator [Wilson] did not say, — what I am willing to say myself — that the book 
 is ingeniously written. No mere simpleton could ever have drawn such an argument. If 
 his premises were admitted, I should say at once that it would be a herculean task to over- 
 turn his argument." 
 
 [Although Mr. Brown thus leaves it to be inferred that he thought there might be 
 some error in the premises, he made no attempt to point out any. It would seem to be 
 incumbent on him to do so.] 
 
 GERRIT SMITH says : " The more I read that admirable, invincible, and matchless ar- 
 gument, which Lysander Spooner has made to show the unconstitutionality of slavery, the 
 more I am pleased with it. He yields nothing but what the legal rules of interpretation 
 compel him to yield. And why should he make unnecessary concessions in an argument 
 undertaken in behalf of all that is sacred and vital in the rights of man ? Were I studious 
 of fame or usefulness, I had rather be the author of this manly, brave, and independent ar- 
 gument against the constitutionality of slavery, than of any other law argument ever writ- 
 ten, either in this age, or in any former age — either on this side, or on the other side, of 
 the Atlantic. Why will not all lawyers read it ? Who of them could read it vrithout being 
 convinced that slavery is unconstitutional ? " 
 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS, without confessing his conviction of its truth, says : " This 
 claim (of the anti-slavery character of the constitution) has received the fullest investigation 
 from Mr. Lysander Spooner, who has urged it with all his unrivalled ingenuity, laborious 
 research, and close logic." 
 
 ELIZUR WRIGHT calls it " One of the most magnificent constitutional arguments ever 
 produced in any country. It needs such a work as Mr. Spooner-s on constitutional law, to 
 make the constitution of the least value to us as a shield of rights." 
 
 WILLIA5I LLOYD GARRISON, speaking of Part First, and disagreeing to its conclu- 
 sions, on the ground that the words of the constitution do not fully express the intentions 
 of its authors, yet says : " His logic may be faultless, as a mere legal effort. AVe admit Mr. 
 Spooner's reasoning to be ingenious ; perhaps, as an effort of logic, unanswerable. It im- 
 presses us as the production of a mind equally honest and acute. Its ability, and the im- 
 portance of the subject on which it treats, will doubtless secure for it a wide circulation and 
 a careful perusal." 
 
 JOSHUA LE.WITT says, of Part First : " It is unanswerable. There will never be an 
 honest attempt to answer it. Neither priest nor politician, lawyer nor judge, will ever dare 
 undertake to sunder that iron-linked chain of argument, which runs straight through this 
 book from beginning to end." 
 
 NATHANIEL P. ROGERS, speaking of Part First, and agreeing with some of its posi- 
 tions, and disagreeing with others, says : '• It is a splendid essay. If the talent laid out in 
 it were laid out in the bar, it would make the author distinguished and rich." " This essay 
 should give the author a name at the Boston bar. It will at the bar of posterity." 
 
 SAMUEL E. SEWALL, Esq., says of Part First: — " It merits general attention, not 
 merely from the importiince of the subject, but from the masterly manner in which it is 
 handled. It everywhere overflows with thought. We regard it as a great arsenal of legal 
 ■weapons to be used in the great contest between liberty and slavery. 1 hope it will receive 
 the widest circulation." 
 
 J. FULTON, Jr., says of Part First : " Now that I have read it, I feel bound to say 
 
UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY. HI 
 
 that it is the most clear and luminous production that 1 have ever read on the subject. It 
 begins without a line of preface, and ends without a word of apology. It is a solid mass of 
 the most brilliant argument, unbroken, as it seems to me, by a single flaw, and treads down 
 as dust everything which has preceded it upon that subject. Let every friend of the slave 
 read the work without delay. I believe it is destined to give a new phase to our struggle." 
 
 niCIIARD HlLDRETn says of Part First: " No one can deny to the present work 
 the merit of great ability and great learning. If anybody wishes to see this argument 
 handled in a masterly manner, with great clearness .and plainness, and an array of consti- 
 tutional learning, which, in the hands of most lawyers, would have expanded into at least 
 three royal octavos, we commend them to Mr. Spooner's modest pamphlet of one hundred 
 and fifty pages." 
 
 ELIHU BURRITT says: "It evinces a depth of legal erudition, which would do 
 honor to the first jurist of the age." 
 
 The Tnie American, (Cortland County, N. Y.,) says: "It is an imperishable and 
 triumphant work. A law argument that would add to the fame of the most famed jurist, 
 living or dead." 
 
 The Bangor Gaze«esays: " It is indeed a masterly argument. No one, unprejudiced, 
 who has supposed that that instrument (the constitution) contained guarantees of slavery, 
 or who has had doubts upon the point, can rise from the perusal without feeling relieved 
 from the supposition that our great national charter is one of slavery and not of free- 
 dom. And no lawyer can read it without admiring, besides its other great excellences, 
 the clearness of its style, and its logical precision." 
 
 The Hampshire Herald, (Northampton) says: " It is worthy the most gifted intellect 
 in the country." 
 
 WILLIAM L. CHAPLIN says: "This effort of Mr. Spooner is a remarkable one in 
 many respects. It is unrivalled in the simplicity, clearness, and force of style with which it 
 is executed. The argument is original, steel-ribbed and triumphant. It hears down all 
 opposition. Pettifogging, black-letter dullness, and pedantry, special pleading and dema- 
 gogism, all retire before it. If every lawyer in the country could have it put into his hands , 
 and be induced to study it, as he does his brief, it would alone overthrow slavery. There is 
 moral force enough in it for that purpose." 
 
 The Liberty Press, (Utica,) says: "The author labors to show, and does show, 
 that slavery in this country is unconstitutional, and unsustained by law, either state or 
 federal." 
 
 The Granite Freemam&yi: " We wish every voter in the Union could have the op- 
 portunity to read this magnificent argument. We should hear no more, after that, of the 
 ' compromises of the Constitution ' as an argument to close the lips and palsy the hands of 
 those who abhor slavery, and labor for its removal." 
 
 The Charter Oak says: " Of its rare merit as a controversial argument, it is super- 
 fluous to speak. It may, in fact, be regarded as unanswerable, and we are persuaded that 
 its general circulation would give a new aspect to the Anti-Slavery cause, by exploding the 
 popular, but mistaken notion, that slavery is somehow entrenched behind the Consti- 
 tution." 
 
 The Liberty Gazette (Burlington, Vt.,) says: "This work cannot be too highly 
 praised, or too extensively circulated. Its reasoning is conclusive, and no one can read it 
 without being convinced that the constitution, instead of being the friend and protector of 
 slavery, is a purely Anti-Slavery document." 
 
 The Indiana Freeman sa,y a: "Every Abolitionist should have this admirable work, 
 and keep it in constant circulation among his neighbors." 
 
IV UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 SYNOPSIS 
 
 Chap. I. What is Law? (p. 5.) Nothing ineonsiptent with justice can be law. 
 Falrehood of the definition, that " Law is a rule of ciyil conduct, prescribed by the supreme 
 power of a State." 
 
 [Where the genuine trial by jury prevails, this principle can be carried out in practice.] 
 
 Chap. II. Written Constitutions, (p. 15.) Admits, for the sake of the argument, that 
 constitutions and statutes, inconsi.stent with justice, may be made law ; and in.=ists only 
 that our constitutions shall be interpreted by the established rules, by which all other legal 
 instruments are interpreted ; one of which rules is, that all words, that are susceptible of 
 two meanings, one favorable to justice, and the other to injustice, shall be taken in the 
 sense favorable to justice. 
 
 Chap. III. The Colonial Cliarters. (p. 21.) That these charters were the constitu- 
 tional law of the Colonies up to the time of the Revolution ; that the provisions in them to 
 the effect that their legislation should be "consonant to reason, and not repugnant or 
 contrary, but so far as conveniently may be, agreeable to the laws, statutes, customs, and 
 rights of this our kingdom of England," made it impossible that slavery could have any 
 legal existe'nce in the Colonies up to the time of the Revolution; and that the decision of 
 the King's Bench, in Somersett'S case, was as much applicable to the Colonies as to Eng- 
 land. Note corrects Bancroft's statement, that England ever legalized the slave trade. 
 
 Chap. IV. Colonial Statutes, (p. 32.) Shows that the Colonial legislation, on the 
 subject of slavery, failed to identify, with legal accuracy, the persons to be made slaves ; 
 and, therefore, even if such legislation had been constitutional, would have failed to legal- 
 ize slavery. That, consequently, there was no legal slavery in the country, up to the time 
 of the Revolution. 
 
 Chap. V. The Declaration of Independence, (p. 36.) By this the nation declares it 
 to be "a self-evident truth," that all men are created free and equal. All "self-evident 
 truths " are necessarily a part of the law of the land, unless expressly denied. The na- 
 tion, as a nation, has never denied this self-evident truth, which it once asserted. This 
 truth is, therefore, a part of the law of the land, and makes slavery illegal. 
 
 Chap. VI. The State Constitutions of 11^9. (p. 39.) None of the State constitutions 
 in existence in 1789, established or authorized slavery. All of them, on their face, are free 
 '•onstitutions. Shows that the words "./Vcf,'" and "yVe^wiin,'" used in these constitutions, 
 were u.sed in the English or political sense, to designate native or naturalized persons, as 
 distinguiifhed from aliens, or persons of foreign birth not naturalized; and that they were, 
 in no case, used to designate a free person, as distinguished from a slave. Tliat the use of 
 the words in this sense, in the State constitutions of 1789, as they had been previously used 
 ill the colonial ch.arters, and colonial legislation, furnish an authoritative precedent, by 
 which to fix the meaning of the words, " /Vfe persons,'' in the Constitution of the United 
 States, in the clause relative to representation and direct taxation. 
 
 Chap. VII. The Articles of Confederation, (p. 51), contain no recognition of slavery ; 
 but use the word '■^ free " in the Engli.«h or political sense, to signify the native and natural- 
 ized citizens, as distinguished from aliens; and thus furni.'shes a precedent, authorized by 
 the whole nation, for giving the same meaning to the word ^\free " in the constitution. 
 
 Chap. VIII. The Constitution of the United States, (p. 54.) This chapter, tn Me 
 frst place, takes it for granted to have beeu shown that slavery had no legal existence up 
 to the time of the adoption of the United States Constitution. It then says that that cou- 
 
UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVEUY. V 
 
 stitution certainly did not create or establisli slavery as a new institution ; that the most 
 that can be claimed, is that it recognized the legality of slavery so far as it then legally ex- 
 isted under the State governments; but that, as slavery then had no legal existence, under 
 the State governments, any intended recognition of it, by the Constitution of the United 
 States, must necessarily have failed of effect. That consequently all " the people of the 
 United States " were made " citizens of the United States " by the constitution ; and there- 
 fore could never afterwards be made slaves by the State governments. 
 
 Secondly, (p 56.) Shows, from its provisions, that the Constitution of the United States 
 does not recognize slavery as a legal institution, but presumes all men to be free; denies 
 the right of property in man ; and, of it-elf, makes it impossible for slavery to have a legal 
 existence in any of the United States. Sliow.-*, (p. 67,) that the clause relative to persons 
 held to service or labor, has no reference to .'slaves; that (p. 73) the term, ''free persons," in 
 the clause relative to representation, is used in the political sense, to designate native and 
 naturalized persons, as distinguished from persons of foreign birth, not naturalized; that 
 (p. 81) the clause relative to " migration and importation of persons," does not imply that 
 the persons imported are slaves; that it makes no discrimination as to the persons, 
 whether African or European, to be imported; that it as much authorizes the importation 
 of Englishmen, or Frenchmen, as slaves, as it does Africans; that it would, therefore, be a 
 piratical constitution if the importation of persons implied that the persons to be imported 
 were slaves; that (p. 87) the clause relative to the protection of " the States against domes- 
 tic violence," does not imply the existence or legality of slavery, or protection against slave 
 insurrections; that (p. 90) " We, the people of the United States," means all the people of 
 the United States ; the constitution, therefore, made citizens of all the then people of the 
 United States; that (p. 95) the "power to regulate commerce," is a power to regulate com- 
 merce among all the people of the United States, ami implies that all are free to carry on 
 commerce; that (p. 96) the power to establish post ofifices, is a power to carry letters for aU 
 the people, and implies that all the people are free to send letters; that (p. 9G) the power to 
 secure to authors and inventors their exclusive right to their writings and discoveries, impUes 
 that all capable of writings and discoveries, are capable of being tlie owners thereof ; that 
 (p. 96) the power to rai.se armies, implies that Congress have power to accept volunteers, or 
 hire soldiers by contract with themselves, and that all are free to make such contracts; that 
 (p. 97) the power to arm and discipline the militia, implies that all are liable to be armed 
 and disciplined ; that the right to keep and bear arms, is a right of the whole people ; that 
 (p. 98) the prohibition upon any State law impairing the obligation of contracts, implies 
 that all men have the right to enter into all contracts naturally obligatory ; that (p. 99) all 
 natural born citizens are eligible to the Presidency, to the Senate, and to the House of Itep- 
 resentatives; that (p. 102) the trial by jury implies that all per.'^ons are free; that (p. 102) 
 the Habeas Corpus denies the right of property in man ; that (p. 105) the guaranty to every 
 State of a republican form of government, is a guaranty against slavery. 
 
 Chap. IX. The Intentions of ike Convention, (p. lU) Personal intentions of the 
 framers of no legal consequence to fix the legal meaning of the constitution. The instru- 
 ment must be interpreted as being the instrument of the whole people. 
 
 Chap. X. The Practice of the Government, (p. 123.) The practice of the govern- 
 ment, under the constitution, has not altered the meaning of the constitution itself. The 
 instrument means the same now, that it did before it was ratified, when it was first offered 
 to the people for their adoption or rejection. 
 
 Chap. XI. The Understanding of the People, (p. 124.) No legal proof, and not even 
 a matter of history, that the people, before they adopted the constitution, understood that 
 it was to support slavery. Could never have been adopted, had they so understood it. 
 
 Chap. XII. The State Constitutions c/" 1.S45. (p. 126.) Do not authorize slavery : 
 do not designate, nor authorize the State legislatures to designate, the persons to be made 
 slaves. Have provisions repugnant to slavery. The treaties for the purchase of Louisi- 
 1* 
 
VI UNCONSTITUTIOXALITV Of SLAVERT. 
 
 ana and Florida, imply that all the " inhabitants " were free, possessing the rights of lib- 
 erty, property, and religion, and were to become citizens of the United States. 
 
 Chap. Xin. The Children of Slaves are bom Free. (p. 129.) Shows that, even if 
 the persons held as slaves at the adoption of the Constitution, were to continue to be held 
 as slaves, their children, born in the country, were nevertheless all to be free by virtue of 
 natural birth in the country. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 Cdap. XIV. 77if D'-Jinition af Law. (p. 1.37.) The definition of law, given in chap- 
 ter first, insisted on and defended. Additional authorities cited in note. 
 
 Chap. XV. Ought Judges to resign their seats? (p. 147.) No; but to continue to 
 hold them, and do justice. 
 
 Chap. XVI. The Supreme power of a State, (p. 153.) Absurd results from the 
 theory that the legislature represents " the supreme power of the State." 
 
 Chap. XVII. Rules of Interpretation, (p. 155.) Examines the established rules of 
 legal interpretation, and shows that they required the word " free," or the term " free 
 PERSONS," in the clause relative to representation, to be interpreted to mean, native and 
 naturalized persons, as distinguished from immigrants not naturalized; and not to mean 
 persons enjoying their personal liberty, as distinguished from slaves. 
 
 Chap. XVin. Servants counted as Units, (p. 237.) The provision that " those 
 bound to service for a term of years," should be included among the " free persons," im- 
 plies that there were to be no slaves. 
 
 Chap. XIX. Slave Representation, (p. 238.) Absurdity and injustice of it, a con- 
 clusive reason against any interpretation authorizing it. 
 
 Chap. XX. Why aliens are counted as three-fifths, (p. 242.) Not being full citizens, 
 ought not to be counted as such. Inequality produced among the States by doing so. 
 
 Chap. XXI. Whi/ the words '■'■Free Persons" were nsed. The word" free," had 
 always been the technical word, both in this country and in England, for describing native 
 and naturalized persons, as distinguished from aliens. The indefiniteness of the word 
 " CITIZEN " made it an improper word to be used, where precision of meaning was required. 
 
 Chap. XXII. ^'All other Persons.'^ (p. 257.) These words used to avoid the use of 
 the unfriendly and inappropriate word " aliens," and also to include " Indians not 
 taxed." 
 
 Cuap. XXin. Additional Arguments 0)1 the word Tree. (p. 265.) Showing that this 
 word must be taken in the political sense, before meutioned, and not as distinguished from 
 slaves. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. Power of the Central Government over Slaverij. (p. 270.) Origin and 
 necessity of the power to abolish slavery in the States. 
 
 Appendix A, Fuoitive Slaves, (p. 279.) Extended legal and historical argument on 
 this subject. 
 
 Appendix B. Suggestions to Abolitionists, (p. 290.) Abolitioni.^t.-; can abolish slavery 
 legally, only by taking the ground that the United States Constitution authorizes the 
 general government to abolish it. 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 TRIAL BY JURY. 
 
 Bf LYSANDER SPOOXER. 
 
 PUBLISHED AND FOE SALE BV 
 
 BELA IMARSH, 
 
 14 BROM FIELD STREET, BOSTON 
 
 P K IC E : 
 
 In pamphlet, $1.00. 
 
 In cloth, 1.25. 
 
 In law sheep, 1.50. 
 
 Postage on pamphlet, 13 cts.; on cloth, IS cts. ; on law sheep, IS cts. 
 
 Books will be sent by mail on receipt of the price, and the postage. Postage stamps 
 may be sent for all change over Sl.OO, or if S2.00 be sent, the change will be returned in 
 postage stamps. 
 
ESSAY OX TUE TRIAL BY JURY. 
 
 CONTEXTS 
 
 Chap. I. The Right of Jlries to Judge of the Justice of 
 
 Laws, ------- 5 
 
 Section 1, ...... 5 
 
 Section 2, -- - - - - -11 
 
 Chap II. The Trial by Jury, as defined by Magna Carta, 20 
 
 Stction 1. The History of Magna Carta, - - - 20 
 
 Section 2. The Language of Magna Carta, - - 25 
 
 Chap. III. Additional Proofs of the Rights and Duties of 
 
 Jurors, .-..-. 51 
 
 Section 1. Weakness of the Regal Authority, - - 51 
 Section 2. The Ancient Common Law Juries were mere 
 
 Courts of Conscience, - . . . 53 
 
 Section 3. The Oaths of Jurors, - - - - 85 
 
 Section 4. The Right of Jurors to fix the Sentence, - 91 
 
 Section 5. The Oaths of Judges, - - - - 98 
 
 Section 6. Tiie Coronation Oath, - - - 102 
 
 Chap. IV. The Rights and Duties of Juries in Civil Suits, 110 
 
 Chap. V. Objections answered, - - - - - 123 
 
 Chap. VI. Juries of the present day illegal, - - 142 
 
 Chap. VII. Illegal Judges, - - - - - 157 
 
 Chap. Vlll. The Free Administration of Justice, - 172 
 
 Chap. IX. The Criminal Intent, - - - - 178 
 
 Chap. X. INIoral Considerations for Jurors, - - 192 
 
 Chap. XI. Authority of Magn.\ Carta, - - - 192 
 
 Chap. XII. Limitations imposed upon the Majority bv the 
 
 Trial by Jury, ----- 2O6 
 
 Appendix — Taxation, -.-.-. 222 
 
AN ESSAY ON THE TRIAL BY JURY. IX 
 
 The theory of this book is that the ancient and common-law juries, such 
 as we are now constitutionally entitled to, were mere courts of conscience, 
 who tried, and whose oaths required them to try, all causes, both civil and 
 criminal, according to their own notions of justice, regardless of all legisla- 
 tive enactments, and all judicial opinions, which did not correspond with 
 their own sense of right. 
 
 And inasmuch as it was necessary that the jurors should be drawn by lot, 
 or otherwise taken at random, from the whole body of male adults, without 
 any choice, dictation, or interference, by the government, it was reasonably 
 presumed that substantially all opinions, prevailing among the people, 
 would be represented in the jury ; that, in other words, a jury would be, in 
 fact, a fair epitome of " the country," or whole community, which it was de- 
 signed to represent. 
 
 And since the twelve, thus selected, could render no judgment, unless by 
 an unanimous assent, it follows that no laws were intended to be enforced, 
 except such as substantially the whole people were agreed in, as being just. 
 
 From this statement, it will be seen that our modern idea, that the majority 
 have the right arbitrarily to govern the minority, and to establish any thing 
 they may please as law, without regard to justice, is wholly incompatible 
 with the principles of the Trial by Jury. 
 
 NOTICES. 
 
 The following is from the pen of Richard Hildreth, Esq., the historian. 
 
 "ESSAY ON THE TRIAL BY JURY.'' 
 
 Messrs. Editors :— This remarkable book, bj-Lysander Spooner, will richly repay peru- 
 sal on the part of aU who feel the least interest in the theory of government, that is to say, 
 all the thinking men of the United States, and indeed of all the world over. The charming 
 ease and lucidity of Mr. Spooner's style, — in which, among all the writers of the English 
 language, he has very few eompetitor.s, — the close coherence of his ideas, and the sharp 
 dexterity of his logic, give to his book, what we seldom find now-a-days, the interest of a 
 well-compacted drama, with all the Aristotelian unities complete, and a regular beginning, 
 middle, and end. Having begun to read it, we found it impos.sible to lay it down till we 
 got to the end of it, though obliged to sit up long past midnight, and though we were 
 already informed of the general tenor of the argument, from having seen the greater part 
 of the proof-sheets. The book indeed h■^s this further resemblance to a poem of the first 
 class, that it will not only bear re-perusal, but gain by it — which we take to be the great 
 distinction between the true poem, whether in verse or prose, and the mere novel or ro- 
 mance. There are, however, some citations and notes, which may be skipped on the second 
 
X ESSAY ON THE TRIAL BY JURY. 
 
 periual, and indeed on the first, by those inveterately given to that practice, as not essen- 
 tial to the argument, only corroborative of it. But if any reader intends to take issue — as 
 the lawyers say — with Mr. Spooner, he had better read the whole at least twice over. 
 
 The trial by jury has enjoyed and enjoys a most lofty traditional reputation as " the 
 palladium of English liberty.'" Looking at jury trial as it now actually exists, the judges 
 dictating not only the conclusion in law, that is, the decision to which the jury is bound to 
 come upon any such state of facts as they may consider to be proved, but having also the 
 exclusive decision as to what evidence shall be admitted to prove these facts, and the in- 
 structing of the jury what weight they ought to allow to this or that piece of evidence, and 
 what conclusions they ought to draw from it; with all these assumptions of authoritj- on 
 the part of the judges, the jury seems to have become very much what the late Mr. Justice 
 Story was accustomed, in private conversation, to describe it as being — a mere stalking- 
 horse, from behind which the judge may shoot quietly and safely, deciding everything, at 
 the same time that he escapes the responsibilit3', and in some cases, the odium, of doing so. 
 
 Such being the practical character of our modern juries, mere cloaks and shields of 
 judicial dictation, it has come, among thinking men, to be a great puzzle how they ever got 
 their immense reputation as a " palladium of liberty;" and some writers have not scrupled 
 to denounce the whole idea as a mere humbug. 
 
 Mr. Spooner, however, has shown very conclusively, and by a skilful array of authori- 
 ties that cannot be got over, that in its original institution, and during the whole time in 
 which it got this reputation as the " palladium of liberty," the jury was a totally different 
 thing from what it has become in these later times under the plastic hands of the judges, 
 the juries having been originally sole judges of both law and fivct, indeed possessing sub- 
 stantially a veto on the execution of any such laws as thej- did not consider conformable 
 to justice and the public good. 
 
 All readers may not agree with Jlr. Spooner's somewhat enthusiastic admiration of this 
 jury veto power ; but that it did exist, and that it was this which made the jury the " pal- 
 ladium of English liberty," he has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt; and in so doing 
 has shed a great deal of new light upon the gradual formation of what is known as the 
 British constitution, the source from which so large a part of our American constitutions 
 are derived. 
 
 Nothing is more certain than that the great, indeed the sole value of the trial by jury 
 is political. As a mere contrivance for deciding matters of fact — according to the common 
 representation made of it by modern lawyers — it is clumsy, inconvenient, and Uable to a 
 variety of objections. In those countries on the continent of Europe, in which it has been 
 introduced of late years, for the trial of criminal cases, it has greatly disappointed the 
 expectations formed by those who had been accustomed to read of it in books as the " pal- 
 ladium of liberty," and is generally esteemed a total failure. 
 
 We are not entirely prepared to go with Mr. Spooner, for the complete re-establishment 
 of the jury veto on the ancient model. But that it is absolutely essential to the liberties 
 of the people to preserve to juries the right of deciding law as well as fact, in all criminal 
 cases, we do not entertain the slightest doubt. And considering the recent and alarming 
 strides, a.s well of legislative as judicial usurpation, — especially the fact recently announ- 
 ced from the bench of the Federal Court of the United States for this circuit, that all the 
 judges of the Supreme Court of the United States scout tlie idea of any right in a jury to 
 judge of the law in any case whatsoever, — we think Mr. Spooner has done excellent service 
 in calling attention, a.s he has so ably, to the ancient conservative jury veto. 
 
 Mr. Spooner is a thorough-going Democrat, — as zealous for the rights of the people, 
 and as fierce against judicial usurpation, as Jefferson himself. Indeed some of the lunges 
 which he makes at their honors ou the bench — as in the note on page 164 — have a hearty 
 frankness about them highly refreshing to one who has been sickened and disgusted — as 
 what hater of falsehood aud cant has not been? — by the systematic routine flattery and 
 servility of the bar towards the jud^'es. But more consistent, more [comprehensive, and 
 truer to liberty than Jefferson ever was, Mr. Spooner is equally hostile to tlie usurpations 
 and tyranny of a domineering msjority under the forms of legislation. And, indeed, in our 
 
ESSAY ON THE TRIAL BY JURY. XI 
 
 American States, judicial usurpation is seldom very boldly ventured upon, except in the 
 service of a tyrant majority, eager to trample under foot the constitutional and natural 
 rights of the minority. The Conservatives, therefore, no less than the Demosrata, owe a 
 debt of gratitude to Mr. Spooner. It is truth and justice in whose cause he is enlisted, not 
 that of party. 
 
 R. II. 
 
 HON. STEPHEN ROYCE, formerly Chief Justice, and afterwards Governor, of A'er- 
 
 mont, says : 
 
 East Berkshire, Verjiom, 
 
 September 21, 18.57. 
 
 G. W. Sbarle, Esq.: Sir, — You will please accept my thanks for the favor of Mr. 
 
 Spooner's book upon " The Trial by Jury." I have derived much pleasure from a hasty 
 
 perusal of it, and hope the author will persevere and produce the other works, of which he 
 
 has given indications in this. Although I do not look to see his theories extensively carried 
 
 out in practice, yet I think his labors must have effect for good. Investigations so decidedly 
 
 able and searching, can scarcely fail to excite reflection and serious enquiry, — as well with 
 
 honest legislators and statesmen, as among enlightened jurists. And the result may be, at 
 
 least, a step taken towards restoring to suitors .some of those common-law rights, of which, 
 
 in the lapse of centuries, they have been gradually deprived. 
 
 With high respect, your ob't serv't, 
 
 STEPHEN ROYCE. 
 
 GEORGE W. SEARLE, Esq., says: The general proposition assumed and aimed to be 
 sustained is, that "for more than .'is hundred years — that is, since Magna Carta in 1215 
 — there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, 
 in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, 
 •what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused ; but that it is also their 
 right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold 
 all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in 
 violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws." It will be seen that this is a bold pro- 
 position, and at first glance it may appear untenable ; but it is certainly a position not to be 
 entirely appreciated by a glance. It must be confessed that it elevates the tribunal of the 
 Jury to the highest pinnacle of power, making them the judge of the judges, and giving 
 them authority to sit in judgment upon the legislature itself. This position the author 
 seeks to maintain in a very learned and ingenious argument of 224 pages, in the first instance 
 from the general nature of the jury as the palladium of liberty, and a bulwark against the 
 tyranny of authority — by the history, spirit, and language of Magna Carta — and by a variety 
 of reasoning in detail. This head is followed by a general refutation of objections 
 
 It is not our purpose to enter at length upon any discussion, either in support or refu- 
 tation of the doctrioes laid down by the author; for the former task we feel our incompe- 
 tency, and for the discharge of the latter, that much more time would be requisite than we 
 have at our command, if indeed any time would justify the undertaking. Whatever doubts 
 there may be as to the author's opinions upon many subjects, we may say of his writings 
 what Charles James Fox once said of a speech he was about to reply to in the House of 
 Commons, to one who noticed his serious perturbation, " it is not so easy a matter to answer 
 such an argument as that." * * » That the positions assumed are novel and heretical, 
 judged in the light of prevailing adjudications, is quite true, but that for that reason they 
 are any the less worthy of regard, is quite wide of the truth. To the thinking man we 
 recommend it as food upon which he may feed and grow strong; and to the professional 
 man, in an age of progres.sive jurisprudence, when the science of law, too long bound with 
 an iron grasp to antiquated decisions and principles having nothing but their antiquity 
 and their folly for their authority, is beginning to take its march by the side of modern 
 science, we recommend its candid and impartial examination, assuring him that in it he will 
 find the bold expression of manly truths, without fear or favor. 
 
Xll ESSAY OX THE TUIAL BY JURY. 
 
 WENDELL PniLLIPS, Esq., says of it: "Though I dissent from Mr. Spooner's 
 main conclusion, I must confess this effort is marked with all his pre eminent ingenuity 
 and ability. He has laid all history under c<" itribution for light as to the origin and func- 
 tions of juries ; and I am debtor to his diligence and research for much that was new to me. 
 The original province of a jury has never before been fully investigated in any work acces- 
 sible and intelligible to common readers. I am not aware that there has been any able and 
 extended argument about it since Erskine's. 
 
 The fullness, therefore, of historical illustration, which Mr. Spooner has given to those 
 points, even, on which many of the profession would agree with him, makes the volume a 
 valuable contribution to legal literature. 
 
 Though he has not converted me to his views, yet I always read him with pleasure, and 
 admire him for an opponent on one account — he states his questions so fairly, and faces 
 the difficulties like a man. 
 
 I quite agree that juries have the right, in both civil and criminal cases, to judge what 
 the law is, i. e. what the Legislature have constitutionally enacted — but I cannot allow 
 them the right to set aside statutes because they think them unjust." 
 
 ROBERT E. APTIIORP, Esq., says of it: If it cannot be answered, it must make 
 a deep impression on the conscience, and thus on the jurisprudence, of the age in 
 which we live. That it can be answered I greatly doubt ; or rather I should say, I have no 
 doubt about it. One thing is certain, — no tyro will venture to flesh his sword upon such 
 a structure of logic and fact ; and should any worthy antagonist present himself in the 
 lists, our generation and all future ones would owe Mr. Spooner a debt of gratitude for 
 having forced attention, in high places, to a subject than which, I may safely say, none 
 more intimately and vitally concerns this Republic. 
 
 REV. EDWARD BEECHER, D. D., says of it : Thus stated, it is plain that no point of 
 history can exceed in dignity and importance that which Mr. Spooner has undertaken to 
 discuss. 
 
 The mode of his discussion is worthy of the gravity of the point at issue. It does not 
 at all consist of rhetorical declamation, but is a sober, earnest, learned, and powerful ai^u- 
 ment, based on copious citations fi'om numerous and weighty legal and historical authorities, 
 ancient and modern. 
 
 ELIZUR WRIGHT says of it : " To me it seems not only very remarkable a.s a book, 
 but as a discoverj'; one which may be more useful to the world than new gold regions." 
 
 HON. SAMUEL E. SEWALL says of it : " This is a work of deep research and power- 
 ful argument. It ought to be in the hands not merely of every judge and every lawyer, 
 but of every man who values liberty, and wishes to examine its sacred foundations." 
 
 HON. JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS says of it: "It should be placed iu the library of every 
 lawyer, and of every reader of general literature."