w :r;c,~.*rig.;
(Continued from second page)
thority to exercise 'at least a negative influence
on all the measures of the government, wheth
er legislative or executive, through their
equal representation' in the Senate. Indeed,
the larger States themselves could not have
failed to preeeise that the same power was e
qUally'necessary to them for the security of
their own domestic interests against the ag
iregate force of the general government. In
a word, the original States went into a perma
nent league on agreed premises, of exerting
their common strength for the defence of the
whole, and of all its parts; but of utterly ex
cluding all capability of reciprocal aggression.
Each solemnly bound itself to all others, not
to, undertake nor permit an encroachment up.
one or intermeddling with, another's reserved
rights.
When it was deemed expedient, particular
rights Were expressly guarantied by the con
stitution ; but, in all things beside, these
rights were guarded by the limitation of the
powers granted, in the compact of union.—
Thus the greater power of taxation was limi
ted to purposes of common defence and gen
eral welfare, excluding objects appertaining to
the local legislation of the several States ;
and those purposes of the general wellfare,
and comon defence were afterwards defined
by specific enumeration, as being matters of
only corelation between the States themselves,
or between them and foreign governments,
which because of their common and general
nature, could not be left to the separate con
trol of each State.
Of the circumstances of local condition, in
terest and rights, in which a portion of the
States, constituting one• groat section of the
Union differed from the rest, and from anoth-
er section, the most important was the pecu
liarity of a larger relative colored population
In the southern than in the northern States.
A population of this class, held in subjec
tion, existed in nearly all the States, but was
more nutiterous and of more serious concern
tnen't in the South than in the North, on ac
,,
coi tit of natural differences of climate and
*), iductioa ; and it was forseen that, for the
same reasons, while this population would di
minish, and, sooner or later, cease to exist in
some states, it might increase in others. The
particular character and magnitude of this
question of local rights, not in material rela
tions only, but still more in social ones,caus
ed it tb enter into the special stiff ulations of
the constitution.
Hence while the general government, ns well
by the enumerated powers granted to it, as
by those not enumerated, and therefore refus
ed to it, was forbidden to touch this matter in
the sense of attack or offence, it was placed
under the general safeguard of the Union, in
the cense of defettee against either invasion or
domestic violence; like all other local inter
ests of the several States. Each State ex
pressly stipulated, as well for itself as for each
and all of its citizens, and every citizen of
each Staff bee tme solemnly bound by his al
legiance to the constitution, that any person
held to service or labor in one SU te, escaping
into another, should not,-in consequence of
any law or regal tione thereof, be discharged
from such service or labor, but should be de
livered up on claim of the party to whom exch
service or labor might be due by the laws of
his State.
Thus, and thus only, by the reciprocal guar, /
anty of all the rights of every State against
interference on the part of another, was the
was the present form of government estab
lished by our fathers and , transmitted to us ;
and by no other means is it possible for it to
exist. if one State ceases to respect the
rights of another, and obtrusively intermed
.Jles with its local interests,—if a portion of
,he States . asst me to impose their institutions
in the others, or refuse to fulfil their obliga
ions to them,—we are no longer united, friend'
v States, but distracted, hostile ones: with
I ttle capacity left of common advantage,- but
bundant means of reciprocal injury andtmis
hief.
Practically, it is immateriar'whother ag 7
ressive interference between the States, or
cliberate refusal on the part of any one •of
tem to comply with constitutional obligations
•ise from erroneous conviction or blind prej
lice, whether it be perpetuated by direction.
• indirection. In either case, it is full of
rent and of danger to the durability of the
uion.
CONSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS OF SLAVER)
Placed in the office of Chief. Magistrate as
s executive agent of the ; whole country,
and to take care that the laws be faithfully
ecuted, and specially enjoined by the con
tytion to give information to Cungresa 'on
ijtateof the Union, it would be palpable
sleet of duty on my part to pass aver a alib
i like this, which, beyond all things at the
•F en t time, vitally concerns individual and
die security. F.
t has been a matter of painful regret to see
les, conspicuous fur their seryiees iu found•
this Republic, and equally blowing, ita ad
I.: , g ,i, s ,„ ( lisregaril their constitutional oldi•
to it. Although consoious of tlmir in
heal admitted sand palpable
civu, au.l irLielt are completely
=I
MEM
within their jurisdiction, they engage in the
offensive and hopeless undertaking of reform
ing the domestic institutions, of other States
wholly beyond their control and authority. In
the vain pursuit . of ends, by them entirely un
attainable, and which they may not legally at
tempt to compass, they peril the very exist
epee of the ,constitution, and all the countless
benefits which. it haii conferred. While the
people of the southern States confine their at
tention of their own affairs, not presuming
officiously to intermeddle With the social insti
tutions of northern States, too many of the
inhabitants of the latter are permanently
organized in associations to inflict injury on
'the former, by wrongful acts, which would be
cause of war as between foreign powers; and
only fail to be such in our system, because
perpetrated under cover of the Union.
It is impossible,to present this subject as
truth and the occasion require, without uoti
cing the reiterated, but groundless allegation,
that the South bus persistently asserted claims
and obtained advantages in the practical ad
ministration of the general government, to the
prejudice of the North, and in which the latter
has acquiesced. That is, the States, which
either promote or tolerate attacks on the rights
of persons and of property in other States, to
disguise their own injustice, pretend or imag
ine,' and constantly aver, that they,' whose
constitutional rights ate thus systematically
assailed,. are themselves the aggressors. At
the present time, this imputed aggression, rest
ing, as it does, only in the vague, declamatory
charges of political agitators, resolves itself
into misapprehension, or misinterpretation, of
the principles and facts of the political organ
ization of the new Territotics of the United
States,
What is the voice of history ? When the
ordinance which provide for the government
of the Territory northwest of the river Ohio,
id for its eventual sub-division into ❑ew
States, was adopted in the Congress of the
confederation, it is not to be supposed that
the question of future relative power, as be
tween the States which retained, and thoSe
vliich did not retain, a numerous colored pop-
escaped notice, or failed to be consid
ered. And yet the concession, of that vast
territory to the interests and opinions of the
Northern States, a territory now the seat of
tive among the largest members of the Union,
was, in a great measure, the act of the state of
Virginia and of the South.
When Louisiana was acquired by the United
States, it wan au acquisition not less to the
North than to to the South; for while it was
important to the country ut the mouth of the
river Mississippi to become the emporium of
the country above it, so also it was even more
important to the whole Union to have that em-
porium; and although the •now province, by
reason of its imperfect settlement, was mainly
regardedas on the Gulf of Mexico, in fact it
extended to ale opposite boundaries of the
United States, with far•greater breadth above
than below, and was in territory, as in every-
thing else, equally at least an accession to the
northern States'. It is mere delusion, there-
fore, to speak of Louisiana as acquisition in
the special interest of the South.
The patriotic and just men who participat
ed in that act, were influenced; by motives far
above sectional jealousies. It was in truth
the great event, which, by completing fur us
the possession of the valley or the Nlississippi,
with commercial access to the Gulf of lexico
nparted unity and strength to the whole con
.12 aeration and attnehe'l together by indissolu
ble ties the East ❑nd West, as well as the
North nut! the South
s to Florida, that was but a transfer by
,fprtin to Ihe United States of territory on the
east side of the river 'Mississippi, in exchange
or large territory, which the United States
ransferred to Spain on the west side of that
iver, as the entire diplopiatie history of the
ransaction serves to demonstrate. Moreover
it was an acquisition demanded by the corn•
mercial interests and the security of the whole
MEI
In the meantime, the people of The _United
States had grown up to a proper consciousness
of their strength, and in a brief contest with
France, and in a second serious war with ()rent
Britain, they had shaken off all which Feinain
ed of undue reverence•for Europe, and emer
ged from the atmosphere of those transatlantic
influences which surround the infant repub
lic, and had begun to turn their attention to
the full and systetnitticalevelopement of the
internal resources of the Union.
Among the evanescent controversies of that
ieriod, the niost Conspicuous was the question
if regulation by Congress of the'social condi
ion of the future States to be fouilded in, the
erriiorY of LoUisiana.
The ordinance for the government of the
territory north-west of the river Ohio, had
contained a prevision, wkich prohibited the
use of servile labor thereß), subject to the con•
ditl(l of thu extradition of fugitives from ser
vice Atte in any other part of the United States.
Subsequently to the adoptipn of the CollAiti•
lion., this .provision ecaseno remain as it law;
for its opt.ration as such was absolutely super-.
settod by the e,m , ,titution. But the rceollec.
Cum of the Let txelte , l thc ze.,l (1 soe;al pre-
,'~~lxtl~u~ ~~~x ; ~.
pagandism in somcsectipt , :isfi l f VI, confedera
tion; and when a ieCOnd Stae; dot of Missou
ri came to be formed in the territory of Lou- ,
Warta, proposition was made
, to extend to the
latter territory the restriction originally
applied to the country situated between the
rivers Ohio and Mississippi.
Most questionable as was this proposition
in all its constitutional relations, nevertheless
it received the sanction of Congress, with
some slight modifications of line, to save the
existing rights of the intended new State. It
was reluctantly acquiesced by Southern States
as a sacrifice to the cause of peace and of the
Union, not only of the rights stipulated by the
treaty of Louisiana, but of the principle of
equality among the States guaranteed by the
constitution. It was received by the northern
States with angry and resentful condemnation
and complaint, because it did not concede all
which they had exactingly demanded. Having
passed through the forms of legislation, it ,
took its place in the statute book, standing
open to repeal, like any other act of doubtful
constitutionality,, subject to be pronounced
null and void by the courts of law, and pos
sessing no possible efficacy to control the
rights of the States, which might thereafter •
be organized out of any part of the original
territory of Louisiana.
In all this, if any aggression there were,
any innovation upon pro-existing rights, to
which portion of the Union are they justly
chargeable ?,
This controversy passed away with the oc
carion, nothing surviving it save the dermas
otter of the statute
But, long afterwards, when, by the propos
ed accession of the Republic of Texas, the
United States were to take their next step in
territorial greatness, a similar contingency
occurred, and' became the occasion for sys
tematized attempts to interi,:ene in the domes-
c affairs of one section u n i . the Union, in de
fiance of their rights ale States, and of the
stipulations of the constitution. These at
tempts assumed a practical direction, in the
shapo.)of persevering endeavors, by some of,
thy representatives in both houses of Congress,
to deprive the Southern States of the suppos•
ed benefit of the provisions of the act au
thorizing the organization of the State of
Missouri.
But, the good sense of the people, and the
vital force of the constitution, triumphed CIP e r
sectional prejudice, and the political errors of
the day, and the State of Texas returned to
the Union as she was, with social institutions
which her people had chosen for themselves,
and with express agreement, by the re-anex
log act, that she should be susceptible of
subdivision into a plurality of States.
Whatever advantage the people of the
Southern States, as such, gained by this,
were far inferior in results, as they unfolded
in the progress of fi r ma, to those which sprang
from previous concessions made by the South.
To every thoughtful friend of the Union,—
to the true lovers of their country,—to all who
longed and labored for the full success of this
greih experiment of republican institu
it was cause of gratulation that such an op
portunity occurred to illustrate our advancing
power' on this continent, and to furnish to the
world additional assurance of the strength and
stability of the constitution.. Who would wish
to see Florida still a European colony ? Who
does not appreciate the incalculable benefits
of the acquisition of Louisiana? And yet nar
row views and sectional purposes would
inevitably have excluded them all from the
Union
But another struggle on the -same point
ensued, when our victorious army returned
from Mexico, and it devolved on Congress to
provide for the territories acquired by the
treaty of Guadaiupe Hidalgo. The great
relations of the subject had now Lecome
distinct and clear to the perception of the
public mind, which appreciated the evils of
sectional c(ntrovers) upon the question of the
admission of new States. In that crisis
intense solicitude pervaded the nation. But
the patriotic impulses_ of .11e_ popular heart,
guided by the admonitory advice of the Father
of his country, rose superior to 01 the diffi
culties of the incorporation of a new o ppire
into the Union.
In the counsels of Congres+ there was maul
fested extreme antagonism of opinion and
action between some repreS\a . tatives, who
sought by the abusive and m constitutional
employment of the legislative powers of We
go(.'erinnent to interfere in the condition of
the inchoate States, Mid to impose their own
social theories upon the latter; and Mho'
representatives, who repelled the interposition
of the general government in this respect,
and maintained the self constituting rights of
the Stales. In truth, the thing attempted
wits, in forni alone, action of the - general
government, while in reality it was the en
deavor, by abuse of legislative power, to force
thwideas of internal policy entertained in
particular .States, upon allied independent
dates,
Once mere the ContAllotion ond the Uoion
tritunploA t , ignolly. The now Tortitorhs ,
without restrictious diF
ituty,l roiti6t, 'tool w r,,thus left ti) jtolgo in
VW.1 3 410-
tnat•partiettlerfor ,thernselves; and tbeisonse
of constitutional faith proved vigorous enough
in Congress not only to accomplish this
jpri
tnary object, but alto the incidental and hard
ly less important one, 'of so amenditig the pro
visions of the statute„ for the extradition f
fugitives from service', as to place that public
duty under the sategutird 'of the' general gov•
ernment, and thus relieve it from obstacles
raised up by the legislation of , some of the
States.
Vain declamation regarding the provisions
of law for the extradition of fugitives from ser
vice, with occasional episodes of frantic effort
to obstruct their execution by 'riot and mur
der, continued, for a brief time, to agitate
certain localities. But the true principle, of
leaving each state and Territory to regulate
its own laws of labor according to its Own
sense of right and expediency, had acquired
fast bold of the public judgement, to such a
degree that, by common consent, it was ob
served in the organization of the Territory of
‘Vashingtori
When, more recently, it became requisite to
organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kan
sas, it was the natural and legitimate, if not
the inevitable consequence of previous events
and legislation, that the same great and sound
principle, which had alieady been applied to
Utah and New Mexico„ should be applied to
them;—that they should stand exempt from
the restrictions proposed in the act relative to
the State of Missouri.
These restrictions were in the estimation of
many thoughtfUl men, null, from the beginning
unauthorized by the constitution, contrary to
treaty stipulations for the cession of Louild
ana, and inconsistent with the equality of the
.`,;tates
They have been stripped of all:mOral nu
hority, by persistent efforts to procure their
tindirect repeal through contradictory enact
ments. They had been practically abrogated
by the legislation attending the organization
of Utah, Now Mexico, and Washington. If
any vitality remained in them, it would have
been taken away, in effect, by the new ter
ritorial acts, in the form originally proposed
to the Senate at the first session of the lust
Congress. It was manly and ingenuous, as
well as ptrtriotic and just, to du this directly
and plainly, and thus relieve the statute•book
of an act, which might be of possible future
injury, but of no possible future benefit ; and
the measure of its repeal was the final con
summation and complete recognition of the
principle, that no pokmof.,..therUnited States
shall undertake, through assumption of the
powers of the general government, to •dictate
the social institutions of any other portion.
The scope and effect of the language of re
peal were not left in doubt. It was declared
in terms, to be "the great intent uud meaning
of this act not to legislate slavery into any
Territory or State, nor exclude it therefrom,
but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
to form and regulate their domestic institu
tions in their own way, subject only to the
constitution of the United States."
The measure could not be withstood upot
its.inerits alone. It was attacked with vio•
(once, on the false and delusive pretext, tha
it constituted a breaoh of faith. Never was
objection more utterly destitute of substan
tial justification. When, before, was it iin-
agined by sensible wen, that a regulative or
declarative statute, whether enacted tea or
forty years ago, is irrepealable- 7 —that an act
of Congress is above the constitution? If
indeed there were in the facts any cause to
impute bad faith, it would attach to those
only, who have never ceased from the time o;
ho enactment of the restrictive provision
~ ,t o
he present day to
,denounce and to condemn
it; who have constantly refused to complete it
by tit edful suppletnentary legislation; who
hit‘e spared no exertion to deprive it of moral
force; who have themselves again and again
at,emPietLJts i repeal by the enactment cf
iocomprehensNle provisions; and who, by the
inevitable reactionary effect of their own
violence on the subject, awakened the country
to a perception of the true constitutional prin
ciple, of leaving the matter involved to the
discretion of the people of the respective
existing or incipient'States.
It is not pretended that this principle, r
any ether precludes the possibility of evils in
practice, disturbed as political action is to be
by bunion passions. No form of government
is exempt from inconveniences; but in this
c Ise they are the result of the abuse, and not
or the legitimate exerek of the powers re•
El erred or conferreiTin the organization of a
Territory. They are not to be charged to' the
great principle of popular sovreignty ; on the
contrary, they disappear before the intelli
gence and patriotism of the people, exerting
through the ballot b their peaceful and si
lent but irresistal • power.
If the friend.•
another struggle its enemies , could not' pre
cut 'it more acceptable .. )s4ie than that of
a State whose istitulion dearly em
braces "a republican form of government,' .
heini; excluded from the Union because its Jo-
nit.stip institutions nuty not in all respktt•
cotnintrt with the idol: , or what, wh't. and
exp..!diettt utttrtaint.,l.
the constitution ard
. to have
Fresh from groundless imputations of breneh
of faith against . otliere, Men will commence the ‘
agitation of this new question with indubitable
violation of an express Corripttot . betieen the
independent sovereign powers of the United
States and of the Republic of wellas
solemn of the older and equally sole co l
pacts,
~i w hich assure the equality of all the States.
But' deplorable as would be such n violation
of compact in itself,. and in all its direct con
sequences, that is the very least of the evils
involved. When sectional agitators shall have
succeeded in forcing on this issuei-Rcan their
pretentious fail to be met by counter preten
tious? Will notdifferent States be compel
led respectively to tneT, extremes with ex
tremes ? And, if either extreme carryi s point
what is thecae far forth but dissolution of the
Union ? If a new State, formed from the ter
ritory of the United States, be absoltitely e
eluded from admission therein, that fact of
itself constitutes the disruption of union be
tween it and the other States. But the pro=
cess of dissolution' could not stop there.
Would not a sectional decision, producing
such result by a majority of votes, eitLer
Northern or Southern, of necessity drive out
the oppresaed and aggrieved minority„ and
place in presence of each other two irrecon•
cileably hostile confederations?
Is is necessary to speak thus plainly of pro
jects, the offspring of that sectional agitation
now prevailing in some of the States, which
are as impracticable as they are unconstitu--
tional, and which, if persevered in, must and
will en I calamitously. It is either distinion
and civil war, or it is mere angry, idle, aim
less disturbance of public peace and tranquili
ty. Disunion for what? If the passionate
rage of fanaticism and partisan spirit did not
force the fact upon our attention, it would be
difficult to believe, that any considerable pot
don of the people of this enlightened country
could have so- surrendered themselves to a
fanatical devotion to the supposed interests of
the relatively few
~ Afeicans • in the Unite
l
States, as totally io abandon and disregard
the interests of the twenty five million of
Americans,—to trample under foot the in—
junctions of moral and constitutional obliga
tion, and to engage in plans of vindictive
'hostility against those who are associated with
them in the enjoyment of the common her! t
age.iif our national institutions.
Nor is it hostility against their fellow citi
zens of one section of the Union alone. The
interests; the honor, the duty, the peace, and
the prosperity of the people of all sections are
equally involved and imperilled in this ques—
tion. Are patriotic men iu any part of the
Union prepared, on such an issue, thus madly
to invite all the consequences of the forfeiture
of their constitutional engagements? It le
impossible, The storm of phrenzy and faction
must inevitably dash itself iu vain against the
unshaken rock of the constitution. ,I shall
never doubt it. I know - that the Union is
stronger a thousand times than all the wild
and chimerical schemes of social change,
whiph are generated, one after another,. in the
unstable mind. 4 of visionary sophists4and In
terbisted agitators. I rely oonfidentlit on the
patriotism of the people, on the digirity &rid
self respect of the States, on the wisdom of
Congress, and above all, on 'the continued
gracious favor of Almighty God, to maintain,
against all enemies, whether at home or
abroad, the sanctity of the constitution and
the integrity of the Union.
FRANKLIN PIERCE
Washington, Deo. 31, 185 C).
"IR EN(' II TRUSSES, Weighingless
than ounces, li,, the cure of I fernia or It uptnro
aysnon ledgedby the highest medical authotitles of Phil
incomparably superior to any other in use.—
Sulli•rerb a ill be gratified to learn that the occasion now
Idlers tu , procure not only the highest and most easy, but
as Itunblr a Truss. as :Inv other. in lieu eqt the rum brow
311,1 uncomfortable article usually sold. There it: no dif
lenity attending the fitting, and ti lien the pad is locat
ed it will retain Its position without change.
Person. , at a distance unable to call on the subscriber,
rent have thiiTruss sent t. any address, by remitting
live &dint h Kir the - single rius.in-fir ten for the
ith measure round the hips, and stating side affected.
It a ill lie eichanged to suit it' not fitting, by returning
at once, unsoiled. For sale only by the Importer.
cAhim 11. NELDLE r s.,
.Corner Twelfth and- llace.strrets,-Philadelpithr
I,tio Ls, requiring the itenetit of )lechanical Sup
porters, owing to the tterangonoit of the Internal Or
gans. inducing hilling of the Womb. Vocal. l'ulittotqtry:`
DY , 'lwpt le, Nervous 111111 Sphial Weakness, are inf4tned
that 11 I,llllll'lllla and experienced !Any will he to air
tondance at the Rooms, (set apart for their exeluSlv•
acct No. 114 TIVELk"III ,St., Ist door below flare.
July 2tl,
jI vr( 'I 1 1 , '‘..; I \l HS r'-301.11•1
DoNNELLYonanullivtarer and inventor of SAFE
TV VATENTSQL'AIIE UPRI WIT WOOD BON MA TeDES
No. Intl No: th FOURTH Street tabovo liace) I'll I LABEL-
Pit lA. Matches I n beeome au ind:spensable at tido
in housekeeping, tho subscriber eller /I !../ eat sacrifice of
time and monoy, is enablen le offer to the l'ublic an ar
ticle at once eon:1401:g Utility and Cheapness. The in
ventor knowing the Winger apprehended on 'aeruunt el:
the Ililtisey Manner in Idr/eh Matehi/ are generally
parked in paper, bar/ by the :tin of New Steam Machinery
of his own invon lion. succeeded lii get ling up a tiAFETY
P.CTENT SQ CA Ill.:. I.; l'illO lIT \VOttln BOX: this box le
far preferable, in as much that it oeeliples lio Thole m o m
has the old round NSotol le/N. /WO , elli:linS :it least
'!'‘VO 111110re/1 per Cent more ...tlitt ches. w Well to Shippers ,
is considerable advanta:4e; it is entirely newlntml secure
a4alust moisture and spontaneous o eidendit.m. dispels
all dangeren transportai ion hy 'itemiser I::.iirOad, Steam•
hoist or any other mode of Conveyance. P •,,
• thou Matches are . 1131 . hed so that 1111(5 gross or more
may he shil.p,el Co 'ally part i,r the Vt to hi u tth porf o rt
• 'Fay. They are tlmmost desirable at tide' Mi. lime
C. , l'tunl.t l " ll . and the Southern itild We/tern 1111111:rt
L II It have over been invented.
O , L U, S and SII I l'I'1:1Z., will do well to call an
examine for thcmselvet,. .
1:9a1,,e in:itelleq. are \VA ILA NTED to bo superipi
ICI 11113'01111 ; f 11( . 11!ttlZtorOoliereil to the I.llWk. '
.1 .li!N
10.; Nitl til FOURTH I'hilad.*l
4.
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