2015, ISBN: 1330334833

[EAN: 9781330334836], Neubuch, [PU: Forgotten Books, United States], Language: English Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****. Excerpt from State of the Union: Speech of Hon. Jas, Har… Plus…

[EAN: 9781330334836], Neubuch, [PU: Forgotten Books, United States], Language: English Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****. Excerpt from State of the Union: Speech of Hon. Jas, Harlan, of Iowa, in the Senate, January 11, 1861 There is but one alternative with a law-abiding people: the fundamental law must be obeyed, or lawfully changed; and no one, anywhere, has proposed so to change the Constitution as to erase this provision. Its terms are not ambiguous; it provides that - No person held to service or labor ii one Slate, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the partly to whom such service or labor may be due. The Republican national convention did not propose any amendment to this part of the Constitution; no Republican member of either branch of Congress has ever proposed its abrogation; no Republican governor, or State Legislature, or State convention, has ever demanded it. The asservation that the Republicans are opposed to this provision of the Constitution is a sheer fabrication, asserted in the first instance for political purposes, and now adhered to for the sake of consistency. It being admitted that the Constitution must be sustained, the corollary follows, that all laws made in pursuance of its provisions should be obeyed. In 1793, Congress enacted a law to carry into effect this provision of the Constitution, which required the co-operation of the several States. This remained the law of the land until the latter provisions were declared void by the Supreme Court of the United States in the celebrated Prigg case. This adjudication resulted in the repeal of State laws by the Legislatures of the several States, originally designed to aid the Federal Government in securing the rendition of fugitives from service. The Supreme Court of the United States having declared them void, they were formally repealed. And Congress enacted the fugitive slave law of 1850, authorizing the Federal judicial tribunals and commissioners to issue summary process for the arrest of such fugitives, and authorizing the marshals to execute these mandates with force - to employ the power of the county, or the armies of the Republic, for this purpose; and declaring all who resist their execution guilty of a high offense against the United States, punishable by fine and imprisonment. It is true, sir, that some of the provisions of this law are offensive to the instincts and impulses of a free people. I shall delay, now, to mention but one or two of them. It is painful to a freeman, unaccustomed to the local institutions that have been alluded to to-day, to be compelled to aid in running down a human being who is flying from the hand of the task-master. He could agree to stand neutral; to allow the claimant to run down his own slave; but all his honorable impulses rebel against being compelled, with his his own hands, to aid actively in re-riviting shackles and chains on the limbs of a human being who had thrown them off, and is flying from the pursuer. He cannot avoid feeling, and perhaps saying, Had I been in his condition, I would, at the risk of life and all else dear to me on earth, have done as that poor slave is doing. And, sir, I find these impulses are not peculiar to the people of the free States. What honorable man in the South has not a duplicate copy of these impulses in his own heart? Where is the honorable man, anywhere, whose instincts and impulses take sides with the strong against the weak; with the oppressor against the oppressed? Such a man would be an anomaly in God s creation. And when he sinks the common impulses of humanity, ignores the human origin of the fugitive, and regards him merely as a runaway beast and reflects on the subject, he can see no reason for making himself a criminal for refusing to run down another man s animal. As an act of good neighborhood or friendship, he might cheerfully aid even a stranger in recapturing his runa<

2015, ISBN: 1330334833

[EAN: 9781330334836], Neubuch, [PU: Forgotten Books, United States], Language: English Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****.Excerpt from State of the Union: Speech of Hon. Jas, Harl… Plus…

[EAN: 9781330334836], Neubuch, [PU: Forgotten Books, United States], Language: English Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****.Excerpt from State of the Union: Speech of Hon. Jas, Harlan, of Iowa, in the Senate, January 11, 1861 There is but one alternative with a law-abiding people: the fundamental law must be obeyed, or lawfully changed; and no one, anywhere, has proposed so to change the Constitution as to erase this provision. Its terms are not ambiguous; it provides that - No person held to service or labor ii one Slate, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the partly to whom such service or labor may be due. The Republican national convention did not propose any amendment to this part of the Constitution; no Republican member of either branch of Congress has ever proposed its abrogation; no Republican governor, or State Legislature, or State convention, has ever demanded it. The asservation that the Republicans are opposed to this provision of the Constitution is a sheer fabrication, asserted in the first instance for political purposes, and now adhered to for the sake of consistency. It being admitted that the Constitution must be sustained, the corollary follows, that all laws made in pursuance of its provisions should be obeyed. In 1793, Congress enacted a law to carry into effect this provision of the Constitution, which required the co-operation of the several States. This remained the law of the land until the latter provisions were declared void by the Supreme Court of the United States in the celebrated Prigg case. This adjudication resulted in the repeal of State laws by the Legislatures of the several States, originally designed to aid the Federal Government in securing the rendition of fugitives from service. The Supreme Court of the United States having declared them void, they were formally repealed. And Congress enacted the fugitive slave law of 1850, authorizing the Federal judicial tribunals and commissioners to issue summary process for the arrest of such fugitives, and authorizing the marshals to execute these mandates with force - to employ the power of the county, or the armies of the Republic, for this purpose; and declaring all who resist their execution guilty of a high offense against the United States, punishable by fine and imprisonment. It is true, sir, that some of the provisions of this law are offensive to the instincts and impulses of a free people. I shall delay, now, to mention but one or two of them. It is painful to a freeman, unaccustomed to the local institutions that have been alluded to to-day, to be compelled to aid in running down a human being who is flying from the hand of the task-master. He could agree to stand neutral; to allow the claimant to run down his own slave; but all his honorable impulses rebel against being compelled, with his his own hands, to aid actively in re-riviting shackles and chains on the limbs of a human being who had thrown them off, and is flying from the pursuer. He cannot avoid feeling, and perhaps saying, Had I been in his condition, I would, at the risk of life and all else dear to me on earth, have done as that poor slave is doing. And, sir, I find these impulses are not peculiar to the people of the free States. What honorable man in the South has not a duplicate copy of these impulses in his own heart? Where is the honorable man, anywhere, whose instincts and impulses take sides with the strong against the weak; with the oppressor against the oppressed? Such a man would be an anomaly in God s creation. And when he sinks the common impulses of humanity, ignores the human origin of the fugitive, and regards him merely as a runaway beast and reflects on the subject, he can see no reason for making himself a criminal for refusing to run down another man s animal. As an act of good neighborhood or friendship, he might cheerfully aid even a stranger in recapturing his runaw<

ISBN: 9781330334836

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