74
who
of Massachusetts,
all
and
concurred with Mr. Gerry;
especially of Mr. Madison, of Virginia, who, in mild juridical
thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution THE IDEA THAT THERE COULD BE PROPERTY IN MAN." And lastly, as if to complete the elaborate work of Freedom, and to give expression to all these utterances, the word " servitude," phrase, "
on the apportionand the word "servThis final exclusion from the Conice " substituted instead. stitution of the idea of property in man was on the motion of Mr. Randolph, of "Virginia and the reason assigned for the subwhich had been
ment
allowed in
the clause
was struck
of Representatives,
out,
stitution,
according to Mr. Madison, in his authentic report of the
debate, was, that "the former tion of slaves,
and the
was thought to express the condi-
latter the obligations of free persons."
Thus, at every point, by great national declarations, by frank utterances in the Convention,
and by a positive
act in adjusting
the text of the Constitution, was the idea of property in
man un-
equivocally rejected.
This pretension, which may be dismissed as utterly baseless, becomes absurd when it is considered to what result it necessarily conducts. If the Barbarism of Slavery, in all its fivefold wrong, is really embodied in the Constitution, so as to be
beyond the reach of
prohibition, either Congressional or local,
in the Territories, then, for the
same reason,
the reach of prohibition or abolition, even
it
by
must be beyond
local authority in
the States themselves, and just so long as the Constitution continues unchanged, Territories all its
blasting influences.
and States alike must be open to
And yet
this pretension, which, in
its
natural consequences, overturns State Rights,
by
Senators,
who
is
put forward
profess to be the special guardians of State
Rights.
Nor does this pretension derive any supjDort from the muchdebated clause in the Constitution for the rendition of fugitives on which so much stress is constantly occupy your time now on this head, for two because, having already on a former occasion ex-
from
" service or labor,"
put.
But
reasons
—
I do not
first,
hibited with great fullness the character of that clause, I
willing
now
thus incidentally to open the question upon
secondly, because, whatever that
.
it
confers
may
un-
it
and
character — admitting what —and admitting
be
power upon Congress
am
its
also,
