Communications: For The Signal Of Liberty: Ascendency Of The...

The sis ve power prcsided at our national birth. Had it not, we should liaply, not have fallen into the hypocrisy of saying,that all men are created equal whilst holding one sixth of our native American population as slave. Surely there were Republïcans afnong the Fathers of '76, whó would have "suited the action to the word," but they suffered ihemselves then, and aftenvnrd in the Convention of '87 and, as we do now, to be hoodwinked, bamboozled, befooled. Such an act of hypocrisy persisted in has almost done its perfect woikupönus. Our moráis are corrupted - our notions of national honor, low; the restraints of religión - indeed, all reverence for it - are fast disnppearing. Anarchy is preparing his throne, and the old fashioned notions of legal subordination are passing away from the minds of the people ca rapidly as do the incumbents of office from their places on the coming in of ancw administration. All this is the legitímate consequcnce of the hypociitical act, by which as a people we signalized the 4th of July, 1776. Who that bas any knowledge of his ovvn moral and mental nature would expéflt any other from it? For do we look for honor, morality, truih, or re)igion, in the petty thief who, for 20 years, has been engaged in robhing yonr hen roosts or or mcanness, and lying and the grossest selfdisrepect? Taking the slavcpower os the moral exponent of this nation and testing rime by the degree of light against which it s committed, and. we are the guiltiest people nder the sun. And we are becoming as disracted and as wretched as we areguilty. - We have sown the wind - we are reaping the vhirlwind.SLAVKRY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. The government of the United States poscsses no original, bnt only delcgated authoriy, lts "powers" are specifïcally enumorated i theConstitution, and the National Legislaure forraally investcd with them. To these owers and to the making of all such laws as may be necessnry and proper for carrying tiera iato cxccutiou, Congrcssional- - mm aaatBaaa tion was intended to be Ümited. To establish slavery is not one of the enumerated powers of Congress. It could not be, for it contradicts the very objects the people professed to have in view m making the Constitution.- These objects, set fbrth in the preamble to ihe Constituiion, are lat. ToformaVnore perfect union [than existed under the arficles of Con - federation.] 2. To cstablish justice. 3. To ensure domestic tranquility. 4. To provide for the common defence. 5. To promote the general welfare. G. To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves andour posterity. To each of these objects, slavery is opposed either directly or argumentatively. Without gn'wg over all the ground, and showing the articular points of oppositioffit will be enough o say, if the people of the United States inended to "establish justice" as an element orprincipie of government, they intended that slavery sliould not be established; for slavcry and justice have in all oges been regarded as in point blank opposition. If they intendcd to secure the blessing of liberty to themselvee and their poslcrity, they must ha"e intended that no one should, iu virtue of their Constition be enslavtd. If, then, the power to establish slavery be not among the powers specifically granted to the National Legislature; and if, slavery be downright hostility to the elementa of the Constitution, it would be superfluoiis to attenipt to show more plainly than this simple statement does, that to establish it cannot be "necessary or proper" for carryirg into execution any of the eriumerated powers. íf there be no error in the foregoing positioij?, is it not truc, that Congrcss have no constitutional right, authority or power to establish it in the District of Colurnbia- and that, therefore, eyery one held as a sla ve in that District, is, under the Constitution of tb United States, fres? Tho fact, however, that slavery has continued lo exist in the District from the time it cameinto the possession of the General Government, and the simplicity of the foregoino premises, may lead some to doubt the accuracy of the conclusión towhich these premises so directly lead . To remove any such apprehension, I must go still further into detail.' The acts of cession of Marjland andginiacontain uo limitation, condition or qualification wliatever - except, that, out of abun dant ca ut ion, there is inserted, as a proviso, in fie Virginia act, that nothing in it should Se construed to vest in the United States. The cession is as complete, as unconditona], as languoge can make it. Indeed had it been encumbered with any condition, in liowever small a degree incompatible witli ihe "exclusive legislation" ofCongress over the ceded limitS; or repugnant to any of the principies of the constitution, Congrcss could not have acccpted the grant.The cession being m its lerms absolute, the moment it was accepted every law or institution within the district, at variaties with the Conslitution of the United States, ceased.- Had a religious establislivient existed by law in Maryland and Virginia, at the time of tiie cession- extending, of course, to the ceded portions of these States respectively would it not have fallen to the ground at once on the transfer beiííg made? No one wiü doubt tliis. And is a reügious establishment more hostile to the constitution than slavery is? Ifnot, slave, then, in the district, on the transfer being made, became ipso facto extinct. Cougress could do no act for its support or continu anee nhy more than it could for the support or continuance of a reJigion, or of an order of nobility before existmg within the ceded limits by the laws ofMarylanrï and Virginia. Congress has au - thority toact (within the' scopo ofits specifically delegated povvers) for the establishment ofjvslice, but none for the establishment of its opposite, slavery. What it did for the continuancc of slavery ín the district was not an abuse of power - for this always implies power to be abused - but it was an dssumpilon of power for which it can fin'd not an atom of ground in the charter under which it acts; it wasanullity, which the judiciary of the United States withiñ the district ought long since - ought now ex-officio- 'without waiting for any suggesfion aliunde, to declare such. Now for the fraudulcnt influence of the slave power. To pass a law in so many words for the direct establishment of slavery within the district was more than its modes ty (.'! would permic it to as k for. It seemedtoo; siídden, too abrupt a breach of the i tion just adopted. It went no further than to ' enact, that the Iftjvfl of Maryland, and Virginia heretofore exisling in the respective portions of the Districts- laws which j ed slavcry, and authorized its atrocities - j should remain in force till Cvngrcss shouldl repeal them. That Congress could continue I in force, and ought, for the time being, to j have continuél? in force, all the laws by which ' the ceded parts of the District had before been governed so far as the laws wero not at variance with the principies of the i tion - so far as Congress wouJd have been competent itself to enact such laws - until Letter laws could be substituted for theni, no one doubts. But there was not an atom of constitutional authority in Congiëss- and this is oncof tliose cases in which time can confer nono - to yive any support direct or indirect toa system, vvhose operation is direct hostility to the principies of the Constitution. The deceitful promise implied in the words of the act that all inexpedieat laws should be repealed by Congress has, of course, never been complied with so far as elavery is coiS cerned. But that body has proceedcd from one step of legislativo authority to another till the atrocitics of the slave system, established by congroisional authority at the Capítol would disgracc a horde of Algerine landpirates.