doctrine of adhering to precedent, where rights of property might be unsettled by departing from them. In these matters it is sometimes said that it is more important that the law should be settled, than how it is settled. But it seems to me that in matters relating to personal liberty alone, this doctrine cannot apply with equal force. The only consequence in departing from a bad precedent there, would be that better justice would be done afterwards, than had been done before. And this could not be an evil.
The decision of the Somerset case, in England, was contrary to the precedents established by high authority, but Lord Mansfield was finally compelled to decide that the constitution of England was higher than judicial decisions. So we may say here, the constitution is the highest precedent we can have. But this doctrine, even if the court should feel bound by the Prigg case, affects only one of our objections. The other two stand unanswered, their validity admitted on all hands. There are no precedents against them. I hold therefore that our demurrer is sustained: that the matters and things set forth in the return of the Marshal do no justify in law, the detention of the Realtor, and that he is entitled to be discharged.
Let no man say that in advancing these doctrines I show myself an enemy to the constitution and Union of these States. Sir, I believe I feel as warm an attachment to them both, as is consistent with the duty of a man to feel for institutions formed by man. It is the constitution for which I have contended here. I have contended also for the Union, for it is only by maintaining the rights of the States, that the Union can be preserved. He who bares his breast in battle to defend his country against outward force, does well? But he who resists inward corruption and tyranny does better; for it has ever been the latter danger before which liberty has fallen!
And now in conclusion let me refer again to the existence of that power among us to which I alluded when I began. It is a fact of settled history that the early policy of the founders of our government, was to cherish and extend liberty, and to discourage and limit slavery. It is a fact of history equally well settled, that when by the invention of the cotton-gin, slave labor became more valuable, this policy was reversed. And then it was that began the separate, distinct existence of that power in this nation, since known familiarly as the slave power. And its influence from that time onward, upon the physical, intellectual and moral prosperity of the country, might be aptly compared to that of one of the Furies of Hell, upon the shysical world, as described by Tasso. He says:
"Where she passes, the green trees |
I have said this power adopted the policy of extending and perpetuating slavery. Adopting the vices of a past age as its virtue—saying like the fallen archangel—"evil! be thou my good!"—it has pursued this policy with a tenacity equalled only by the fell nature of the purpose itself. Eagle-eyed, sagacious, vigilant, unscrupulous and bold, neither the laws of God, nor the hopes and happiness of man have stood in its way. But in violation of the one, and to the destruction of th eother, it has gone on, building broader and more broad, its bloody altar, on which to immolate a human race, with all its mighty burden of earthly and immortal hopes! Laughing at plighted faith, mocking at right, poisoning the morals, darkening the intellect, blasting the prosperity of the people, and blighting the very physical earth beneath it, it has gone on like the genius of desolation, rioting in corruption, and revelling amid decay and death! Its baleful influence has not been confined to its own limits. It has spread abroad through the whole land like a moral pestilence and contagion. There have been none so high and none so low, that they have escaped its influence. It has expurgated the literature of the nation. It has shackled the press. The blood of a martyr to the freedom of the press, cries to Heaven from the soil of a neighboring State, for vengeance against this power. It has entered the church, turning the light of religion into darkness, and turning the words of blessing and love to the poor and lowly, into words of cursing and hate. It has seized on the political parties of the country, and made them play such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as makes the angels weep! Some of the concessions made to it have bdoubtless been external. But its great evil has been within—in the perverting influence it has exercised on the public heart. This has been so great, that the time has been within my recollection, when a man could not stand up on Bunker's Hill, and proclaim the truths for which they fell, whose heroic dust reposed beneath his feet, without subjecting himself to personal violence. I have myself seen a man mobbed in the District in Ohio, since represented in congress by Joshua R. Giddlings, for denouncing slavery not half so severly as it has since been denounced by the respresentative from that District, in the very Halls of Congress. This perverting influence has been so great that there is even yet among us, especially in our cities, a class of fawning parasites of power, who meet all arguments on this subject by some heartless sneer at the color of the race who have been the chief victims of this oppression. A class who plume themselves on being wiser than others, because they have advanced so far as to see that the Declaration of Independence is a lie—liberty a delusion—and equality the visionary dream of fanatics and fools! But it is useless to multiply details of the perverting influence of the slave power. All have seen it. Church and State, Priest and People have bowed before it, as plainly as the trees of the forest, the shrubs, the grass, and the waving grain, bend forward in the direction in which the driving gale sweeps along the Earth.
But it may be asked why I allude to this now? I do it in order to draw from it a two-fold conclusion. First, that it weakens very much, if it does not entirely destroy, the force of those decisions that have been made in favor of this power, while its influence on the public mind was so mighty and universal. We must remember that judges are, after all, but men. That although as a matter of theory, they are sometimes supposed to be above the reach of prejudice or passion, yet in practice it is often found to be different, and that they are influenced by the same prejudices and passions as other men. And I think the facts to which I have alluded, furnish just reason to believe, that a perverting influence that has reached and controlled almost every other class and department in the nation, has not been unfelt in the judiciary. I say it frankly and fearlessly,—I believe it has been felt there, and that is the only hypothesis on which I can account for such decisions as those I have examined.
An illustration of the matter in which that influence acted on the Northern Judiciary, may be found in the fact that Chancellor Walworth after his opinion against the law of '93, was nominated by one of the Presidents for a Judge fo the Supreme Court of the United States, but was rejected by the Senate, on account of that opinion, while Judge Nelson, who decided the other way, was afterwards nominated and confirmed, and is now enjoying his reward, and from all accounts deserving still further at the hands of the slave power.
The other conclustion which I wish to draw from this fact, is that it strengthens ten fold the force of those arguments in favor of resisting the encroachments of the general government and maintaining the reserved rights of the States. It is through that government only, that the slave power can act directly on the people of the free States. Through that, it can and does act upon them. Through that it can and will act upon them, to the extent that its power can be stretched.
We are accustomed to look upon our country as having already attained a very great degree of power and importance. This is in a sense true. But we have only to travel forward for a century or two, at the sober pace of reason, unassisted by the wings of imagination, in order to behold it bestriding this continent like a Colossus—possessing a power compared with which, that it now possesses would be like the pigmy compared with the giant. Emergencies will be doubtless arise in the course of its national existence that will call into being vast armies and navies. And if the general government is under the control of the slave power, these armies and navies will be under its control. And who can doubt that the power is capable of conceiving the fell purpose of annihilating liberty through all these States, and extending over them its own horrible institutions? Who can doubt that after conceiving this purpose it will carry into execution by the iron arm of military power? It will do this, not with the avowed purpose of overthrowing the constitution, but pretending that it sanctions their sacrilegious design. They will do it in the execution of so-called laws, passed in accordance with those precedents against which I have contended here. The contemplation of such a destiny for our country, fills the soul with darkness and gloom! When it shall come to pass, the great experiment which our fathers bgan in this New World will have failed! The light which they kindled, and which burned so brightly—shining like a beacon to the nations afar off—will have been extinguished! Liberty! the fairest, divinest guest that ever came from heaven to dwell with mortal man
