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 72 pressed with

ever, that these

effect

such object."

two declarations

for the ancient rule of the

are

common

known, howmore than new forms as expressed by FortesIt is well

little

law,

Impius et crudelis judicandus est qui Libertati nonfavet : He to be adjudged impious and cruel who does not favor Liberty

cue is

induce a court of justice to

irresistible clearness, to

suppose a design to



and, as expressed

by Blackstone,

"

The law

always ready to

is

catch at any thing in favor of Liberty."

But, as no prescription runs against the King, so no prescription

is

allowed to run against Slavery, while

tories of

The

Freedom

are set aside

by

all

the early vic-

the Slave-masters of to-day.

prohibition of Slavery in the Missouri Territory, and

all

the precedents, legislative and judicial, for the exercise of this

power, admitted from the beginning until now, have been overturned but at last, bolder grown Slave-masters do not hesitate

to assail that principle of jurisprudence

the creature of

" positive

law

which makes Slavery be upheld only by

" alone, to

words of "irresistible clearness." The case of Somerset, in which this great rule was declared, has been impeached on this floor, as the Declaration of Independence has been impeached also. And here the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Benjamin] has taken the lead. He has dwelt on the assertion that, in the history of English law, there were earlier cases, where a contrary principle was declared. But permit me to say that no such

cases,

even

if

they exist in authentic reports, can impair

the influence of this well-considered authority.

knows well

that an old

and barbarous case

is

The Senator

a poor answer to

a principle, which is brought into activity by the demands of an advancing Civilization, and which once recognized can never be denied; that jurisprudence is not a dark lantern, shining in

narrow

and never changing, but a gladsome light, original darkness, grows and spreads with human improvement, until at last it becomes as broad and general as the Light of Day. When the Senator, a

circle,

which, slowly emerging from

in this age

— leaguing

all his forces

—undertakes

to drag

down

which made Slavery impossible in England, as, tfaank God it makes Slavery impossible under the Constitution, he vainly tugs to drag down a luminary from that immortal principle,

!

the sky.

The enormity of

the pretension that Slavery

is

sanctioned

by