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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,