OF

CHAPTER III.

THE ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE DECLARATION INDEPENDENCE, THE CONFEDERATION, AND THE CONSTITUTION..

THE Declaration of Independence declares, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." Here, we think, are principles broad and comprehensive enough, and which, if carried out, would annihilate, and in fact, when they were adopted by the people of the United States as their opinions, and the reasons why they took up arms against the mother country, did annihilate, so far as words could, the whole slave system. That moment, every slave in the United States was

free; and, if our colored friends had taken advantage of the declaration here made, and laid in their claim to be included in the family of man, and as a portion of the people of the United States, we do not see, we cannot see, how their claim could have been disallowed by the men of that age. In fact, we believe the writer of these sentiments, secing how utterly the colored man's rights were denied him, suggested to his mind the expressions here. used, and he meant they should be broad enough to cover his case; and, unless we deny to him and the men associated with him the knowledge of the meaning of words, and of their bearing, we cannot get rid of the consequences; they meant every person in our country should be free. They made no exception to the African race; but, on the contrary, it is well known the person who wrote this declaration made the observation, that he trembled for his country, when he reflected that God was just, and that he could not take sides with us in such a contest as might take place between the oppressor and the oppressed. have seen what many of the most active men engaged in that Revolution have said; we know what was the action of the States north of the Potomac; and we must come to the conclusion that the people of that time both understood the meaning of the language here used, and meant to have the principles carried out to their fullest extent. In order to show that such must have been their intentions, we will go on and examine the Constitution, and endeavor to see how that harmo

We

nizes with these sentiments; but, before going to that instrument, we will make a few observations on the articles of the Confederation.

The Confederation was formed at the commencement of the revolutionary war. It was a league among sovereign States for the purpose of repelling a common enemy; and, as it was formed in anticipation of an arduous contest, it is for the most part taken up in defining the powers of congress and the several States, as regards the preparations and carrying on of warlike operations, and in describing the powers of the several States, and that of congress in their action on this subject. They had just made their declaration of sentiments; it was for liberty. They had taken up arms; and it was for liberty. They were to be united; and we perceive this idea of liberty to be the prominent one running through this whole. instrument. Without making any other professions than those they had made in the Declaration of Independence, they, in the first place, simply style the confederacy "The United States of America." Then each State was to have its own sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and all powers which were not expressly delegated to congress. It was a "league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare," &c. And, "the better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in the Union, the FREE inhabitants of each of these

States (paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted) shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of free citizens of the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and egress to and from every other State," &c. This sentence is the only one to which allusion is in any way made to slaves in this country. A stranger could not determine that there were any, but by the word free as applied to persons; and this word is not uniformly used before the term people, even in this very sentence. It was a word, undoubtedly even in its connection, forced in, much to the discomfiture of many; for it will be perceived that the expression, "the people of each State shall have ingress and egress to and from every other State," does not have the word free before it; so that, under the Confederation, if this sentence should be construed in its enlarged sense, every slave, if he belonged to the family of man, would have the power of going from one State to another as he listed. He might be deprived of the privileges of a free citizen in every thing but locomotion. This, according to the strict construction of the language, was not denied him.

In article 15th we have this expression: "Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in congress assembled, in all questions which by this Confederation are submitted to them." Now we should construe this, that any question arising, in which the "common defence," the "security of liberty," the "mutual and general

welfare, and the perpetuation of mutual friendship and intercourse," was involved, was a fit subject for the action of this Confederation; and, if they at the time thought slavery was to interrupt these relations, they would probably have acted definitely on the subject; but, as it was, they took an indirect course, and left it for the colored man to ascertain what his rights were from the principles they had established. But the Confederation, as it is well known, for its want of vitality in other respects, did not, as was urged by some, though denied by others, fulfil the intentions of the people of the country, and the Constitution was adopted. The question now arises, what were the intentions of the men who went to Philadelphia to form this Constitution, and the intentions of the men who sent them there? Where shall we look to ascertain this? Here was a large and extensive country. They had, by the course of Providence, been put in possession of it, and it belonged to them to make rules and regulations, or, in other words, laws, by which the inhabitants should be governed they had separated from the mother country for the ostensible purpose of freeing it from the tyranny she was endeavoring to practise towards it, and this great continent, from Maine to Georgia, and from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi, was to be under the guidance and direction of the men who should compose the convention then about to sit. Had the principles that had actuated our revolutionary fathers changed? had their love of the right, their love of liberty,