Governor McDonald's correspondence with Governor Seward, in regard to the refusal of the latter to deliver up a slave who had escaped to New-York, was a most profound and masterly exposition of the whole constitutional question. In communicating this correspondence to the Legislature, Governor McDonald pointed out the defect in the Act of 1793, which had devolved upon the officers of the State Governments the duty of delivering fugitives. In his message, he remarked, "The duty of delivering fugitives from justice, without discrimination, is created by the Constitution of the Union, and is unknown to the laws of nations; so that the States, as independent sovereignties, would have no right to demand it of each other, except by compact or treaty. The Constitution nowhere requires the execution of this duty by the States. It is, then, to be performed by the General Government, and it ought to be required to execute it. This is the true doctrine of State Rights. While it jealously guards against the encroachments of Federal power, it requires of the General Government the strict performance of all its constitutional obligations." He The acquisition of territory from Mexico, upon the termination of the war between the United States and that power, was attended with an alarming controversy connected with the question of slavery. Governor McDonald took high ground in behalf of what he regarded as the constitutional rights of the Southern States. held that from the nature of our Government, all the people of all the States had an equal right of ingress into the public territory, carrying with them any property which, by the laws of any of the States, they are entitled to hold. He advocated the adoption of the Missouri Compromise line recommended by the Nashville Convention, as reasonable and right-as having been acted upon before, as not subject to constitutional objection, and as one to which all who wished to preserve the Union, execute justice, and insure domestic tranquillity, no matter to what latitude they belong, would readily assent. In the height of the controversy relating to the acquired territory, Governor McDonald steadily referred to the Constitution as the supreme law, and said, in accepting the appointment of delegate to the Nashville Convention, that "if the Constitution of the Union were administered according to its letter and spirit, the South would not complain." After the decision of the Georgia Convention, which had resolved to acquiesce in the Compromise measures passed by Congress, Governor McDonald regarded the controversy as settled. He said, "That decision ought not to be disturbed, however much it may con flict with individual opinions. In a government of law and order, such decisions must be considered authoritative; they are the will of the people." In public life, Mr. McDonald has ever been governed by the same principles of honour and stern integrity which have given lustre to his private character. When the prospect of high dignities and elevated office has been held up to him, if he would enter into com |