proper and practicable measures ought therefore to be taken to remove it, not only for the general reasons which it is not necessary to enumerate, but also because the continual, and every year more dangerous altercations, which its presence occasions, will cease when their cause is removed, and never before.

Congress has also the entire legislative power over the territories. Those who look upon slavery as a great moral, social, and political evil, ought not to contribute directly or indirectly to enlarge its limits, increase its miseries, or augment the number of its subjects. It would have been already circumscribed within much narrower limits than it now occupies, but for the malign influence exerted by one man, the Honorable Henry Clay, some eighteen or nineteen years ago.

2. The power to regulate commerce among the several States, is given in the same clause and in the same terms as the power to regulate foreign commerce. The third clause of section eight, article first, provides that " congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes." Under the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, congress have already prohibited the African slave-trade; and under the power to regulate commerce among the several States, congress may equally prohibit the slave-trade among the several States.

As this trade tends to prolong the existence of slavery in several States where slave labor is comparatively unprofitable, as it tends to augment the number of slaves in the States where their labor is more profitable, as it heightens the evils inseparable from slavery, by suddenly breaking up the ties of acquaintance, connection, and relationship; for these and many other reasons, it ought not to be sanctioned by the general government, but all judicious and practicable measures should be adopted to cause its discontinuance.

3. I am in favor of prompt and efficient measures to secure the discontinuance of the slave-trade between the United States and Texas.

4. Your last question I do not think it necessary to answer in detail. I hold it to be my duty to act in every situation, according to my deliberate judgment of right and wrong. The precise line of conduct which I ought to pursue in any given case, I choose to be left at liberty to determine, with all the light I can derive from observation, reading, discussion, and reflection, previously to the moment of action. This liberty I shall not surrender, unless on any question, I should be specifically instructed by a majority of my constituents; in which event, I should vote according to their instructions if I could conscientiously do so; otherwise, I should resign.

I have given you frankly my present opinions; I will only add, that

as they have not been hastily adopted, they will not be lightly relinquished.

Respectfully, gentlemen, I have the honor to be

Your friend and fellow-citizen,

ROBERT RANToul, Jr.

To Messrs. E. Hunt, Wm. B. Dodge, and others, committee, etc.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.*

MR. PRESIDENT:— The convention which I now have the honor to address, was called, as I suppose, at my suggestion. The reason why I desired of the district committee of this district that the democratic voters of this district should be called together, and that I might have an opportunity to address them, was one which, I think, will meet the approbation of you all. It was, that since the period when I was first nominated to represent this district in congress, a very material change has taken place in the condition of affairs. One change was this. I have had the honor to be nominated for congress again and again, when I supposed there were very few persons who believed there was any probability of my election. A law has now been passed which makes it certain that some person must be elected to represent this district in congress. It is called the Plurality Law. Therefore, as we now know we are not to pass through trials without end, but either at the election on Monday next, or on the succeeding one, some person will be elected, it therefore becomes a different question as to what ought to be done.

There has also been a change with regard to other great questions. The great question of slavery has now assumed a particular shape, concerning which it is now necessary to declare an opinion. So long as that question was floating in uncertainty, so long as it was connected with subjects which were changing day by day, it might not be desirable that a public man should state his opinions. But at last this question has assumed a definite shape. It has presented a distinct issue, an issue reaching back to fundamental principles. And I did in my conscience suppose, that the democratic voters would desire to hear from me, before they should deposit their votes at the election of Monday next.

*Speech delivered before the Grand Mass Convention, holden at Lynn, Thursday, April 3, 1851.

Supposing that all the democratic voters desired to be acquainted with the views of their candidate, one of two courses was necessary to be adopted; either in writing to present my views to the citizens of this district, or to invite the democratic voters to come together and meet me face to face. I have preferred the latter, because I can speak more freely than I can write, (though that is a personal consideration,) and because if I address my fellow-citizens here, those who wish to hear me can come, and those who do not wish to hear me can stay away.

I am now ready to proceed to make an exact statement of my opinions, a statement so unequivocal, that there shall be no mistake about it. I intend to make a distinct and unequivocal definition of my ideas of what seems to be the most important issue now before the country. And when I have done so, for I want to lay down a distinct proposition upon this subject, I shall then say to my friends of the democratic party, who are here present, Gentlemen, you have supported me as your candidate through a good many trials. It has come to my ears lately, that there are some persons who claim to belong to the democratic party, who would not be satisfied if I made such declarations as I now intend to make. I desire that if there be such gentlemen present, they may have an opportunity to show themselves, and to declare their purposes, and, if they constitute a majority of the democratic party, that they may substitute some other candidate in my stead. If the democratic party here present, after having heard the views which I shall express on this subject, shall choose to make any other arrangement than the present, with regard to the congressional election, either for the reason that I have suggested, or for any other reason, for any grounds, I care not what, then I shall only have to thank them for past favors, and go into the battle as a private soldier.

In explaining one's ideas before the people, it seems to have become quite the fashion, of late, to go back so far as to swear fealty to the Constitution and the Union. I will follow that fashion. I am attached, and as devotedly attached as any other man, to the Union of these States, and to the Constitution of our government. I believe the Union to be at the bottom of almost all the other political blessings that we enjoy. I believe the Constitution to be- not perfect, as nothing proceeding from human hands is perfect- but as nearly and as reasonably perfect as could have been expected at the time it was made, as could be expected if it were made now, and even better than if we were to make it over again.

But when I say that I admire and love both the Union and the Constitution, it is because of that which they secure to us. The Union is great, I might almost say it is the greatest of our political blessings, be

cause it secures to us what was the object of the Union. And the Constitution is good, and great, and valuable, and to be held forever sacred, because it secures to us what was the object of the Constitution. And what is that? Liberty! And if it were not for that, the Union would be valueless, and the Constitution would not be worth the parchment upon which it is written.

Why do we value the Union? Because it secures our national independence and the independence of the several States; because without it, there would exist a number of petty States, which would be, as they are in Europe, exposed to perpetual wars with each other and with their neighbors. We should be obliged to keep up a standing army, and should be quarrelling with each other, as the petty German States have done for ages. With all that, your national independence would be, if preserved, continually in hazard, but most probably could not even be preserved. And out of that condition of things would grow, most probably, a contest of small States with great ones; and the independence of the weaker ones would be sacrificed, while the greater ones would rule over them. Against all that, the Union guarantees us. It guarantees to us independence. What is independence? Have there not been the most cruel despotisms on earth which were independent nations? Our independence is valuable because it preserves our liberty; and the Union is great and glorious because it preserves our independence, and thereby our liberty.

I love the Union and the Constitution, then, not for themselves, but for the great end for which they were created; to secure and perpetuate liberty, not the liberty of a class superimposed upon the thraldom of groaning multitudes, not the liberty of a ruling race cemented by the tears and blood of subject races, but human liberty, perfect liberty, common to all for whom the Union and the Constitution were made, to the whole "people of the United States," and to their "posterity."

It is because I believe all this, that I love the Union and the Constitution. And if I did not believe this, I should go back to my pilgrim ancestors and take a lesson from them. When they came out from the old world, and left their country which they loved, and the Constitution of Great Britain which they loved, (for they expressed their love for it in all their writings, speeches, and deeds,) though they loved their country and its Constitution, they loved something else more than they loved their country. They loved liberty more. "Patria cara, carior libertas." Interwoven with every fibre of my heart is the love of my country; but freedom is the charm which endears and consecrates her; and if the spirit of liberty should take her flight from my native land, my love and worship are not due to brute clods and rocks, to her prairies, or her

mountains; but where liberty dwells, there is my country, and there only is my country! Dear to my inmost soul are the Union and the Constitution; but God-given liberty is above the Union, and above the Constitution, and above all the works of man.

The PRESIDENT. That is the true higher law.

They are

Mr. RANTOUL. These ideas are not at all new with me. not taken up on account of any present position of public affairs. I see before me quite a number of gentlemen who were present eighteen years ago, when I had occasion to discuss the value of the federal Union. I then took the same view of the value of the Union and the Constitution that I take now. I valued them then, as I value them now, because of their great purpose. So long as they accomplish that purpose, so long are they the highest political blessings. And if they ever cease in the providence of God to accomplish that great purpose, they become worthless; they may become even a curse.

Washington, in his invaluable legacy of practical sagacity, the farewell address, held the same view of the relations in which the Union, the Constitution, and the great principle of liberty stand to each other. It is because of our love of liberty, that we do love and ought to love the Union and the Constitution. He gives to the view which I have just taken the full sanction of his mighty name. He declares "The unity of government which constitutes you one people" to be "justly" dear to you, because "it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence,” and "of that very liberty which you so highly prize." He tells you that by this Union the several parts avoid much of the liability to, and the danger from wars with foreign nations, and domestic "broils, and wars between themselves;" and though last, not least, "the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." "In this sense it is," says he, "that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty; and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other." It is because I receive into an undoubting heart these parting lessons of that apostle of liberty, who was the founder of our Union, and inaugurator of our Constitution, that I venerate his work, and cling to it, as to the ark of our political salvation.

Living in this faith, and desiring to live up to this faith, I so exhibit my fidelity to the Union, and so exercise my devotion to the Constitution, as will best promote the ultimate purpose of the Union and the Constitution, the cause of human liberty. Were I knowingly to swerve from this straight path, but by the division of a hair, I should be so far false to the glorious mission of an American citizen, and to the obvious duty