The government class book / Designed for the instruction of youth in the principles of constitutional government and the rights and duties of citizens.

by Andrew W. Young

§6. The manner in which slaves are to be reclaimed, is prescribed by an act of congress. The owner of a runaway slave, finding him in a free state, arrests him and brings him before a magistrate; and if he proves his title to the slave to the satisfaction of the magistrate, the slave is delivered to the owner or claimant. Free colored persons have sometimes been arrested, and, on false testimony, delivered to claimants, taken to slave states and held as slaves. Hence the opinion prevails extensively that a person claimed as a slave should be entitled to trial by a jury; and that the fact of his being a slave should be proved to the satisfaction of a jury before his delivery to a claimant. Many persons, believing freedom to be the natural right of all men, hold that all laws for returning fugitive slaves are wrong, and ought not to be obeyed.

§7. The first clause of the next section provides, that "new states may be admitted into this union," and requires the consent of congress and of the states concerned, to the formation of new states from old ones. A provision of this kind was deemed necessary in view of the large extent of vacant lands within the United States, and of the inconvenient size of some of the states then existing. The territory north-west of the Ohio river had been ceded to the general government by the states claiming the same; and a territorial government had already been established therein by the celebrated ordinance of 1787. From this territory have since been formed and admitted, the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

§8. South of the Ohio river also was a large tract, principally unsettled, within the chartered limits of Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, extending west to the Mississippi river, from which, it was presumed, new states would be formed. Justice, however, to these states, as well as to others in all future time, required the general provision above mentioned, that "no state should be divided without the consent of its legislature and of congress."

§9. The next clause authorizes congress "to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property of the United States." If the general government has power to acquire territory, it must have the right to exercise authority over it. This express grant establishes beyond doubt a power which had been questioned under the confederation. In pursuance of the power here granted, congress has made rules and regulations for governing the people of different portions of such territory previously to their admission as states into the union.

§10. The next section declares, that "the United States shall guaranty to every state in this union a republican form of government; and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on the application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened,) against domestic violence." Art. 4, sec. 4. The propriety of a power to prevent a state from changing its government to any other than a republican form, is evident. It is equally proper that a state, when invaded by a foreign enemy, or in case of an insurrection within its own borders, should have protection and aid from the general government; especially as the states have surrendered to it the right to keep troops or ships of war in time of peace. (Art. 1, sec. 10.)

Chapter XLV.

Provision for Amendments; Assumption of Public Debts; Supremacy of the Constitution, &c.; Oaths and Tests; Ratification of the Constitution.

§1. The 5th article provides for amending the constitution. It prescribes two different modes for proposing amendments, and two modes of ratifying them. Amendments may be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of congress; or, on the application or request of two-thirds of the states, congress shall call a convention for proposing amendments. Proposed in either of these modes, amendments, to become valid as parts of the constitution, must be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, or by conventions in three-fourths of them; the mode of ratification, whether by the legislatures or by conventions, to be proposed by congress.

§2. As the best human government is imperfect, and as all the future wants and necessities of a people can not be foreseen and provided for, it is obvious that every constitution should contain some provision for its amendment. But if amendments could be made whenever desired by a bare majority of the states, the strength and efficiency of the constitution might be greatly impaired by frequent alterations. It is therefore wisely provided, that a mere proposition to amend cannot be made but by a majority of at least two-thirds of congress, or of the legislatures of at least of two-thirds of the states; and that such proposition must be ratified by a still larger majority (three-fourths) of the states. It was thought better to submit occasionally to some temporary inconvenience, than to indulge in frequent amendments of the constitution.

§3. The 6th article acknowledges the obligation of the general government to pay "all debts contracted before the adoption of the constitution." As has been observed, congress had borrowed money for the payment of which it was unable to provide; and one object of a change of government was to make provision for fulfilling the engagements of the nation. This clause, it is said, was also intended to allay the fears of public creditors, who apprehended that a change in the government would release the nation from its obligations.