Not to speak particularly of the charges of violating the Constitution, thrown upon the House of Representatives, by this Report; or of its “seditious members,” as it calls them; or of the “demoniac yells,” by which the remonstrance of the Ex-President Adams was silenced; it is more to our present purpose to call attention to the treatment rendered to the Senate, in this same document, for the resolutions passed in that body on this subject, in January, 1838:—
“Neither humanity, nor patriotism, will permit us to pass over this proceeding of the Senate, without setting it in what seems to us its true light. We pronounce it a bootless usurpation—an act equally unconstitutional and impotent. If these expressions should seem disrespectful towards the highest branch of the National Legislature, let it be remembered, that that officially august body can claim to be respected only while it respects the primary act of the people, by virtue of which it exists. When it oversteps the limits of the Constitution, for any object whatever, its authority is forfeited. But when it oversteps those limits for the attainment of an object which is in itself essentially absurd and impossible—when it essays to do by mere resolutions what it would be ridiculous to attempt by statutory enactment—it must sink to the level of contempt.... If we are correct in these views of the nature and force of our Federal Constitution, the Senate of the United States was employed from the 3d to the 13th of January, 1838, in enacting a farce well adapted to turn legislation into mockery.”
Not to speak of the exceeding indecorum of this language, as coming from what ought to be a reverend, as it is doubtless a religious as well as a political body, it is certainly going quite far enough for a power, whose lawful existence and action for any such purposes, hang suspended at best in a doubtful balance. It falls on the ear like the death sounding knell of revolutionary times. But we cannot consider it doubtful, in view of the facts and reasonings heretofore brought under review, whether this Society be a lawful one, or not. Our own convictions compel us to “pronounce it,” not simply “a bootless,” but seditious “usurpation.”
Here, then, is a grand and permanent political organization, self-erected, self-governed, independent, and irresponsible, having no connexion with the Government of the country, but yet usurping the business of that Government; having come into existence, and set up its action, in violation of the prescribed forms of the Constitution; with a distinct and systematic polity of its own creation, on a scale comparing with the machinery of a State; with a President and seventeen Vice Presidents; four Secretaries, one for correspondence with lecturing agents scattered over the country, and for other general purposes; one for correspondence with foreign countries; one devoted to domestic political action and financial agents; and one to record the doings of the Society; a Treasurer; a Board of one hundred and three Managers; 1350 auxiliaries, 13 of which are on the grand scale of State Societies; 38 travelling agents, and 75 circulating within a narrower compass; disbursing an annual income of $50,000, besides a vast amount of gratuitous labour; employing the power of the press to the amount of 646,502 copies of various literary productions annually distributed; and all these various forms of political and combined power constantly augmenting. Such is the machinery of this institution—and such the history of its origin,—an institution, which, in its annual assemblage, by representation from all its dependencies, dares, by its own public, recorded, and proclaimed acts, to “pronounce” the solemn decisions of the Senate of the nation “an unconstitutional usurpation,” and to declare its “authority forfeited!”—thus unfurling the flag of rebellion, and like the Jacobins of revolutionary France, seeming to say to the swelling of its train—Onward! Such a power legalized, with no balance of influence to counteract it, with all the advantages of its organization, of its peculiar and effective modes of operation, is enough to revolutionize any State, and any nation.
[CHAPTER IV.]
THE SEDITIOUS CHARACTER OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY FARTHER CONSIDERED.
Having proved the sedition of the American Anti-Slavery Society as a political organization, which has usurped the business of the Government, under a form prohibited by the Constitution, which of course involves two points of criminality, we shall now proceed to show, that it is seditious in another important and grave particular, as having committed, and as continuing to commit, a trespass on the political rights of the slave-holding States, as guaranteed to them by the Federal Compact, and as recognized by the law of nations.
In the first place, the action of this Society, as a grand political organization, on the social fabric of foreign States—for the slave States are foreign in respect to it—with the intent to change it against their consent, and thus disturbing their domestic tranquility, is a violation of the law of nations. This is sedition in a higher and more important sense, than any combined assault on the social institutions of a community by its own members, inasmuch as the remedy is more difficult to be attained, and more momentous in its consequences. It can be settled only by the sword. The noninterference of one nation in the domestic condition of another, is an established doctrine, and a settled maxim, of international law. A trespass on this principle is always considered tantamount to a declaration of war. Just in proportion as the peace of nations, in their relations to each other, is more important than the domestic tranquility of a single State, and the breach of it more difficult to be healed, is the criminality of such trespass increased. The action of the American Anti-Slavery Society, therefore, on the slave-holding States, as an interference of this kind, is much more responsible and more criminal, than as a violation of the social fabric of the United States. It matters not what may be the faults in the social condition of any State or nation, in the judgment and conscience of the people of another State or nation; such considerations, however aggravated and serious, furnish no ground or justification for interference; but the fact of interference is war begun.
The American Anti-Slavery Society, as we have seen, is a political organization—unlawful, indeed, but yet such is its character—and as such they have great power. They hold in their hands the peace and well being of all the slave States. On the principle above recognized—the soundness of which we dare to say will not be questioned—its action on those States is war. It is impossible that this Society should screen itself from this responsibility under the plea, that they are only using that freedom of speech and of the press, and other modes of social influence, which the Constitutional law of the land has guaranteed. For we have shown, that in the machinery they have set up, and in their modes of action, they have transcended that law; and as a consequence it will follow, that they have cast themselves beyond its protection. It will, moreover, be vain for them to plead, that they are a part of the same nation, and that however it may appear, that they have been guilty of sedition in disturbing the tranquility, by violating the laws, of the Federal Commonwealth, they have not trespassed on the law of nations. For, we shall yet, and very soon, have occasion to see, that the sovereignty of the States composing the American Union, is perfect and unimpaired, in all that has not been resigned or prohibited in the Federal Constitution for national purposes; and that, with these exceptions, the several States occupy precisely the same position, in their relations to each other, as do any other States or nations. And the institution of slavery is not comprehended in these exceptions, but remains the sovereign right of the States where it is established, so far as it concerns other States, and other nations, and so far as concerns the whole world out of their jurisdiction. It is therefore true, that the American Anti-Slavery Society, being a political body, incorporated in its own claimed and independent right, has made war on the slave-holding States of the Union.