Discussion of Repeal Bills.
§ 102. Discussion of the repeal bill in the House.—Had the country been divided simply into two parts, the slaveholding Southern Confederacy and the free loyal North, little discussion could have arisen. The third element, the slaveholding States which remained firm for the Union, rendered the question far more complex. The bill therefore aroused much indignation. Mr. Mallory demanded, as an act of justice to his State, that "the Fugitive Slave Act be permitted to remain on the statute-book. If you say it will be a dead letter, so much less excuse have you for repealing it, and so much more certainly is the insult and wrong to Kentucky gratuitous. This act, by which you declare your intention not to obey the injunction of the Constitution is wanton and useless, except for the purpose of bravely exhibiting your contempt for that instrument." "The framers of the Constitution gave us the right to reclaim fugitive slaves. It was conceded not as a favor, but as a right." "Kentucky has remained true to her faith pledged to the government, and I warn you not to persevere in inflicting on her insult and outrage."[368]
Again, one of the reasons for the departure of the Southern States, was the "bad faith of the Northern States,—the fatal infringement of this part of the Constitution. It was because of Personal Liberty bills, John Brown raids, and general denunciation and intermeddling with slavery."[369] Many members urged that there could be no more reckless action than to show to the Border States an apparent disregard of the Constitution. Mr. Cox considered the law the only refuge left to a certain class of citizens to protect their "rights." It would be like saying to them, We place the penalty of the treason of the revolted slaveholders on your innocent heads. "We add to your calamities the ingratitude and treachery of the government to which you have adhered."[370]
The final discussion, June 13, opened with a long speech by Mr. King. The old arguments from the Constitution, the far-seeing wisdom of the fathers, the opinion of the Supreme Court in the Prigg case, and the harm done the Border States, were again rehearsed.[371]
In answer to Mr. King, Mr. Hubbard denied that the Constitution provided for the enactment of a law by Congress, and in any case, the treason of slavery had already absolved the people from any such obligation. It surely must be competent for this Congress to repeal any act which a previous Congress had enacted. For yet another reason the law should be repealed. Negro soldiers must be enlisted: "You cannot draft black men into the field, while your marshals are chasing women and children in the woods of Ohio with a view to render them back into bondage. The moral sense of the nation, ay, of the world, would revolt at it."[372] Again, this would make a conflict in our laws, said Mr. Morris. A colored man might enlist in our army, then, under the Fugitive Slave Law, "he might be seized and remanded to slavery; and as a further consequence, dealt with as a deserter from his post of duty."[373] It was also urged that unless slavery was to survive the war, the two acts were useless and obsolete statutes, which ought to be wiped out of existence. No one who believes that slavery is dead would desire to keep such a guaranty of the institution.[374] Mr. Hubbard then demanded the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill. It was declared in the affirmative, yeas 82, nays 57, and thus the repeal was successfully carried in the House.[375]
§ 103. Repeal bills in the Senate.—Mr. Sumner had already reported a repeal bill from the Committee on Slavery and Freedom in the Senate, February 29, 1864.[376] The progress of the bill was so delayed by the opposition, that Mr. Sumner at last gave notice that he should take every proper occasion to call up the bill, and press its consideration.[377]
In the debate several speeches were made against the measure, while Mr. Sumner defended it. To the antislavery party the act was constitutionally[378] and morally wrong, so against public sentiment that it could seldom be enforced, and the question of its repeal was as plain as a "diagram," "the multiplication table," or "the ten commandments."[379] They desired to strike slavery wherever they could hit it, and to "purify the statute-book, so that there should be nothing in it out of which this wrong can derive any support." It should be repealed for the sake of our cause in foreign lands.[380] "Since the outbreak of the Rebellion this statute has been constantly adduced by our enemies abroad as showing that we are little better than Jefferson Davis and his slave-monger crew; for slavery never shows itself worse than in the slave-hunter. It is a burden for our cause which it ought not to be obliged to bear."
To retain the law of 1793, framed by the founders of the Republic, and repeal the act of 1850 with its manifest injustice, was suggested as a desirable compromise. Mr. Sherman, therefore, offered an amendment to this effect, and it was accepted.[381] The friends of the measure then felt that the bill as it stood was of little value to the antislavery cause. Mr. Brown maintained that it was really a proposition to reinstate slavery in its fastness in the Constitution. "The civilized world, when it beholds the spectacle of the American Senate going back for three quarters of a century to resurrect a statute of slave-catching, and pass it anew with their indorsement, will credit very little all your talk about freedom. The act will give the lie to all argument."[382]
Before further action was taken on Mr. Sherman's bill, the repeal bill from the House came before the Senate, and was reported from the committee, June 15, 1864. It was discussed for several days, but no new arguments were offered, and, June 23, 1864, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 27 to 12.383 On the 25th of June it received President Lincoln's signature, and the Fugitive Slave Laws were swept from the statute-book of the United States.[384]