If
this assumption of the bill be correct, their concurrence can not be
considered as having been legally given, and the important fact is made
to appear that the consent of three-fourths of the States--the requisite
number--has not been constitutionally obtained to the ratification of
that amendment, thus leaving the question of slavery where it stood
before the amendment was officially declared to have become a part of
the Constitution.
That the measure proposed by this bill does violate the Constitution
in the particulars mentioned and in many other ways which I forbear
to enumerate is too clear to admit of the least doubt. It only remains
to consider whether the injunctions of that instrument ought to be
obeyed or not. I think they ought to be obeyed, for reasons which I will
proceed to give as briefly as possible.
In the first place, it is the only system of free government which we
can hope to have as a nation. When it ceases to be the rule of our
conduct, we may perhaps take our choice between complete anarchy, a
consolidated despotism, and a total dissolution of the Union; but
national liberty regulated by law will have passed beyond our reach.
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