ive is a slave or not, the life and labors of Mr. Seward are, in a
great measure, dedicated to a subversion of the constitutional clause
and right under consideration. He counsels open resistance! Yea, he
exhorts the people to protect and defend fugitive slaves _as such_, and
though they had confessed themselves to have fled from servitude! But we
doubt not that "the law of nature, written on the hearts and consciences
of freemen," will reverse this advice of his, and reaffirm the decision
of the chancellor of his own State. Nay, wherever there exists a freeman
with a real heart and conscience, there that decision already stands
affirmed.

As Mr. Seward's arguments are more fully elaborated by Mr. Sumner, of
Massachusetts, so they will pass under review when we come to examine
the speech of that Senator. In the mean time, we beg leave to lay before
the reader a few living examples of the manner in which the law of
nature, as written on the hearts and consciences of freemen, has
expressed itself in regard to the points above considered.

"I recognize, indeed," says the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, of Boston, "a power
above all human law-makers and a code above all earthly constitutions!
And whenever I perceive a clear conflict of jurisdiction and authority
between the Constitution of my country and the laws of my God, my course
is clear. I shall resign my office, whatever it may be, and renounce all
connection with public service of any sort. Never, never, sir, will I
put myself under the necessity of calling upon God to witness my promise
to support a constitution, any part of which I consider to be
inconsistent with his commands.

"But it is a libel upon the Constitution of the United States--and, what
is worse, sir, it is a libel upon the great and good men who framed,
adopted, and ratified it; it is a libel upon Washington and Franklin,
and Hamilton and Madison, upon John Adams, and John Jay, and Rufus King;
it is a libel upon them all, and upon the whole American people of 1789,
who sustained them in their noble work, and upon all who, from that time
to this, generation after generation, in any capacity,--national,
municipal, or state,--have lifted their hands to heaven in attestation
of their allegiance to the government of their country;--it is a gross
libel upon every one of them, to assert or insinuate that there is any
such inconsistency! Let us not do such dishonor to the fathers of the
Republic and the framers of t