ly as persons. The United States can
protect persons, _but cannot make them property_, and they have full
power in regulating commerce, and can, in such regulations, prohibit
from its operations every thing but property; property made so by the
laws of nature, and not by any municipal regulations. The dominion of
man over things, as property, was settled by his Creator when man was
first placed upon the earth. He was to subdue the earth, and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, and over
every living thing that moveth upon the earth; every herb bearing
seed, and the fruit of a tree yielding seed, was given for his use.
This is the foundation of all right in property of every description.
It is for the use of man the grant is made, and of course man cannot
be included in the grant. Every municipal regulation, then, of any
State, or any of its peculiar institutions, which makes man property,
is a violation of this great law of nature, and is founded in
usurpation and tyranny, and is accomplished by force, fraud, or an
abuse of power. It is a violation of the principles of truth and
justice, in subjecting the weaker to the stronger man. In a Christian
nation such property can form no just ground for commercial
regulations, but ought to be strictly prohibited. I therefore believe
it is the duty of Congress, by virtue of this power, to regulate
commerce, to prohibit, at once, slaves being used as articles of
trade.

The gentleman says, the Constitution left the subject of slavery
entirely to the States. To this position I assent; and, as the States
cannot regulate their own commerce, but the same being the right of
Congress, that body cannot make slaves an article of commerce, because
slavery is left entirely to the States in which it exists; and slaves
within those States, according to the gentleman, are excluded from the
power of Congress. Can Congress, in regulating commerce among the
several States, authorize the transportation of articles from one
State, and their sale in another, which they have not power so to
authorize in any State? I cannot believe in such doctrine; and I now
solemnly protest against the power of Congress to authorize the
transportation to, and the sale in, Ohio, of any negro slave whatever,
or for any possible purpose under the sun. Who is there in Ohio, or
elsewhere, that will dare deny this position? If Ohio contains such a
recreant to her constitution and policy, I hope