r to save the bill. The courts at once held the
provision unconstitutional. All that is so.

Mr. FIELD:--I am answered. It is admitted that the Legislature of that
ancient State did place upon her statute book an act passed with all
the forms of law, containing a provision so insulting to millions of
American citizens.

Mr. HOWARD:--Will Mr. FIELD permit me a single question? I ask it for
information, and because I am unable to answer it myself. I therefore
rely upon his superior judgment and better means of knowledge. It
appears to me that Massachusetts, Maine, and New York have gone much
farther. The charge is a serious one. Maryland has never refused to
submit to the decisions of the proper judicial tribunals. The
Constitution has provided for the erection of a tribunal which should
finally decide all questions of constitutional law. That tribunal has
decided that the people of the slave States have a legal right to go
into the territories with their property. The gentleman from New York
tells us he is in favor of free territory, and his people are also.

Now, I wish to ask, where in the Constitution he finds the right to
appeal from the decision of the Supreme Court to the popular voice? In
what clause of the Constitution is this power lodged? Where does he
find this right of appeal to the people, a right which he insists the
North will not give up?

Mr. FIELD:--I am happy to answer the question of the gentleman from
Maryland, and I reply that when once the Supreme Court has decided a
question, I know of no way in which the decision can be reversed,
except through an amendment of the Constitution. I have the greatest
respect for the authority of the Supreme Court. I would take up arms,
if necessary, to execute its decisions. I say that States, as well as
persons, should respect and conform to its judgments, and I would say
they must. But I am bound in candor to add, that in my view the
Supreme Court has never adjudged the point to which the gentlemen
refers; it gave opinions, but no decision.

I was about to state, when I was first interrupted, that the majority
report altogether omits those guarantees, which, if the Constitution
is to be amended, ought to be there before any others that have been
suggested. I mean those which will secure protection in the South to
the citizens of the free States, and those which will protect the
Union against future attempts at secession; guarantees which are
contained in the