nst its constitutionality. It is a fact universally known, that
gentlemen who have occupied and adorned the highest judicial
stations in their respective States, together with many of the
ablest lawyers in the whole country, have expressed opinions against
the constitutionality of this law." * * * "When I am called upon to
support such a law as this, while it lasts, or to desist from
opposing it in all constitutional ways, my response is, Repeal the
law! that I may no longer be called upon to support it. I demand it,
because it is a law which conflicts with the Constitution of the
country, and with all the judicial interpretations of that
Constitution, wherever they have been applied to the white race.
Because it is a law abhorrent to the moral and religious sentiments
of a vast majority of the community called upon to enforce it.
Because it is a law which, if executed in the Free States, divests
them of the character of Free States, and makes them voluntary
participators in the guilt of slaveholding. Because it is a law
Which disgraces our country in the eyes of the whole civilized
world, and gives plausible occasion to the votaries of despotic
power to decry republican institutions. Because it is a law which
forbids us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and
which makes it a crime to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and
to visit and succor the sick and imprisoned. Because it is a law
which renders the precepts of the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus
Christ seditious; and were the Savior and his band of disciples now
on earth, there is but one of them who would escape its penalties by
pretending to 'conquer his prejudices.'" * * * "Suppose the whole
body of the white population should be as much endangered by this
law, as the colored people now are, would the existence of the law
be tolerated for an hour? Would there not be a simultaneous and
universal uprising of the people against it, and such a yell of
execration as never before burst from mortal lips?"

The Hon. Charles Sumner, always true to the right, as the needle
to the pole, in his learned and able speech in Congress, 1852,
said:--"The true principles of our political system, the history
of the National Convention, the natural interpretation of the
Constitution, all teach that this Act is a usurpation by Congress of
powers that do not belong to it, and an infraction of rights secured
to the States. It is a sword, whose handle is at the N