a recognized fact in society. It
exists in Virginia in violation of the Bill of Rights, which is part of
the organic law of that State, and, in its essential features, of every
slaveholding State. Therefore to abolish it is both to fulfil the duty
of the United States in guaranteeing to every State a republican form of
government, and to assert the only true doctrine of State rights,
namely, that the legislation of a State shall conform to the fundamental
law at once of the State itself and the nation. And thus the Bill of
Rights of a slaveholding State will be no longer a mockery, but a living
power. Secondly, the destruction of this pseudo right of a State to hold
slaves is no cause of complaint--even supposing it were a legitimate and
proper right.[9] For, the Constitution once adopted, the provision for
amendment, as part of it, has also been ratified and adopted; and
therefore, by a familiar principle of law, the exercise of that
provision may not afterward be questioned. It is not for the parties who
have once solemnly ratified an agreement to complain of the carrying
into effect of its terms. They must forever hold their peace.

Thus, by virtue of the proposed amendment, all the States of the Union
will become Free States, and there will be no longer the anomaly of a
free nation upholding slavery. It will then, moreover, have been settled
by the highest authority in the land, that a republican form of
government means, first of all, freedom; and so a free constitution will
be the unquestionable condition precedent of the admission of any State
into the Union. This doctrine will seem monstrous to the believer in
State sovereignty as paramount to the sovereignty of the nation: so it
will seem monstrous to the believer in secession and rebellion. But by
the lover of the Union (who alone is the true patriot in our country) it
will be accepted as a doctrine that adds another bond of unity to the
nation, and so tends to secure its perpetual strength.

In fine, the Constitution itself is all bristling with arguments for
this amendment. Besides the provisions already quoted, there is the
fifth article of the amendments, declaring that 'no person shall be
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,'
which has now a significance unknown before. Oh, how the rebellion has
interpreted for us and commented upon the provisions of the
Constitution! In the dread light of its unholy fires, we see, as never