CONGRESS, U. S 



249 



repeal, ought to be repealed, because they at- 

 tempt to regulate it. I must say further, I con- 

 eider any attempt by Congress to prohibit, or 

 allow, or regulate this subject is to treat these 

 persons as property, articles of merchandise, 

 and to endeavor to exercise the power of Con- 

 gress under that delegation of power to regu- 

 late commerce as covering it is contrary to the 

 decision of the Supreme Court. This last 

 clause which the honorable Senator had added 

 to his amendment prohibiting the coastwise 

 slave trade is an attempt to exercise this 

 power, and I therefore shall be obliged to vote 

 against the amendment." 



Mr. Sumner replied : " I merely wish to 

 make one remark as to the question of power. 

 I say nothing as to whether Congress under 

 the Constitutioa may undertake to regulate the 

 trade in slaves between the States on the land. 

 I waive that question. The proposition before 

 the Senate simply undertakes to prohibit the 

 coastwise slave trade. Now, sir, I hold in my 

 hand Brightley's Digest. By turning to that 

 you will find there is one head entitled ' coast- 

 ing trade,' containing no less than forty-eight 

 different sections, each section being in the 

 nature of a regulation by Congress on that 

 subject. I turn, then, to another head entitled 

 ' passengers.' There I find seventeen sections, 

 each section being in the nature of a regulation 

 on that subject ; and in point of fact it is well 

 known to the Senate that Congress has, by 

 most minute regulations, determined the con- 

 ditions on which passengers shall be carried in 

 ships. It is known that those regulations are 

 applied especially on board the California 

 steamers, and also the steamers between this 

 country and Europe. In the one case the 

 steamers are foreign ; in the other they are 

 domestic; or the trade, if I may so say, is 

 domestic. In view of this minute and ample 

 legislation of Congress on the subject of pas- 

 sengers and of the coasting trade, I submit 

 there can be no question that Congress can go 

 further, and by a final regulation declare that 

 in that coasting trade there shall be no such 

 thing as the slave trade." 



The amendment was finally agreed to by the 

 following vote : 



TEAS Messrs. Anthonv, Brown, Chandler, Con- 

 ness, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Harlan, 

 Harris, Howard, Howe, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, 

 Morrill, Ponieroy, Sprague, Sumner, Ten Eyck, 

 Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson 23. 



XAYS Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Clark, Hen- 

 dricks, Hicks, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Nesmith, 

 Powell, Richardson, Saulsbury, Sherman, Trumbull 

 Van Winkle, and Willey 14." 



The amendment was agreed in the House 

 without a division. 



In the Senate, on the 19th of April, the bill 

 to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law was reported 

 without amendment, ordered to be engrossed 

 for a third reading and was read the third time. 

 The bill was as follows : 



JSe it enacted, d'C., That all acts of Congress, or 

 parts of acts, providing for the rendition of fugitives 

 from service or labor, DC, and the same are hereby, 

 repealed. 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : " This bill in- 

 cludes not only the law of 1850, which I have 

 always denounced as unconstitutional and un- 

 just, but also the law of 1793. The only 

 doubt I have on the subject is whether we 

 ought to repeal that law, it being a law made 

 by the framers of the Constitution." 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, replied : " I 

 will say the committee took that into consid- 

 eration ; but they felt that we had better make 

 a clean thing of it, purify the country, lift the 

 country up before foreign nations, and let us 

 now wash our hands of all support of slavery." 



Mr. Shermau answered : " I am not guided 

 exactly by the motives of the honorable Sena- 

 tor from Massachusetts. He desires to extir- 

 pate the whole of these laws. I wish to give 

 to the people of the southern States, the few 

 that are left who have the right to enforce the 

 Constitution against us, their constitutional 

 rights fully and fairly. The law of 1850, I 

 believe, is subject to a fatal objection, and it 

 ought to be repealed. I would have voted for 

 its repeal any time since it was passed. But 

 I submit to the Senator whether it is worth 

 while now to carry this proposition further. 

 The law of 1793 was framed by the men who 

 framed the Constitution. It has been declared 

 valid and constitutional by every tribunal that 

 has acted upon it." 



Mr. Sumner further replied : "I beg the 

 Senator's pardon. It was declared to be un- 

 constitutional by the Supreme Court of the 

 United States in the Prigg case ; and the Sen- 

 ator knows very well that it is among the 

 records in the life of Judge Story, who gave 

 the opinion in the Prigg case, that the fatal 

 objection to the act of 1793, that it did not give 

 a trial by jury in a case of human freedom, 

 was never argued before the court, and that he 

 personally considered it an open question. I 

 put it to the Senator whether he can doubt that 

 any human being whose freedom is called in 

 question under the Constitution of the United 

 States is entitled to a trial by jury? And if 

 that trial is not given to him by the statute 

 which undertakes to doom him to slavery, I 

 pronounce that statute unconstitutional." 



Mr. Sherman said : " Without engaging in 

 any debate on these controverted propositions, 

 and feeling the weight of constitutional obliga- 

 tion upon me, I shall content myself in this 

 case with recording my vote on the bill, and 

 by placing it simply on the ground that I do 

 not wish to extend this repeal back to a law 

 which w as framed by the men whom I rev- 

 erence as the founders of this Government, a 

 law that they believed it to be their duty to 

 pass, that was acquiesced in for more than 

 fifty years a law that I believe has been sanc- 

 tioned by the courts and by the people of this 

 country. To repeal that act now, in this time 



