ort to the protection of the national judiciary. The
proceedings by which his rights have been invaded being under a law of
Congress, the remedy for error or injustice belongs peculiarly to that
high tribunal._ UNDER THEIR AMPLE SHIELD, THE APPREHENSION OF CAPTIVITY
AND OPPRESSION CAN NOT BE ALARMING."

It is evident that when this opinion was pronounced by the Supreme Court
of New York, it had not fathomed the depths of some men's capacity of
being alarmed by apprehensions of captivity and oppression. The
abolitionists will, whether or no, be most dreadfully alarmed. But the
danger consists, not in the want of laws and courts to punish the
kidnapper, but in the want of somebody to catch him. If he does all the
mischief ascribed to him by the abolitionists, is it not wonderful that
he is not caught by them? Rumor, with her thousand tongues, is clamorous
about his evil deeds; and fanatical credulity, with her ten thousand
ears, gives heed to the reports of rumor. But yet, somehow or other, the
abolitionists, with all their fiery, restless zeal, never succeed in
laying their hands on the offender himself. He must, indeed, be a most
adroit, a most cunning, a most wonderful rogue. He boldly goes into a
community in which so many are all eye, all ear, and all tongue, in
regard to the black man's rights; he there steals a free negro, who
himself has the power to tell when, where, and how, he became free; and
yet, in open day, and amid ten thousand flaming guardians of
freedom,[227] he escapes with perfect impunity! Is he not a most
marvelous proper rogue? But perhaps the reason the abolitionists do not
lay hands on him is that he is an imaginary being, who, though
intangible and invisible, will yet serve just as well to create an alarm
and keep up a great excitement as if he were a real personage.

Sec. IV. _The duty of the Citizen in regard to the Constitution of the
United States._

The Constitution, it is agreed on all sides, is "the supreme law of the
land,"--of every State in the Union. The first duty of the citizen in
regard to the Constitution is, then, to respect and obey each and every
one of its provisions. If he repudiates or sets at naught this or that
provision thereof, because it does not happen to agree with his own
views or feelings, he does not respect the Constitution at all; he makes
his own will and pleasure the supreme law. The true principle of loyalty
resides not in his bosom. We may apply to him, a