erstand it, but as it is
understood by the Supreme Court of the United States. Such, it seems to
us, is the only wise course--nay, is the imperative duty--of every
citizen who does not intend to disorganize the fundamental law and
revolutionize the government of his country.

It may be supposed, perhaps, by those who have reflected little on the
subject, that the controversy respecting the Fugitive Slave Law is
merely about the value of a few slaves. It is, in our opinion, far
otherwise; it is a great constitutional question; and hence the deep
interest which it has excited throughout the nation, as well as in the
Senate of the United States. It is a question, as it appears to us,
whether the Constitution or the abolitionists shall rule the country.
The Fugitive Slave Law is, as we have seen, surrounded by the strongest
possible evidences of its constitutionality; and hence, if this may be
swept away as unconstitutional by the passions of a mad faction, then
may every other legal defence be leveled before like storms, and all
security annihilated. Hence, as the friends of law and order, we intend
to take our stand right here, and defend this Act, which, although
despised and abhorred by a faction, has received the sanction of the
fathers, as well as of the great judicial tribunals, of the land.

We are asked to repeal this law--ay, by the most violent agitator of the
North we are asked to repeal this law--for "_the sake of tranquillity
and peace_!" But how can this bring peace? Suppose this law were
repealed; would tranquillity be restored? We have not forgotten--nor can
we be so easily made to forget--that this very agitator himself has
declared, that slavery is "a wrong so transcendent" that no truce is to
be allowed to it so long as it occupies a single foot of ground in the
United States. Is it not, then, a delusive prospect of peace which is
offered to us in exchange for the law in question?

Nor can we forget what other agitators have uttered respecting the
abolition of slavery in the Southern States. "Slavery," said Mr. Seward,
at a mass-meeting in Ohio, "can be limited to its present bounds; it can
be ameliorated. It can be--and it _must_ be--ABOLISHED, and you and I
can and _must_ do it." Does this look like peace, if the Fugitive Slave
Law were only out of the way? Mr. Seward, from his place in the Senate
of the United States, tells us how we must act among the people of the
North, if, in reclaiming our fugi