he
common law, says this:

"The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is
incapable of being introduced for any reasons, moral or
political; but only by positive law, which preserves its
force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from
whence it was created, is erased from memory. It's so odious
that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law.
Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a
decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by
the law of England."

I need not go back to authority. We have it abundantly in our own
country, in all the free States, so far as I know, without exception.
They deny what the amendment of my honorable friend from Kentucky
affirms. They deny that there is property in a slave. The amendment of
the Senator affirms there is property in a slave. This section is
silent, ominously silent, portentously and potentially silent. It is
not only silent, Mr. President, but when it refers you to that code of
law which is to protect the right of the master to the slave, it
refers you to the common law, and the common law to be expounded by
the Federal courts, and the common law, which is judicially and
historically known to the whole country, to be expounded in all the
free States as one that denies that very property which we say must be
secured. That is our position under this section. Sir, the State of
Virginia has said that we must have adequate guarantees; and I am
asked here to vote away what little guarantees we have. I am asked,
almost in the high ethics or morals of revealed religion, when my
adversary takes away my cloak, that I shall give him my coat also. I
am required to do that by this section. We believe that our rights are
secured under the present Constitution; we know that they have been
withheld by the political party which has now come into power; we
believe that they are insecure unless there are further and adequate
guarantees; but, so far from their being proposed by the section
before us, in my judgment, what little we have is taken away. Sir, I
cannot vote for these propositions. I regret it. I was prepared,
whether it had the approval of my judgment or not, to follow the
instructions of my State, and to vote for the amendment offered by the
honorable Senator from Kentucky after it had been modified, as was
required by the resolutions of my State.

The amendment of the Senator fro