med to use the word "_intention_," when speaking of
the other grants and sanctions of the constitution. We do not say, for
example, that the constitution _intended_ to authorize congress "to coin
money," but that it _did_ authorize them to coin it. Nor do we say that
it intended to authorize them "to declare war;" but that it did
authorize them to declare it. It would be silly and childish to say
merely that it _intended_ to authorize them "to coin money," and "to
declare war," when the language authorizing them to do so, is full,
explicit and positive. Why, then, in the case of slavery, do men say
merely that the constitution _intended_ to sanction it, instead of
saying distinctly, as we do in the other cases, that it _did_ sanction
it? The reason is obvious. If they were to say unequivocally that it
_did_ sanction it, they would lay themselves under the necessity of
pointing to the _words_ that sanction it; and they are aware that the
_words alone_ of the constitution do not come up to that point. They,
therefore, assert simply that the constitution _intended_ to sanction
it; and they then attempt to support the assertion by quoting certain
words and phrases, which they say are _capable_ of covering, or rather
of concealing such an intention; and then by the aid of exterior,
circumstantial and historical evidence, they attempt to enforce upon the
mind the conclusion that, as matter of fact, such was the intention of
those who _drafted_ the constitution; and thence they finally infer that
such was the intention of the constitution itself.

The error and fraud of this whole procedure--and it is one purely of
error and fraud--consists in this--that it artfully substitutes the
supposed intentions of those who drafted the constitution, for the
intentions of the constitution itself; and, secondly, it personifies the
constitution as a crafty individual; capable of both open and secret
intentions; capable of legally participating in, and giving effect to
all the subtleties and double dealing of knavish men; and as actually
intending to secure slavery, while openly professing to "secure and
establish liberty and justice." It personifies the constitution as an
individual capable of having private and criminal intentions, which it
dare not distinctly avow, but only darkly hint at, by the use of words
of an indefinite, uncertain and double meaning, whose application is to
be gathered from external circumstances.

The falsehood o