Unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave ACT; Decisions of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in the Cases of Booth and Rycraft

Wisconsin Supreme Court

General Books LLC, 2009 - 126 pages

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 edition. Excerpt: ...destroy the genuine meaning of a word, may be to sap the very foundation of a nation's rights and liberties; it certainly is, to rob it of one of its dearest rights, that of expressing its wants and its woes, its affections and its joys, its duties and its rights. I have a right. therefore, to protest against this perversion of the use of this word " discharge "; for it is a part of my language--a sovereignty above State and National, the sovereignty of thought and affection. Mr. Justice Wayne continues: " The question here is not as to a time being more or less necessary, but as to the right of a State, by regulations to try the obligation of a fugitive to service or labor, to fix in JuJ4EBMits discretion the time it may take." Here is the-- same implied distrust of the States that is charactershermanMystic of the reasoning of the whole case. But is it Booth. no. sing, jiarj that after deciding that the time necessarily occupied in the trial of the "obligation of a fugitive to labor or service," is a discharge from such "obligation" pro tanto, and hence the States could not regulate the trial, it never occurred to the court, that Congress could no more " discharge " a slave from such "obligation," even "pro tanto" than a State? That to admit the premises and conclusions, and apply them in their full extent, would set the Union in a blaze? It is not pleasant to refer to an opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in this manner. I would not have done so, if, from the character of the reasoning, in this behalf any other mode could have been perceived. Ordinarily, to quote the decisions of that court accurately, is to pay them the highest possible respect. If, in this instance, a fault is apparent, it must be attributed to the fact, ...

Bibliographic information

• Title: Unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave ACT; Decisions of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in the Cases of Booth and Rycraft
• Author: Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Publisher: General Books LLC, 2009
• ISBN: 1150196394, 9781150196393
• Length: 126 pages