The Federal Constitution, Formerly and Now [pp. 149-159]

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
charge, the Supreme Court of the United States would, when
it obtained jurisdiction of the case, by appeal or writ of error,
doubtless reverse the judgment of the inferior court, and de termine such a prohibitory act to be unconstitutional.* A
statute is the highest authority which the kingdom of Great
Britain acknowledges on earth.t Whenever a statute, the
highest law of England, gives anything, the common law af fords all necessary remedies.? The Constitution of the
United States is the supreme law of our whole land, and se cures the right to hold slaves in the territory of Kansas, and con sequently the right to common law actions for their protection.
As the Constitution, the supreme law of the land, estab lishes equality amnong the States; each State existing now,
or that may hereafter be admitted into the Union, will have
the same right, if her people will it, to have slavery as one of
her institutions. that belonged to the thirteen original States.
As slaves were held in each of the thirteen States when the
Constitution was adopted, who can doubt that if territory had
been acquired immediately after the commencement of the
operation of this instrument, that the right of any slaveholder in any State to move and settle his slaves in such territory, would have been as universally acknowledged as the
right of removal of personal property of any other kind?
No amendment prohibiting this has been made to the Constitution, and no change in the laws of one or more States is
entitled to the effect of an amendment to the Federal Conlstitution. As long as there may be one slaveholding State in
the Union, the right of slaveholders in such State to move
and employ their slaves in any territory of the United States
will continue unimpaired. The mrnajority of the citizens of
any slave State may prohibit slavery by a change of their
Constitution, as any free State by thb same authority may
admit and protect slavery within her jurisdiction. Without
this right all the States would not possess the equality to
which they are constitutionally entitled. Nor could this
equality exist unless the citizens of all the States had an
equal right to send and use all their moveable property of
every kind in the common territories of the United States.
Property in slaves, recognized as property by the supreme
* Story on the Con,titution, vol. i., p. 1( 6, note 1. Kent's Commentaries, vol. i., lecture
16. pp. 311 to 322 and 344. Rawle on the Constitution, chapter 30, pp. 248, 249, 250, 258, 259,
and notes. 3 Wileaton's Rep., 212. Robinson v. Campbell.
? Blackstone's Comlm., Aot. i., p. 185. Law Lib, vi,. ix. p. 668. Dwarris on Statutes, p. 27.
. Law Lib., vol. ix. page 662. Dwarris on Statutes, page 23.
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