Slave Law Quotes
It is not only in modern times that there were “litmus tests” for appointees. Franklin Pierce had been elected as a Democrat with a coalition that included Southerners who were able to dominate the weak Pierce precluding abolitionists from any appointments.
It, would automatically emancipate all children born to slaves thereafter. It did not pass. The quote is given as evidence of Jefferson’s attempts to eliminate slavery but is in marked contrast to the fact that he never freed his own slaves nor emancipated slave children (including possibly his own child with his slave Sally Hemmings). In addition, compare this with {629765} and {630991}.
This quotation is often given by those who argue that Lincoln really did not care about the slavery issue. It is a terrific example of the limitations of quotations where there is artful rhetoric. Douglas, had in the 1st debate posed 7 “interrogatories” to Lincoln asking if he were pledged to certain positions regarding slavery. Douglas was trying to associate Lincoln with the most radical abolitionists in the land. By asking if Lincoln were pledged to the positions, Douglas thought that he had cornered Lincoln. For if Lincoln denied the pledges, he would appear to be backing off his anti slavery positions, and if Lincoln would not, then he would appear to support the most radical elements. Lincoln turned the rhetorical tables on his opponent. He first answered the question literally, emphasizing “pledged”. Just as Douglas thought he had forced Lincoln off his anti-slavery views, Lincoln stated what he would “like to see” as opposed to what he was pledged for. See {615826}.
This was a compromise. Most Mexicans wanted immediate emancipation of all slaves. However, Stephen Austin and others desirous of attracting colonists thought that this would inhibit too many American Southerners from immigrating to Texas. Slave enthusiasts wanted no prohibition on slavery. The Mexican Emperor issued this compromise but was soon thereafter overthrown. The law was then repealed by the revolutionary government and emancipation was immediate. However, Austin was able to persuade the junta to keep the law in place for Texas only, and so it was. A similar law was being debated by Congress but the Southerners were able to block it. There were still slaves and slavery in Texas. Four years later {613642} there were more restrictions on slavery.
This principle has been characteristic of almost all legal systems in one form or another. In some, the actual perpetrator of the crime is also held guilty. Not so with the Visigoths with their strong system of fairness in everything but religion where they were primitive and maniacal. The Nuremberg Trials did not protect the perpetrator if the order itself was illegal. This compilation is the most formalized and sophisticated compendium of laws of the so-called “barbaric peoples” of Europe. The compilation was in many ways a documentation of the traditional laws of the Visigoths that had evolved over hundreds of years.
This clause was superseded by the 13th Amendment {621373}. More and more abolitionists were refusing on ethical and moral grounds to return fugitive slaves. Some states actually passed laws forbidding the return of fugitive slaves and freeing them the second they set foot in the state. Some objected arguing that the law must be enforced and the Constitution obeyed. They had a point, so the solution was to change the Constitution which is what was done in 1865.
