of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the congress.
"The congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.
"Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive when the legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence.
"Art. VI. This constitution, and the laws of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all the treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."
The above are all the clauses of the constitution that have been quoted, on one side or the other, as bearing upon the subject of slavery.
It will be noted that the word "slave," or "slavery," does not appear therein. Mr. Madison, who was a leading and observant member of the convention, and who took notes of its daily proceedings, affirms that this silence was designed — the convention being unwilling that the constitution of the United States should recognize property in human beings. In passages where slaves are presumed to be contemplated, they are uniformly designated as "persons," never as property. Contemporary history proves that it was the belief of at least a large portion of the delegates that slavery could not long survive the final stoppage of the slave-trade, which was expected to (and did) occur in 1808.
The following among the amendments to the constitution proposed by the ratifying convention of one or more states, and adopted, are supposed by some to bear on the questions now agitated relative to slavery:
"Art. I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the rights of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
"Art. II. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
"Art. V. No person shall be * * * deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."
