President Washington, acquiesced in for more than fifty years, is pronounced unconstitutional, or, in the carefully-worded language of the Supreme Court, "not free from reasonable doubt as to its constitutionality," in one or more of its principal provisions, by the decision of the highest judicial court of the country. It shows that the gentlemen in both Houses of Congress, when they enact laws under the screws of party, and amidst champagne, clamor, and cries for the "previous question," may be enacting unconstitutional statutes. If they do this in one case, they are liable to do it in another. Infallibility does not pertain to such a body of men as compose the present House of Representatives. "No per The clause of the Constitution, already referred to, says: son held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall be delivered up," &c. Mark the expression. The meaning clearly is another State,' not a Territory. A slave, then, escaping from a Territory of the United States into one of the States, cannot constitutionally be pursued and remanded into slavery.* Of course, that portion of the Fugitive Slave Bill, which authorizes the arrest of an alleged slave who has fled from the District of Columbia, the certificate of the commissioner, and the carrying back, in chains, of the prisoner, by the marshal, is unconstitutional, and therefore void. It will be observed that in the last section the law confers jurisdiction upon a State Court of Record. It is settled that Congress cannot confer jurisdiction upon any court not created by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Among the fundamental principles of a free people and a constitutional government, are these-The right of an accused person to meet his accuser or claimant face to face, to examine his witnesses in Court, to employ counsel, and should he be poor, to have counsel assigned by the Court, and to be TRIED BY AN IMPARTIAL JURY. Even men accused of the most atrocious crimes can legally claim each and all these privileges; and after conviction, so lenient is the law, and so humane the practise, that great forbearance is shown to the convict. He may move for a new trial, and have the question elaborately argued; the Court, after advisement, delivers a formal opinion; the executive pa *Whoever defends William C. Chaplin, must take the ground, that it is no crime, under the Constitution, to aid a bondman to escape from the District of Columbia into Maryland, or any other State; to say nothing here of the fact that Slavery itself does not constitutionally exist in the District of Columbia. 2* tiently listens to the entreaties and arguments of friends. Meantime the prisoner is treated with kindness; he may receive the visits of his family; and in all the proceedings, both before and after conviction, justice is tempered with mercy. But in the case of a poor man, arrested under the Fugitive Slave Bill, none of these things are meted out to him. He may be decoyed, as was Hamlet, under lying statements, by govermental officials, to a court-room; no counsel is assigned to him; he is not permitted to send for his friends; testimony against him is taken in an adjoining apartment; he is adjudged by some understrapper, unconstitutionally clothed with high judicial powers, to perpetual slavery; is hand-cuffed in the court-room, denied the melancholy gratification of bidding his wife and little ones a final adieu, or even the miserable consolation of apprising them of his situation; and in hot haste is carried to a Southern dungeon. This is done, not in a land of savages or pirates, but in a Christian city-in the Temple of Justice, by men of respectable descent and standing! "The law allows it, and the court awards it." Northern men willingly become slave-catchers, and take great delight in obsequiousness to Southern slaveholders, and in truckling to their arrogance. Even the sons and grandsons of illustrious men are content to wear Southern livery. The law requires that the proceedings shall be "summary," and the ministers of the law, with demoniacal impetuosity and cruelty, administer it to the letter. Gracious heavens! Do we live in the land of the pilgrims? Does the blood of Hampden and Sidney flow in our veins? Are we the countrymen of Patrick Henry? Did Lafayette fight to achieve our freedom? Is this the model Republic Are we MEN? It is said, "The compromises of the Constitution must be observed; these men are not citizens, but only slaves." This is said by those who basely submit to the violation of the Constitution by South Carolina, in imprisoning colored seamen, citizens of Massachusetts, and selling them to pay jail fees, when the Constitution declares, "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." But it is not fugitive slaves alone that the Bill reaches. Every colored person in the free States is liable to be arrested and to be carried into slavery by the practise under this Act. The affidavit of a slaveholder, and the testimony of some perjured accomplice among our own citizens, will be deemed sufficient by many of these commissioners to entitle the claimant to a certificate. It is in view of this that the Bill has carried consternation into the dwelling of every free colored family in the free States, and that men, women and children, born of free parents, and peaceably pursuing their honest occupations, have their heart-strings broken, and are now living by day and night in constant dread of molestation. Nor is this all; the Bill, as before stated, makes no allusion to colored people; it applies to persons of all complexions and in all conditions. The liberty of every citizen is placed in jeopardy by this "Bill of Abominations." The oath of any two miscreants, before a corrupt and nefarious commissioner, is sufficient to deprive him of his freedom, and hurry him to a Southern jail. If this Bill is submitted to, in the case of a fugitive, free colored, nay, white citizens, have no liberty left to boast of, and had better be citizens of Turkey than of the United States of America. Let those who voted for the Bill, or, being able to attend upon their legislative duties, "dodged" the question, be made answerable at the bar of public opinion, and be consigned to perpetual ignominy; let an indignant rebuke everywhere go forth in relation to those who counselled the executive to sanction it; let the Chief Magistrate, who wrote "approved," be remembered by an insulted people; and let the watchword be throughout every free State, in every city, town and village, THE REPEAL OF THE INFAMOUS BILL! APPENDIX. MEETING OF THE COLORED POPULATION. THEIR DENUNCIATION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL. A meeting of colored people was held on the evening of October 2d, at the Zion Chapel, Church street. The building, which is capable of holding 1,500 persons, was crowded to excess, two-thirds of those present being women of color. The following is a copy of the handbill by which the meeting was convened: THE FUGITIVE BILL! THE PANTING SLAVE! FREEMEN TO BE MADE SLAVES! Let every colored man and woman attend the GREAT MASS MEETING to be held in ZION CHURCH, Church street, corner of Leonard, on TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 1, 1850, for your Liberty, your Fire-side is in danger of being invaded! Devote this night to the question of YOUR DUTY in the CRISIS. Shall we resist Oppression? Shall we defend our Liberties? Shall we be FREEMEN or SLAVES? By order of the Chairman of the Committee of 13. Shortly after seven o'clock, William P. Powell was, on motion, called to preside. The Vice Presidents were-Messrs. J. M. Smith, J. Powers, Rev. S. White, D. Bush, Rev. S. E. Cornish, E. Harrington, J. H. Putnam, Rev. J. T. Raymond, J. Harris, S. Drayton, Rev. H. Wilson, A. Lyons, J. J. Jefferson, J. Jaffers, J. Purnell, R. H. Cousins, H. Williams, Capt. · P. Hawkins, E. A. Potter, and P. Guion. Secretaries T. J. White, M. D., P. H. Reason, R. Hamilton. The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. White, who supplicated for victory over their enemies, and besought the Omnipotent Power to guide and protect those who are going to the land where men do not trample on one another. The President, in addressing the assemblage, said:-Fellow-citizens,-In all things that have beauty, there is nothing to man more comely than liberty. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, above all liberties. (Cheers.) A more important subject than this never, in the history of this country, came before the American people, and it is nothing more nor less than this-Shall we submit to the iniquitous Fugitive Slave Bill, which subjects every free colored man, woman and child, to be seized upon, hand-cuffed, and plunged into perpetual slavery? Shall the blood-thirsty slaveholder be permitted, by this unrighteous law, to come into our domiciles, or workshops, or the places where we labor, and carry off our wives and children, our fathers and mothers, and ourselves, without a struggle(loud cries of "No, no,")—without resisting, even if need be, unto death? (Cheers.) Or shall we sit down and tamely submit our necks to the halter, and our limbs to the shackles, and clank our chains to the sweet music of passive obedience? (No, no.) Every step which we may take, whether it be backwards or forwards, will be followed by consequences vast and momentous. Let us be united as one man, regarding our first rights as inherent and inalienable. There are a thousand and one ways by which the unsuspecting colored man, woman and child may be entrapped into the hands of the black-hearted, villainous kidnapper, and spirited away into slavery almost instantly. The case of James Hamlet, the fugitive, is in point. There is one victim. Will you submit that there may be more? (Loud noes.) Hear ye no rumblings in the air? You are told to submit peaceably to the laws; will you do so? (No, no.) You are told to kiss the manacles that bind you; will you do so? (No, no, no.) The law is made by the people. The people have told you that you must do so; will you obey them? (No.) Upon your decision this night hangs the liberty of millions. This covenant with death, and agreement with hell, must be trampled under foot, resisted, disobeyed, and violated at all hazards. (Cheers.) When the mother country imposed upon the infant colonies the three-and-ahalf per cent. tax, and the stamp act, the very first blood that was shed, was shed in resistance of the odious act by a colored man; the first martyr to American independence, nobly led on the mob of white men, and was the first to receive the fire of the British soldiery; and throughout the Revolutionary and late war, colored men stood side by side with white men, and achieved a most glorious victory in the name of liberty. We have met this night to decide, not whether we will pay the government a three-and-a-half per cent. tax, or an impost duty, but whether we will suffer ourselves and families to be made slaves. And, O Powerful Goodness, Bountiful Father, Merciful Guide, increase us in that wisdom which discovers our truest interest. (Cheers.) The President having called on the meeting to act peaceably, concluded by saying that they had asked the Mayor what course they were to pursue, in the event of free colored men and women being seized and spirited away to slavery, but that functionary had not thought proper to answer them. The several sections of the Fugitive Slave Bill were then read amid interruptions, execrations, and cries of Shame. At the conclusion, a voice in the gallery asked, was there no more of it ?--an interrogatory which excited the risibilities of some, which were, however, checked by the President, who told them it was too solemn a question for merriment. Mr. GEORGE T. DOWNING then read the following resolutions, which were received with cheers and expressions of approbation : : Whereas, the Congress of the United States has passed a law for the avowed purpose of reclaiming persons owing service in one State and escaping into another, and approved by Millard Fillmore, the President of the United States, on the 18th day of September, 1850- And whereas, the operation of said law allows any person in the Southern States to go into any court, or before any Justice of the Peace, or any other person authorized to take depositions in any State or organized Territory of the United States, and swear that any colored person owes him or her service or labor, and has escaped therefrom, and may take out a warrant for the arrest of such person in any United States Court, in any State or Territory, and seize such person, with or without a warrant, and command the assistance of bystanders to make the arrest And whereas, any person so arrested may be taken before any United States Court in any State or Territory of the United States, and deprived of his or her liberty in a summary manner, by any Judge, Justice, or Commissioner of the United States And whereas, any person so arrested and tried, is stripped of the right of trial by jury, deprived of the writ of habeas corpus, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the United States And whereas, any white person may seize and arrest any colored person, and drag him or her by violence before any United States Judge, Justice or Commissioner, and swear away the liberty of any person so arrested And whereas, any person assisting another to escape, either before |