being harbored somewhere, shall forfeit five hundred dollars to the slave-catcher.

§ 211. It might have remained doubtful to this day, whether human ingenuity could concoct a statute more inhuman, barbarous, and unconscionable than this, had it not been for the additional provisions of the Act of 1850. Under such circumstances, it is not difficult to see how the words of the Constitution, "person held to service," and from whom "such service may be due," — which had been carefully selected and adopted because they did not mean "slave," and could not be applied to one held only by force and without right, had, without any judicial examination whatever, been made to mean just exactly "slave," and nothing else.

§ 212. It was because one party only was permitted to have any voice in the matter, and he was allowed to make the construction to suit his own interest and pleasure. He did this so effectually, that, at the end of half a century, in 1842, when the words, for the first and only time, came under judicial cognizance, in Prigg's case, their true construction and real meaning, which was the only constitutional question worth considering presented by the case, was so completely lost sight of, as not to be mooted, or even alluded to, by the Court or counsel, during the whole argument. Judge Story, in delivering the opinion of the Court in that case, says, "It is well known, that the object of this clause

was to secure to the citizens of the slaveholding States the complete right and title of ownership in their slaves, as property, in every State in the Union;" and he takes this as the foundation of his opinion in the case. Now, if any thing is, or ever can be, well known, in regard to the intentions of that Convention, it is that they were determined to say nothing about the right of property in a slave, and did say nothing about it; and that the circuitous phraseology of this clause was invented by the slaveholders, because they could not overcome that determination, on purpose to evade it; which they did effectually.

§ 213. So the clause stood on the slaveholders' construction only, not even endorsed by Congress, till the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Dred-Scot decision, and the invasion of Kansas, so turned their heads, as to induce a belief that the government was so weak, and its friends so indifferent or inefficient, that they could cancel and destroy the Constitution, and incontinently sweep the whole government by the board with a besomr. Then they rushed directly into rebellion, leaving the government to the sole care of its friends; when all the laws for construing or executing this part of the Constitution, together with slavery itself, rebellion and all were speedily squelched together.

§ 214. THE 4th section of this fourth Article is another instance of most important powers, which must be executed by Congress, and cannot be done without them, and yet in which there is no express call made upon them to do any thing. "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." The duty here enjoined is upon the United States, the whole government, like the duty to execute the Constitution. But that portion of it which requires or admits legislation necessarily devolves upon Congress, as the legislative department, and having all its legislative power. necessarily belongs to Congress also; because, by special and specific provisions, Congress is made expressly the depository of certain powers, absolutely essential to be brought into exercise, in the performance of the duties here enjoined.

It

215. For instance, the power to provide for the common defence, and to draw out and control all the pecuniary resources and the physical power of the nation. Without these, this clause never could be executed; and they are in the hands of Congress alone. Without entering into any minute criticism on the word "guarantee," it may be safely stated, that the clause prescribes a republican government for all the States, protection against hostile invasion, and, on request, against domestic violence. In regard to the first, a republican government for the States, the duty of the general government to furnish it, under any circumstances, necessarily implies a duty on all the States to have such a government. Every State must have a republican government; and, if at any time a State is destitute of one, the general government is bound to pro.vide it.

§ 216. The first requisite to the performance of the duty is to understand it, -to know what it is. The Constitution gives no definition of it, and refers to no standard; and there is no standard of adequate authority to bind the government on the subject. With such lights as the principles of moral and political law afford, the government must decide for themselves what the Constitution intends by a republican form of government. What are its fundamental requisites, its constituent ingredients, its essential characteristics, that distinguish it from any and

all other forms of government? Without some knowledge on these points, an intelligent opinion cannot be formed in regard to any government, whether it is republican or otherwise. At present, however, our government have prescribed no rule of decision; and the principles, if there are any, on which particular cases are practically decided, for the time being, are vibratory and uncertain. Still some things in regard to them would probably be universally admitted.

§ 217. It is not that the sovereignty, the ultimate right and power to control in the last resort, resides in the people; for this is equally true of all governments. It is not that the government was originally established or ordained by the voluntary agency of the people; for a republic may grow up on precedent, or be founded by the decree of a despot, as well as any other government. It is not that a portion of the. regular administrative authority remains with the people, to be exercised by suffrage, the only way in which they ever can exercise sovereignty; because the same may be done in all other governments. Every despot in Europe has his Parliament. Nor is it that in such cases a large proportion, or even the whole, of the people participate in the suffrage; for a despot is not unlikely, on occasions, to desire, and even demand, universal suffrage. Neither the frequency with which the suffrage may be exercised, the importance of the particular subjects on which