On the record
The constitution says, “No state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.” Here we have a constitutional basis,--the same as for the reclamation of fugitive slaves.
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gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “The constitution says, “No state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.” Here we have a…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann references the U.S. Constitution to argue against the legality of slavery and the reclamation of fugitive slaves.
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More from Horace Mann
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
Why, fellow-citizens, the ballot is worse than useless, if it be not FREE!
The kidnapper, Alberti, now lies in a Pennsylvania prison for carrying away a mother and her child; but the mother and the child are now groaning under the lash of a southern taskmaster.
These are but specimens of what the Fugitive Slave law has already done, before the public mind has become familiarized with its brutalities, and while there is yet some sensibility to the claims of justice and mercy left among us.
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