On the record
But we have a written constitution, and therefore are not to tolerate a law, (as in the case of this Fugitive Slave law,) which is repugnant to its fundamental provisions.
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gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “But we have a written constitution, and therefore are not to tolerate a law, (as in the case of this Fugitive Slave…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann emphasizes the importance of the written Constitution in the United States, arguing against laws that contradict its fundamental provisions.
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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.
The man of independent circumstances has this liberty; and no man’s circumstances, not even the poorest and the humblest, should be so dependent as to take it away.
Men of Massachusetts! moral and religious men! lovers of freedom and of your country, were you prepared for this?
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
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