We deem it proper to say, that the Bill of Rights set forth in the Declaration of our Independence, was never intended for such an application; but that this particular passage was limited to the two single points which we have noticed. It neither affirms nor denies, it neither vitiates nor strengthens, the claim of the slave to his freedom, because it never contemplated the case. We are now settling a question of fact. To be wrong is one thing; to be inconsistent another. That there is wrong in slavery we do not deny; but we do say, that there is no inconsistency in the existence of slavery in the United States with our National Bill of Rights, when fairly interpreted. It will doubtless be allowed, that the Federal Constitution is a good interpreter of that Bill; and that decrees the perpetuity of slavery, at the will of the slave States. The _consistency_ of our Government, and of our country, therefore, is maintained and defended, in this particular, against all imputation to the contrary, whatever may be the _right_ of the case. If any body chooses to say, that the _principle_ involved in this passage of our Bill of Rights _reaches_ the case of the slave, we have no objection. For, we frankly confess, we have always thought so too. But we deny, that it was ever intended to have such an application, and that there is any inconsistency, however there may be wrong, in the existence of slavery in our country, so long as we abide by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as the rule, when interpreted according to their meaning. We gained a great step in the acquisition of our National Independence; but we did not arrive to a state of _perfectionism_. Since that time we have made advances in society, for the better, too. We have abolished the slave trade, and slavery itself in all the States north of Mason’s and Dixon’s line; and it is manifest, that the slave States bordering on the free, are greatly affected by the influence of the latter, to make slave property less valuable, and to lead towards emancipation. But so long as the laws of the land are respected and maintained, the slave States can never be compelled to emancipation by foreign dictation; nor will they be advised. By the existing regulations of society, there is no power authorized to advise them. We, of the North, in like circumstances, would not be advised. Every State and nation is the best judge of what may be expedient in the management of its own domestic polity; and if any of its component parts are depressed and oppressed, they have an undoubted right to relieve themselves, if they can, at their own risk. But the law of nations, which is the highest and most important of all laws, and the breach of which is most momentous in its consequences, does not authorize, but forbids, interference. CHAPTER XIV. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EFFECTS OF ABOLITIONISM.