Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
For the ready enforcement of all statutes against Human Freedom, the
President furnished a powerful quota of officers, in the Governor,
Chief Justice, Judges, Secretary, Attorney, and Marshal. The
Legislature completed this part of the work, by constituting in each
county a Board of Commissioners, composed of two persons, associated
with the Probate Judge, whose duty it is to “appoint a county
treasurer, coroner, justices of the peace, constables, and _all_ other
officers provided for by law,” and then proceeding to the choice of
this very Board: thus delegating and diffusing their usurped power, and
tyrannically imposing upon the Territory a crowd of officers, in whose
appointment the people had no voice, directly or indirectly.
And still the final, inexorable work remained to be done. A Legislature
renovated in both branches could not assemble until 1858: so that,
during this long intermediate period, this whole system must continue
in the likeness of law, unless overturned by the National Government,
or, in default of such interposition, by the generous uprising of an
oppressed people. But it was necessary to guard against possibility
of change, even tardily, at a future election; and this was done by
two different acts, under the _first_ of which all who do not take the
oath to support the Fugitive Slave Bill are excluded from the elective
franchise, and under the _second_ of which all others are entitled
to vote who tender a tax of one dollar to the sheriff on the day of
election; thus, by provision of Territorial law, disfranchising all
opposed to Slavery, and at the same time opening the door to the votes
of the invaders; by an unconstitutional shibboleth excluding from the
polls the body of actual settlers, and by making the franchise depend
upon a petty tax only admitting to the polls the mass of borderers from
Missouri. By tyrannical forethought, the Usurpation not only fortified
all that it did, but assumed a _self-perpetuating_ energy.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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