Nor is there in
this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty
from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before
them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their
decisions to political purposes.
One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to
be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be
extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave
clause of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the
foreign slave trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law
can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people
imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people
abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break
over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; and it would
be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections, than
before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would
be ultimately revived without restriction, in one section; while
fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be
surrendered at all by the other.
Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall
between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the
presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts
of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face,
and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between
them.
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