Sic'em: Questions, comments, notes of discord?

[SicEmBaylor]

The Northern states didn't have the power under the Constitution to abolish slavery in the Southern states, so in the same limited sense that you quote, slavery itself wasn't a states right issue. The slave power was afraid that the growing North would eventually have the power to amend the Constitution to allow limitation or abolition of slavery. That and a bit of fear-mongering about Lincoln was enough to get them to secede.

The Fugitive Slave Law and slavery itself are apples and oranges though. The *intra* state regulation of slavery was, indeed, Constitutionally illegal. However, a state was obliged to return property to its rightful owner (I know...I know...). The banning of the importation of new slaves was Constitutional and illegal in the United States -- interestingly, it was also illegal under the Confederate Constitution. In any case, two different concepts with two different legal arguments at play. Slavery was both a Federal issue and a state issue depending upon what aspect of slavery you're looking at.

However, it is an interesting point that the Federal government did not have the power to ban slavery. I completely agree, and it's why the secessionist hotheads should have been brought to heel. It seems to surprise people, but I think secession at that point was a terrible idea. They should have waited to see what came of the Lincoln Administration before leaving the Union.

[olevetonahill]

Sicem, Do you have a REAL job yet? or are you still sucking at Mommas Tit?

[Serenity Now]

Sicem, Do you have a REAL job yet? or are you still sucking at Mommas Tit?

What a dik!

[olevetonahill]

What a dik!

Yes he is. Peem me sometime Ill tell you about him.

[Serenity Now]

Yes he is. Peem me sometime Ill tell you about him.

You or sic'em. I respect one of you. I'll mind my own beezwax.

[olevetonahill]

You or sic'em. I respect one of you. I'll mind my own beezwax.

[TAFBSooner]

The Fugitive Slave Law and slavery itself are apples and oranges though. The *intra* state regulation of slavery was, indeed, Constitutionally illegal. However, a state was obliged to return property to its rightful owner (I know...I know...). The banning of the importation of new slaves was Constitutional and illegal in the United States -- interestingly, it was also illegal under the Confederate Constitution. In any case, two different concepts with two different legal arguments at play. Slavery was both a Federal issue and a state issue depending upon what aspect of slavery you're looking at.

However, it is an interesting point that the Federal government did not have the power to ban slavery. I completely agree, and it's why the secessionist hotheads should have been brought to heel. It seems to surprise people, but I think secession at that point was a terrible idea. They should have waited to see what came of the Lincoln Administration before leaving the Union.

The Fugitive Slave Law was instituted to quash a new states' right that Northern states were trying to create (the right to prohibit any acquiescence to slavery within their borders). The southern states seceded (they thought) to protect their existing Constitutional right to allow slavery. Two directions, two different cases, but both are definitely about states' rights. And the South was against states' rights when it came to freeing former slaves.

You could make the case that the South was about protecting states' rights as they existed at that time. But then you're really saying they were all about protecting the status quo, not about states' rights as a concept.