| In His Own Words
King Calendar
February 17, 1820. Following his speech condemning the westward spread of slavery to Missouri, Rufus writes to his close friend, Christopher Gore:
"...after giving and sustaining as well as I could the true construction of the Constitution on this subject, I referred the decision of the Restriction on Missouri to the broad principles of the law of Nature, a law established by the Creator, which has existed from the beginning, extends over the whole globe, is everywhere, and at all times, binding upon mankind: A law which applies ot nations, because their members are still men; a law which is the foundation of all constitutional, conventional & civil laws, none of which are valid if contrary to the law of nature; that according to this law all men are born free, and justly entitled to the possession of life and liberty and to the free pursuit of happiness. Hence that man could not enslave man; and that states could not make them slaves, since they could not possess any authority except that which naturally belongs to man.
That no act of the State, no treaty concluded by it, no law which it might ordain, if contrary to natural law, could be valid. That the political reasons agt. the extension of slavery, were enough to restrain Congress frmo consenting to it; but were this not the case, the law of nature imposes this restraint, and as slavery may be prohibited by Congress, they are bound to prohibit it, and moreover are restrained from leaving it to the decision of Missouri for qui non prohibet, cum prohibere possit, jubet."
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