Can an abolitionist consistently take office, or vote, under the Constitution of the United States?

1st.  What is an abolitionist?

One who thinks slaveholding a sin in all circumstances, and desires its abolition.  Of course such an one cannot consistently aid another in holding his slave;—­in other words, I cannot innocently aid a man in doing that which I think wrong.  No amount of fancied good will justify me in joining another in doing wrong, unless I adopt the principle “of doing evil that good may come.”

2d.  What do taking office and voting under the Constitution imply?

The President swears “to execute the office of president,” and “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  The judges “to discharge the duties incumbent upon them agreeably to the constitution and laws of the United States.”

All executive, legislative, and judicial officers, both of the several States and of the General Government, before entering on the performance of their official duties, are bound to take an oath or affirmation, “to support the Constitution of the United States.”  This is what every office-holder expressly promises in so many words.  It is a contract between him and the whole nation.  The voter, who, by voting, sends his fellow citizen into office as his representative, knowing beforehand that the taking of this oath is the first duty his agent will have to perform, does by his vote, request and authorize him to take it.  He therefore, by voting, impliedly engages to support the Constitution.  What one does by his agent he does himself.  Of course no honest man will authorize and request another to do an act which he thinks it wrong to do himself!  Every voter, therefore, is bound to see, before voting, whether he could himself honestly swear to support the constitution.  Now what does this oath of office-holders relate to and imply?  “It applies,” says Chief Justice Marshall, “in an especial manner, to their conduct in their official character.”  Judge Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution, speaks of it as “a solemn obligation to the due execution of the trusts reposed in them, and to support the Constitution.”  It is universally considered throughout the country, by common men and by the courts, as a promise to do what the Constitution bids, and to avoid what it forbids.  It was in the spirit of this oath, under which he spake, that Daniel Webster said in New York, “The Constitution gave it (slavery) SOLEMN GUARANTIES.  To the full extent of these guaranties we are all bound by the Constitution.  All the stipulations contained in the Constitution in favor of the slaveholding States ought to be fulfilled; and so far as depends on me, shall be fulfilled, in the fulness of their spirit and to the exactness of their letter.”