New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-02-16
Reduce the Postage.

papers by her.
Reduce the Postage.
Friends in Congress the whole Country ear
nest)y desires and expects of you REDUCTION OF
THE RATES or PosrAGE before you adjourn. 1t
will be sad mistake every way to neglect this.
DO net fear to act decsively and cut deep. Our
conviction is strong that reduction toone-fhtrd
Of the presen, rates, carefully adjusted would an
crease the Revenue cithin three gears. Can
YOU doub, it? Consider the general education and
diffusion of our people-,heir commandments,
their business habits and love of relatives; then
consider Great Britain, with her ignorant and fam
ishcd working classes, yet exactng only one penny
postage for distances which we charge quarter
for! Remember that the reduction there was
stou,!y resisted as ruinous; yet who opposes 1t
now7 IfCoogress had only the forecast and nerve
10 reduce ali letterp postage to taco cents Tor ten
miles aud under, three cents from 10 To 80 miles,
fee cents from so to 500, and ten cents over 500,
and then reduce the postage on Newspapers car
.ied less Than 80 miles TO one fourth, and less than
100 to one-hazf what they are, the recollectoa
of thi. benign act would eace that of many short
comings and follies. With rigid suppression Of
the Franking Privilege, these rates would answer.
How can Congress overlook this subject?
A friend who lately travelled through Illinois in
forms us that he there called on many friends who
had not heard from their relatives q, the East for
years. InrepIy to his expressions of astouishment,
they informed him that the postage of letter was
equal 10 the value Of bushe of wheat, and cash
10 be had for wheat at that price SO they coald
not afford to aorite or rcceire letters. Need we
point the moral of such facts
The Report of the Judiciary Committee
New-Kork VS.. Virginia.
IF there be any among our readers who have
been led to fear that the fountains of Jurdcal
sapience are becoming exhausted or shallow-that
Coke and Mansfield are not adequately represented
by their living successor-,hat fancy scantiiy fills
the seat of Marshall, and our Supreme Bench pre-
scnts improvement on the days of Livingston,
Kent, and Ambrose Spencer-,hat there is danger
In such hands of q recession from the living spirit
of Law in too narrow pursuit of its dry letter
we beg them to procure the Report of our Assem-
hy's Judiciary Committee on the question at issue
between New-York and Virginia, and refresh their
dropping spirits with water from the wells OF con-
ISOLATION there afforded That Report is originally
the work of the Honorable David R. Floyd Jones,
Member of Assembly from this City, whose
achievements in Jurisprudence not to be mea-
sured by tie slow.dropping saads of Time. AS
specimen of Legislative dignity and elevated States
nanship it is perhaps equally deserving of admra'
ton but it is in the character Of Jurist that its
authors fame eliminates most rapidly toward the
zenith; and it is therefore as Judicial document
that we shall mainly regard his Report, as little
dazzled as may be by the ehulgence of its glory.
Blu, we must frs, give hasty statement of the
facts in the case, in regard to which the Report is
less perspcuous than is desirable If some of the
bril!iancy of its logic had been sacrificed to
greater perspicuity eff statement, the author would
probably have lost something Of glory and admira-
ton, but the common-sense reader would have
gained much in a knowledge of what all this pother
is about. The facts are these:
l. A slave escaped from Virginia by concealing
himself on board small coasting vessel, which
sailed from Norfolk for this port. His master
sent on by land to this city to apprehend him; the
agent arrived here first, quietly awaited the ap-
pearance of the vessel took the slave directly from
her, and carried him back to Virginia, without
hiadrauce or moles,ation Of any kind. Bat three
colo,el men, who were of the crew of the vessel,
were somehow accused of aiding or encouraging
the escape of this slave to Freedom. They were
apprehended, but discharged by Robert H. Morris,
then Recorder ROW Mayor, of this city, on the
ground that there scas nothing TN the rapres sent
on from Virginia vhich sufficiently implic ated
them iw any crime ecea TO scarrant their deten-
t.oa to amait tie action Of TIE Goreraor. About
the same time reGusition from Virginia for their
surrender reached Gov. Seward, which, upon ex-
animation he decided to be every way insufficient
to criminate these men or warrant him in surren-
dering them; and, to prevent Misrepresentation,
Gov. S. added that, if the papers had been suai-
cient, he could not deem the offence charged upon
these men (aiding one of their own color to escape
from bondase) a treason, felony, or other crime
within the meaning Of the Constitution, and there
fore could NOT feel justified in surrenderiog them,
protracted and spicy controversy between the
Executives Of New-York aud Virginia ensued, Su.
ended as it began.
:. The Legislature of this State passed law
granting TO persons claimed within this State as
fugitiyes from labor or service !" in some other
State-they resisting and denying the validity of
such caim-the Right of Trial by Jury to deter.
mine whether they in truth or are no, fusitiyes
as claimed The act forbds the carrying Of au al.
ledeed slave cut of the State without allowing him
such Trial by Jury.
8. Virginia, al!edging that both the refusal of