Wisconsin herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1846-1849, 1848-09-02

he injected! KNOW YOU do not consider II
in that light now. But the gentleman from
Virginia has said that it must ne DONE
Why? Because it is compassion to the
slave. He cannot be nur;ured in Virginia;
your lands are worn out. Sir, that state
ment sounded ominous in my ears. II gave
rise to some reflection! Why are your lands
worn out? Are the lands of Pennsylvania
worn out? Are those of Connecticut worn
outs Is not Massachusetts more productive
to-day than when the foot of the white man
was first impressed upon her soil' Your
lands are worn out because the Slave has
turned pale the land wherever he has set
down his black foetl Ii is slave labor that
has done all this And must we then extend
to these territories that which produces
sterility wherever it is found, till bleak and
barren desoation shall cover the whole land?
If you can call upon me as matter of COM
passion TO send the slave to California aud
Oregon, you can call upon me by the same
sacred obligation to receive him into Ohio
as slave; and | would be just rs much
bound, as citizen of Ohio, to say that the
Constitution should be construed so as TO adj
nit slaves there, because they have made
the land in Virginia barren, and they and
their masters were perishing, till Ohio had
also become bowling wilderness. That
reason will not do. Sensitive rs they may
appear to the morbid benevolence spoken
of-with which have no sympathy at all
aud tender-hearted as | am, can see thro'
that-the citizens of Ohio cannot accept
these men upon such terms.
What is there in the way, then, of my Civ
ing an intelligent vote on this suhlect!-
Nothing at all. | would take this bill in
boJ r,,,h IN, ha tbr.,s
which that law is to pass until it becomes
law in the Chamber below. But have not
that faith, and will tell the gentleman why
1t is sad commentary upon the perfection
of human reason that, with but very few eX-
ceptions, gentlemen coming from u Slave
State-and think | have one behind me
who ought always TO be before me (Mr.
Badger) with very few exceptions, all
eminent lawyers on this floor from that Sec
ton of the country have argued that you
have no right to prohibit the introduction of
Slavery into Oregon, California and New
Mexico; while, on the other hand, there is
not man in the Free States, learned or un-
learned, clerical or lay, who has any preten-
sion to legal knowledge, but believes in his
conscience that you have right to prohib-
it Slavery. Is not that a curious commen-
tary upon that wonderful thing called hui
man reason!
MIR. Underwood-It is regulated by a
line!
Mr. Corwin-Yes, by SO deg. so min,
and what is black on one side of the line is
white on the other. turning to jet black again
when restored to its original locality How
is that? Can | have confidence in the Su-
preme Court of the United States when il
\ fails in Senators around me here! Do eX-
pect that the members of that body will be
/ less careful than the Senators from Georgia
and South Carolina to form their opinions
without any regard to selfish considerations ?
I Can suppose that either of these gentle
men, or the gentleman from Georgia on the
other side of the Chamber, Mr.. Johnson)
or the learned Senator from Mississippi,
/ (Mr. Davis) who thought it exceedingly in
I famous that we should attempt to restrain
the Almighty in the execution of His pur-
poses as revealed TO us by Moses-can 4
suppose that these Senators, with all the
terrible responsibilities which press upon us
when engaged in legislating for a whole
Empire, came 10 their conclusions without
the most anxious delberation? And yet, on
one side of the line, in the Slave States, the
Constitution reads yes-while on the other,
after the exercise of an equal degree of in
telligence, calmness and deliberations, the
Constitution is found to read nay.
| admire the Supreme Court of the United
States as tribunal. | admire the wisdom
which contriyed it. rejoice in the good
consequences which come to this Republic
from the exercise of It's functions. also
revere the Senate of the United States; but
here is the most august body in the world,
they say, composed Of men who have vast
ed the midnight oil from year to year-men
who in closters, in courts, in legislative
halls, have been reaping the fruits of ripe
experience, coming here, and suddenly their
mighty intellects, able to scan everything
however minute, and comprehend every
thing however grand, utterly fail them, and
they kneel down in dumb insigDificance and
implore the Supreme Corrt to read The
Constitution for them. think the Senator
from South Carolina must have had some
new light upon the subject within the last
few years, and that several of my Demo-
cratic friends on all sides Of the Chamber
must have been smitten with new love for
the power of the Supreme Court. Do you
remember the case adverted to by the Sena-
tor from New Jersey to-day? | recollett
very well when we did not stop to inquire
how the Supreme Court had decided or or
dained ID has decided with John Marshall
nj its head man whose lighfest conjecture
upon the subject Of Constitutional law has
always had with me as much weight as the
well-considered opinion of almost any 9TH
err man-that Congress bad power to estab-
lish just such a Bank as you bad; but with
what infinite scorn did Democratic gentle
men-Jaekson Democrats a. they chose to
be called-curl their lips and turn up their
noses when referred to that decision of the
Supreme Court. Then the cry was, 80 We
are Judges for ourselves; we make no law
unless we have the power to enact IT'D
Now, however, the doctrine is that here is
a tribunal competent to put the question at
rest forever. Thank God, though an should