The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1850-12-19

have the same powers now vested IN the
judges of the supreme court, by virtue OF
an act IN amendment of chapter one hund-
red and three of the revised statutes, rela-
ting to persons confined in close Jail on
executions of tort, approved November
13, A. ID. 1S4S.
Sec. 8. This act shall take effect from
its passage.
| Approved Nov. Is, 1850.
| Here now is bold and audacious def
ance of the National Constitution-as
deliberately carried out, withai, as if those
who enacted i. did not know that they
were perjuring themselves in the sight of
God. Every member who stood up for
this State Law had previously sworn 10
support the National Constitution. and yet
! II was by the vote of such men that a
statute is created, the object of which il is
10 defy and to defeat the Constitution they
had sworn to support. PERJURY could
not have been more deliberately or more
cody perpetrated. The authors of this
work of Treason, lie. us not forget, are
among those who profess to be the exclu-
| sive followers of the Bible example; and
yet their vaunted superiority in this res
pect, did not prevent them from first
swearing 10 support Constitution which
they afterwards attempted TO break down
1t will not do 10 say that when they took
this oath they did not know that the Law
they have since defied had not been passed
by Congress-for it was the theme of
dispute and discussion IN every State of
the Confederacy. They proceed TO stul
tDy themselves with heartless deliberation
that shows how well they understood the
Infamous responsibility they were assu-
ming.
In order TO show the difference between
such State as Vermont and our own
Pennsylvania, ii is not inappropriate TO
say that, while the former is preparing TO
nullify the Constitution, the latter, with
voice almost of unanimity, will in January
next wipe of from her Statute book the
act placing obstacles in the way of the
execution of most important clause of
that fundamental Law. The Legislature
of this State, in ls47, owing to a remark
able decision of the U. S. Supreme Court,
| passed, nearly without opposition or de-
bate-with little of thought or of care-a
law denying The use of our prisons to the
officers of the General Government in or
der 10 carry out the then existing Fugitive
| Slave Law. The influence that suggested
and enacted this act of wrong were soon
exposed and denounced to the people
During the last session of the Legislature,
a bill repeating 1t was passed through one
branch, but 1t failed in the other, owing to
| the opposition of Governor JOHNSTON and
certain WhIg Senators. Now an aroused
and almost united Public Opinion de-
| mands its unconditional repeal. One of
| the very first acts OF the new Legislature,
which meets in January, will be 10 insist
upon the fullest obedience 10 the public
Will on this question. Both parties now
unite IN this simple act OF Justice. Both
see that as II was wrong at first, land we
then had the pleasure of being one of the
few that said so,) so has il since assumed
an aspect of grave injury 10 the Union,
fostering sore. and a poisonous bot, upon
the records of the Pennsylvania Legisla-
ture. Such is the position of our own
great State as contrasted with the cold
blooded recklessness of Vermont, who
does not hesitate TO allow her own SER
wants TO proclaim her shame and their own
infamy in the same breath.
We drew, at the beginning of this art-
Gle, short portrait Of the peculiar char
acters Of the fanatics of the North. Is it
wonderful that with such exhibitions as
this of Vermont, there should be violent
and ultra men al the South Would 1t
not be worse than injustice, if an attempt
were now made 10 assimilate the extreme
Southern men with the fanatics of the free
! States-the fanatics who glory in the in
fanny just enacted in the State alluded to
Such has been a fashionable course of
proceeding on the part OF certain tender
! footed politicians. For refusing 10 make
this comparison, we have been denounced
with vehement and protracted calumnes.
But time at last makes all things even;
and now there are few who do not ac-
knowledge the wide and wonderful differ
ence between the agitators and fanatics of
the free States, and the ultra Southern
men. Vermont has given new evidence
of the grievous wrong which a cowardly
fanaticism has perpetrated upon the patri-
otic South; and we hope those who enact
ed the wrong, will be held up 20 the scorn
of the whole country, until they repent
their war upon the Constitution they
swore to maintain and defend.