Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-08-11
Optutuns of the 1press.
From tho y. Z. Eve Post.
THE RIGHT TO LEGIsLATE ABOUT sLA.
VERY
GIVEN EXCLUSIVELY TO TIE SLAVE STATES.

| The Washington Union fully accepts the doc
trine of Judge Kane, that the right to travel with
slaves in tho free States, and to enjoy the same
protection Of that kind of property which such
State grants to any other is guaranteed by the con-
stiution and cannot be impaired by any State law.
The Union is not embarrassed at all by the fact
that the judicial tribunals of every southern State,
without single exception, have accepted the En-
glish doctrine that slavery is local institution;
only be created By express statute and expires
the moment the master removes it to o free terri
tory Times have changed since those decisions
were rendered.; times have changed since Jeffer
son was Pres at and Marshall was ChiefJus
tice.
New light has come into the world with Atchi-
son ar, p tringfellow and new interpretations Of
law with I 9 Compte and Kane. Now it appears
the ri * tc legislate about slavery is confined
exclusively to .he' hs.fs States. They may throw
our colored seamen into prison, or they may tax
OF, r,eypel from their borders white ersons who en-
tertain unpopular opinions but if rsrtharn state
prohibits slavery, the law is unconstitutional, and
persons who presume to enforce it are denounced
as thieving abolitionists.
To all this the official mouthpece of the admin
istraton gives its assent without reserve or ali
ication. We quote its language as another event
by which to measure the progress which the feue-
raj government is making southwark.
Beyond the salutary influence of Judge kane'i
decisions in this respect is the Importance of the
main question involved, whchis, whether the cit
zens of one half of the Union can or cannc. pass
by railroad or steamboat through the other half of
the Union without being subject to highway rob.
berry, under preence that the legal relation a mas
ter and servant is local to the State to which the
master belongs, and cannot follow him into or
through any other State
ut has been decided i'll some of the States, that
if the master goes with his slave voluntarily to
side into state where slavery has been aboli ished
by law in such case the slave becomes entitled to
freedom if he choose to claim it. Quite recently
an attempt has been made in New York to extend
this doctrine to the case Of n slave whose master
merely passed through the State in transit for an
other state or for o foreign country-we allude TO
the Lennon case, now in litigation between the
states Of New York and Virginia. The same ques-
ton it appears is now raised in Pennsylyan in
the person Of Mr.. Wheeler. We cannot doubt how
it ought to be decided. Judge Kane declares that
he is not aware of any statute of Pennsylvania
which affects to divest the rights of property Of
citizen of North Carolina, acquired and asserted
under the laws of that state because he has found it
ueedful or convenient to pass through the territory
of Pennsylvania and that he is not aware that any
such statute if such one were shown, could be
recognised as valid in the courts Of the United
States.
at is consolatory and gratifying TO sec the great
state of Penns ylvania taking the initiative in a
course of adjudication 80 eminently conservative
and constitutional, and so much IN contrast with
that splenetic fury of abolition delirum which ra-
ges in some other states"
For the convenience Of persons desiring to learn
what view southern lawyers and judges have taken
of this subject in times past, we refer them to the
following cases cited in Mr.. Godells American
Slave Code"
"Nlare Louise Us. Marriott ct al. May term, 1886
S Louisiana Reports, AIS; Whcelers Law oi
Slavery, $3.50. Also same principle in Rankin rs
lydia, Fall Term, 1920; MarshaiPs Kentucky
Reports, 4G7; Wheeler, p. 339. Also in LunsforC
u.s. Coquillion, May Term, 1884; ii Martens Lou
isiana Reports 40l; Wheeler, p. $50. See alst
Parvv and others VS.. Decker and Hopkins, jun
Term, 1918 ;-Walker's Miss. Rep. Sc; Wheeler
PIP. 34O-6. See also Commonwealth of Massachu
setts vs Thomas Aves, Aug 1885, Wheeler p. so
and Story's Conflict of Laws, 92, 81.
4 Gan these affirm that slavery, being wlthou
foundation in nautre is the creature OF municlpa
law, and exists only under its jurisdiction. IL
the case first mentioned, Marie Louise rS Mariot
et al in which the slave had been taken t.
! France by her master and brought back to Louisl
ana, Judge Matthew said Being free for one mo
aent in France IL ,oas not IN The po'eer o. heT Ior
aer otener TO reduce her again TO Starery Wheeler
D. 1857 Am. Slave Code, PIP. 26l-2
''IIaryoy and others Us. Decker aud Hopkins,
said; Slavery is condemned by reason and the
laws of nature. 10 eriSts and can ONLY ertst hTougt
municipal regulations. wheeler, PIP, S40'o). Am
Slave Code, 264"
}, Commenting upon this point the tribune OF to
day says;
"Such was the southern doctrine, and such Wer'
the decisions of southern courts until since OF
about the time of the passage Of the Fugitive Slav
bill. It was during the discussion of that meas
ure that Senator Mason, of Virginia, Objected t.
the amendment proposed by Mr.. Dayton, providing
for jury trial of alleged fugitives, that such
process would require legal proof that slavery wa
established by positive law in the slave states
and, added the senator, mo such law can be pro
duccd, apprehend, in any of the slave States
4 This astounding announcements. backed up n
it soon was by Mr. BAyly, Of Virginia, and sus
tanned Nv quotations from John Q. Calhoun, an
from the same Judge Matthews who had decided
as is stated in the above extract that slavery coul
not exist except by force, and under the actual j.
rsdiction of positive law appears to have unsettle
} the entire South as to the legal foundations {
their system, In short time the world witneses