New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-01-29

10th for leadership and guidance. Massachu-
sets has particularly distinguished nersei IN
mast wears by her special advocacy OF tine rgn"
=, msn--tbe rights of the iudividual-and oy
Ter opposition to those ideas upon wnicn the
system Of personal slavery is based. IL was ai''
sscbuset.s that took the lead in the total aooil'o"
&C Slavery II was mainly by the efforts OF her
representatives in the Continental Congress- anu
especially of King and Dane, that the JenerSonlan
prohibition of Slavery was extended 10 tne 'err'o
- no,tt west of the Ohio. Her Judiciary was the
frat in the Free States TO hold the famous princl
pie of Somerset's case 10 be part oil An'cllo'"
common law. In the famous case OF the Co"-
rnon,c,aLth =. Ares her supreme Court decided
that 10 touch her soil made the recent slave Tree
unless. indeed, that slave happened to De a RUM
WHY from the South, in which case, under 'he con'
st;tutonal proyisiOn about fugtiSes from labor ne
MIGHT be reclaimed BY the master, but was free as
10 everybody else. Massachusetts, alsowa the hrs'
State in the Union, or at least the first having any
considerable number of colored inhabitants, 10
abolish all distinctions of caste to repeal all laws
intended to stgmatize the negroes as an INFERIOR
race, and to place her coored population, 50 l"r as
lecsI riobts were concerned an exact level win
the whites.
Virginia, on the other hand, has been not less
distinguished for her advocacy of the Rights oil tue
ststes-riehts of which the preservation, no less
than of those of individuals is essential to the oene-
fetal working of our complicated system Of Gov
eminent In the early divisions OF our general
poltics. Massachusetts, with all her devotion 10 In
5iyiaual liberty put herself at the head OF the ma
tioua or, as it was then more modestly cahea' Tue
Federal party. Virginia, with no less energy
took the lead in what were stigmatized by the Fed
l'sts az "local" and sectional views, but
which Virginia insisted to be real Federalism as
opposed to the natonalism Of the self-styied Fed
eralists. The famous resolutions OF '9o-in which
the doctrine of State Rights as against the idea
of usurpng National Government was fully
stated and distinctly avowed-have ever been the
political glory and watchword, not merely OF Viz
Qina but Of the great party long so predomlnant
our American affairs. which rallied under her
standard and at the head Of which she has 80 gen.
orally stood.
Such having been our past political history, it
uas but natural that when the kidnapping act OF
1880 was introduced into Congress-lntroduced
we are sorry to say by the degenerate descendant
of noble Virginan, most striking instance OF how
the merely accidental blemishes of the ancestor
NAV become in the descendant coDgenital deorm-
ities-it was but natural, We say that when that
kidnapping act of 1850 was unexpectedly sprung
upon the country-anact which derisivey trampled
under foot the dearest rights of individuals and at
the same time the dearest rights of the States-it
was but natural that all eyes should at once In
stinctiyely turn for delverance first to Massachu-
sets and then TO Virginia. Would Massachusetts
ever consent, could Massachusetts, ever consent to
the passage of an act by which not merely resi-
dents within her borders and under the protection
of her laws but persons born free on her own soil,
might be transported thousands of miles from their
heres and delivered up into perpetual Slavery,
not Only without trial by jury but without trial at
all, by the fiat, not of judge, but of by
brid nondescript, the illegtimate spawn of the
courts and the Legislature, metamorphosed from
a commissioner to take bail aud affidayts, into a
creature paid five dollars as special reward for
each particular act of kidnapping, performing this
rascally Office without the sanction of any oath,
and bound to submit his own judgment and even |
the evidence of his very Senses to an exparte
record made up elsewhere
The good people of these United States, the |
good people of the South we'll as the good peo-
pie Ct the North, naturally looked to Massachu- |
sets to take the lead in protesting against this
atrocious outrage upon every civil right. They |
cried for bread, but they were fed with stones aud
serpents They got from Massachusetts, Mr..
Webster's eth of March speech, Mr.. Curtis's |
opinion in support Of the cOnstitutionality of the
act of 1885, for which heartless and INSCRIPTIONS
piece of sophstry he was shortly after rewarded |
with seat on the Supreme Bench of the United |
States, and most Notifying Of all, the poor,
timid twaddling opinion of the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts, in the Sims's case-an opinion,
however, such as might be expected from Judges
WHO, in favor of a slave-catchng, would allow
therOwn Court house to be surrounded with chains,
under which they themselves daily stopped, and
even that only BY the condescending permission Of
some deputy marshal some graduate of the stews
or the State Prison, selected to enforce law and
order" aud put gu guard over the Boston Court
house.
Massachusetts, having thus totally broken down,
the public eye next naturally turned to Virginia.
This act of 1850 not only violated the rights Of in
dviduas it violated less the rights of the States
To pass any act on the subject was usurpaton on
the part of Congress which had no authority direct
or indirect TO legislate in matter generally CON-
mtted by the terms of the Constitution TO the