Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1857-12-31
Old Bullion on the bred Scott Decision.

oAa DuiIlOH Ch thC CADiSA ceott
The infamous exua-judicial decision
of the Supreme Court cf the United
States in the Dred Scott case has fairly
aroused old Bullion and in recent
number of the Lexington Observer, be
has expressed his sentiments pretty free
ly in letter addressed TO George Rob-
ertson, Esq, ex-Chief Justice, dc. This
gentleman, it appears, has recently been
giving his opinion on the decision of the
Supreme Court on the Missouri Comprc-
mise act through the columns of the Ma
tional Intelhyenccr. and his communica-
tions drew out Mr.. Benton in approved
Of them.
The venerable Senator regards that part
of the decision which relates to the null
lifying of the Compromise act and the
self f-extenson of the Federal Constitution
to Territories, as the heaviest political
blow that ever fell upon his heart" as
dreadfully wrong in itself and entirely
extra-judicial, and of no more weight
than the opinion of any half i-dozen equal
ly respectable citizens coming to the
same conclusion upon inconsistent, in
compatible aud contradictory reasons"
The Compromise act, he says, "was a
political enactment, made by the political
power, for political reasons, and these
reasons among the largest chat ever influ
enced human legislation-no less than to
reconcile divided and distracted coun-
try, and to prevent our sacred Union
from splitting asunder. AS such politi-
cal enactment the Court had no right to
Judge it, even if the question had been
fairly before (which it did not for
the Judiciary cannot Judge political ques-
tons, neither of right nor in fact; for
these questions depend upon considera
lions Of policy which the Judiciary can
not touch, and not upon the interpreta-
tions of phrases, to which the court is
confined"
In the political decision of the Supreme
Court, it acted, Mr.. Benton thinks, be-
yond its Jurisdiction, Juggling in ques-
ton as tail to a question of negro
freedom and deciding it upon a view
of the Constitution, which had no
more to do with it than the adventures of
Robinson Crusoe, and then reversed the
action of the govers.Aent for seventy
years, and made a new Constitution in
all that relates to Territorial legislation !;
in such case | have felt it to be nv duty,
as one of the few survivors of the old
school, to raise my voice against it, and
to appeal to the candid Intelligence of my
fellow-citizens to come to the defence of
our Constitution, such as our fathers made
it, and as it was administered for two
generations gr
The power of Congress to legislate for
Territories, he goes on to say, is not
found in the Constitution, but in the ordi-
nance of 1871 hence the Supreme
Court looked in the wrong place to find
it. And he cannot give any political aid
or comfort "to any man or party, in any
future election, who shall uphold the
opinion of the Supreme Court in doclar-
ing the nullity of the Missouri Compro-
mise and in decreeing the selfexten-
sion of the Constitution to territories,
carrying slavery with it, and preventing
Congress and the people of the territory
from saying yea or nay to its introduc-
ton or repulsion. .
Ii partakes of the sublime to see Old
Bullion rising from an attack Of disease
so appalling that his physician did not
expect he would recover, and in, his old
age, with one foot in the grave, denounc-
ing this extra judicial decision Of the Su-
preme Court. He has given his political
testament, writts n as il were, with his dy-
ing breath, against the barefaced impu-
dence and reckless opinion of the high
eit judicial tribunal in the land and
----------.D-sfor il.