The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-04-30
From the New York Evening Post.
The New Federal Constitution.


From the New York Evening Post
The New Federal Constitution.
Some Of the journalists who support the
cause of the administration are pleasing them
selves with the fancy that the decision of the
Supreme Bench of the United States will put
an end to the agitation. of the slavery question.
They will soon find their mistake. The feel
ing in favor Of liberty is not so easily smoth-
cred; discussion is.not' SO readily silenced.--
One specific after another has been tried, with
the same view and with the same success
The Fugitive Slave law, we were told, was tc
quiet all agitation, but il did not; the Nebras-
ka bill was to stop all allcontroversv on the sla-
very question, but it proved to be oil poured
on the flames. The usurpa !ion of the govern
ment Of Kansas by the inroad from Missouri
was thought for a time to be blow to the
friends Of liberty which they could not sur
vivs, but it only reused them TO greater acfiv.
ity. The election Of Mr.. Buchanan as Presi
dent IN November was to put an end tt the dis.
pute,. but since November the dispute has
waxed warmer and warmer. 1t will never end
until the cause Of liberty has finally trium-
phee. Heap statute upon statute. follow up
one art Of Executive interference with anoth-
or, add asurpation to usurpstlon, and judicial
decision to judicial decision, the spirit against
which thev are leveled is indestructible. As
long a, the press and speech are free, the war
d ,u,svl L. ,,.l "a A.
suppress it. by directing against it any part oi
the machinery of the government will only
cause it to rage the more fercely. #
This has been the case hitherto. The NOR.
our Presidents have meddled with the matter
1.-The more the majority in Congress hay,
sought to stife tle discussion--the more force
has been employed on the side of slavery
whether under the pre- ext Of legal authority
as when Mr. Pierce called out the United State.
troops to enforce the pretended laws of Kan,
sas, or, without that pretext, ,-as when armed
men crossed the border of that territory tc
make laws for the inhabitants, the more de-
termined is the zeal by which the rights ol
freemen are asserted and upheld against tht
oligarchy. 1t will not cool the fiery temper ol
this zeal to know that slavery has enlisted ths
pench on its side; it will rather blow 1t into
stronger and more formidable aame.a s5f
Here are FIVE slaveholding: judges on ths
ccnch, disciples Of this nsologism Of slavery
me,, who have espoused the doctrine. latei,
invented ny the southern politicians, and who
seek to engraft them apon our code Of consti
tutional law--men who alter our constitution
for us; who find In II what no man OF com.
mon sense, reading IL for himself, could eve,
find, what its trainers never thought of mt.
ting into it, y hat no man discerned in IL till 4
very few years since it.,vas seen with the ais
Of optics sharpened by the eager desire 20 pre-
serve the political ascendency Of the slave
States. We feel, in reading the opinions oi
these men that local political prejudices bav,
gained the mastery of that bench and tainted
beyond recovery the minds Of the majority d
the judges. The constitution which they nov
profess to administer, is not the constitution
under which this country has liyed. for seyent,
years; il is'nct the constitution which Wash
ington, Franklin and Jefferson. and the abl,
inrists who filled seats OF justice in The calme
days Of our republic, recognized; this Is no
the constitution to which we have so Ions
looked mp with reverence and Arbitration; /
is new constitution. OF which we neye
heard till it was invented by Mr.. Calhoun, AM
which we cannot see adopted by the judges o
our federal courts without shame and iniigna
ton. ''t e '''ss 20 .
Hereafter, IL this decision shall stand ferlaw
slavery, instead of being what the people o
the Slave States have hitherto called it, thei
peculiar institution, is federal institution, tn
common patrimony and shame of all the States
those which faunt with the title Of free, a
well as those which accept the stigma OF bein,
the Land OF Bondage; hereafter, wherever o..
jurisdiction extends, itcarries with Il the chai
and the scourge-whereve our flae floats i. /
the flag Of slavery. If so, that fiag should hav
the light Of the stars and the streaks OF runnin,
red erased from If; it should be dyed black
andits devices should be the whip and tn
fetter. .,.l,... l.,s,s.. ~. -. &,
Are we to accept. without question, thes
new readings Of the eopstitution--to sit dow
c ,ntentedly under this disgraee--to admit tha
the constitution was never before. rightly uu
derstood. even by those who framed TITO con
sent that hereafter it shall be the shareholders
instead Of the freemep.s constitution? Neye,
Never! We hold that the. provisions OF tn
constitution, 80 far as they regard slavery, ar
now Just what they were, when it was framed
and that no trick Of Interpretation can chang
them. The-psople of the Gree states will insis
on the old impartial construction of the consti
tuition, adopted in calmar times the construc
tion given II by Washington and his contempt
raries, instead of that Inverted BY inoder
po'iticisnsin Congress and adopted By modsr
politicians on the bench - ~ 'sis3 .asl's.
Whatresults will grow out or This decision
to what conflict OF legislation between tn,
States and the Federal Government it ma
lead with what diiRcaitythese clashlng view
may Be composed, or how this last attempt |
sustain the cause OF slavery, to spread II 4
widely and keep I. In being as long a. possible
may Be ovetruied and rendered futile BY cause
now III operation, we do mol undertake to con
Then and New.-There' and Her,
In l77a, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, /
the highest le.al authority in Great Brinil