Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-03-20
CONNECTICUT.

The Union Republican and American
State Committee of Connecticut have issued
an address, from which we quote the portion
which relates TO the decision in the case of
bred Scott The election in Connecticut
takos place at the commencement of April
We have no fear but that the voters of that
State viii set another seal upon the verdict
which New England renders against the Dem
ocratic party.
Not only has the Pro-slavery party of
Connecticut declared that the new Admins
tration is to be but the continuation of the
old, James Buchanan has himself made the
same announcement. In his Inaugural Adj
dress he informs the country that It was a
happy suggcsGun' which removed the time
honorcd landmark against the encr0achments
of slavery aud this not to allow the people
of the Territories through their Legislative
Assemblies TO decide the question for them
selves, but to permit the FREQ ingress of
bondage into every part Of the national do
main, until such time as State Constitutions
shall come to be formed, which, i'm his opiu-
ion, will be the appropriate period for such
decision.
In making this announcement. the Prcsi-
dcnt carries to their logical results the piu-
ciplos of his predecessor he rcpudiatcs the
I
man of the Republic, from its foundation TO
the present time, and adopts the extreme
dogmas of Southern disuuionists,-o such
men as Calhoon, Butler, Toombs and Jolicr-
son Davis.
He relies indeed, upon the Supreme Court
to sustain him; and that, too with a conf
derce which, manifest as it was, in advance
of the public announcement of the recent de-
csion of that tribunal, indicates his compile
ity in the schcme that was to produce, as the
grand result of his election, and the browning
triumph of his Inauguration, the first deliber-
ate perversion of judicial power which has
darkenod the annals OF the Republic.
For let us consider, briefly, what this de-
cision is. bred Scott, slave in Missouri
was taken by his master, in the year 1886
into the territory north of that State, and
over which the prohibition Of slavery contain
ed in the Missouri Compromise was then OPP
cratye, and there held for the period of two
years. If that prohibition was valid, Scott
by this act of his master, became free The
five southern Judges of the supreme Court
constituting a majority of one thereof, hold
the Missouri restriction to be unconstitutional
and void, and remand their victim to perpet-
ual bondage. And the decision is based upon
; the assertion that the Constitution recognizes
! and guarantees the right of property in man
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories
is pronounced an interference with and divest-
ing of this right which is beyond the power
both of Congress and of the people of the
Territories themselves and, necessarily
every Territory of the Union-Minnesota
Oregon, Nebraska, Washington, Utah and
, New Mexico, as well as Kansas-are to-day
in their legal relation, slave Territories Free
institutions, if they can exist at all under
this construction of the Constitution, are con
fined to the States where they are established
10y positive enactment, and slavery has be-
5 come the universal law of the Republic.
But this is not ALL bred Scott was taker
3 by his master into the free State of Illinois
5 and there held by him for two years, prior tc
( his departure to the northwest territory. b,
5 an uninterrupted course Of judicial decisions
running through period of fifty years from
) the foundation Of the Republic, Scott by hi,
sojourn in free State with the permission
{ of his master, became himself free. But th,
e same majority Of the Supreme Coort nov
e holds that even the sovereignty of Stat,
D falls postrate and poworless before this ON
4 nipotont right of property in man. and so iai
y as Judicial power can go, blasts and pollute,
d the entire free soil Of the North with tn,
r curse Of human bondage, whenever the slave
! holder shall will it, Robert Toombs ma,
7 now call the roll of his slaves at the foot o
Il Bunker Hill
e Fellow citizens. who are these men tina
3 have discovered that Washington Hamilton
1 Madison, sherman and others, who made Tia,
b Constitution, did not know what it meant
e when in the first National Congress they re
: enacted the prohibition Of slavery in III,
; Northwest Territory; Who are they tina
] are wiser than those lights of American iuris
prudence, Ellsworth, Jay, Marshall and sto