Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1857-03-28
atliuntsota Tlln IN e,,
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 80, 1857.
The Five siavehelders'

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 80, 1857.
The Five siavehelders. E@
New issues are being continually forced upon
the American people. The Republican party in
stead of .'dying OUT" as the Democracy prophe-
,;sa at the election of Buchanan, is growing and
strengthening, and broader platform is being
every day manufactured for it by the reckless
ness of Pro. Slavery legislation.
The recent decision in the bred Scott case is
startling the free thinkers of all parties from
Maine to Mexico, and men begin earnestly to
calculate the value of that decision. The Re-
publican party of Minnesota must prepare to rem
der its verdict. The facts We have already given,
but will here re-statc them. bred Scott, a Mis-.
souri, slave, was taken to territory which was de-
clared free by the Missouri Compromise, and, be-
ing carried back, sued for his freedom, on that
ground. The U. s. Supreme Court, consisting
of two Republicans, two doughfaces, 1. G., Nor
thern Southerners, and FIVE Shareholders was call
ed to decide the case. One of the five, John A.
Campbell of Tenn, was, six years ago, President
of the celebrated Disunion Convention at Nash
Vile. is more ultra, rampant nulli6er than even
VIM Lloyd Garrison, and was appointed to the
Bench by Franklin Pierce to make precisely the
decision he has. The two Republicans submit an
opinion that negroes are citizens, that the Missou-
ri Compromise was constitutional, that bred
Scott having been voluntarily moved to free SOIL
10 free man. The FIVE shareholders and their
two congenial brothers from the Democratic flock
decide that bred Scott, being negro, is not
&c tba tad Mt nd
entitled to bring suit in that Court.
Here their jurisdiction ended, and the suit
should Justly and properly have been dismissed,
because the party bringing it had no rights in
that Court. The Eve shareholders had no right
TO decide anything more, for there was nothing
to decide. The case not being further before
them, the further consideration of its merits was
extra-i Judicial and farcical. Whatever abstract
decisions they might make ceased to be the voice
of the Supreme Court, and became the utterance
of private individuals. But the five shareholders
see that eniggerism" must have another boost /;
that the abolitionists must have another kick -
that the locofoco party must have another plat
form of bran new Palmetto pine.
So they further decide that the Missouri Com
promise is unconstitutional: that slaves were rec
ognized as property by Washington, Jefferson and
all the fathers of the Republic; that the consitu.
ton considers them such THAT SLAVERY IS Ma
TIONAL, AND SLAVES NAY BE TAKEN AND HELD
As SLAVES THROUGHOUT ALL TIE FREE STArRs!-
'sThe CONSTITUTIONS" says Mr.. Shareholder fancy
s'considers negroes beings of an inferior order,
unfit to associate with the white race, either So
caly or politically, and had NO RIGHTS WHICH
WHITE MEN WERE BOUND TO RESPECT, BUT NIGHT BE
REDUCED TO SLAVERY AND BOUGHT AND SOLD AS NER-
CuANpisg." To prove this infamous assertion,
the Chief Justice quotes from the Declaration of
Inieprndencs!! The Constitution" Continues
the Judge, "was formed only for the benefit of
white people, and does not protect negroes or
give them any rights"
We have no authority to speak for the Repub-
lican party in Minnesota, butwe very much ques-
tion if that party will endorse such decision.-
We think it merely the opinion of i've lasty me-
gro-drivers fresh from the auction block; the
omnipotent fustian of SO many tyrants in ''brief
authority who consider the Border Ruf6ans as
virtuous as the children of Israel and the Nebras-
ka bill an inspired document, revealed to the
Moses OF the modern "Egypt' (Douglas) amid
the thunder of some Democratic Sinai; the pri-
vate opinion of desperate Judges who have
thrown off their official ermine, and took dive
in the puddle of party slime!
To support this position, we have what the De-
mocrats will call high authority, besides the OBJ
yious right of the action. When Chief Justice
Marshal was on tie Bench, he decided that Con-
gress had full and unlimited power over the ter
ritories. This decision was quoted to Gen. Cas-
as conclusive, when he was advocating his Squat
ter Sovereignty in the Senate, but he replied that
the decision was an incidental one, mere obiter
dictun,-an opinion but not law. The Demo-
cratic party sustained Cass in that view, and ever
since, he has refused to be bound by that decision
of the Supreme Court. .l..
Prior to the accession of Gen. jackson to the
Presidency, the Supreme Court decided that the
National Bank was constitutional. Jackson de-
clared that it was unconstitutional and refused
to abide by the Courts decision. lie vetoed the
renewal of the charter, asserting that no body
of men should decide for him, for "By the Eter-
nal J." he would be his own Supreme Court!
Here we take our stand. This 'opinon' is only
the mummery Of a gang of shareholders, to sub.
serve the purposes of party and pander to the
lusts Of Tyranny. The nation cannot, will not,
mu,tmo be bound by it! Itdeclares all men and
women who had the impudenoe to be born with
black exterior, as fit only for perpetual bondage;
it exposes the prevalent delusion of all of US,
that FREEDox Is NATIONAL; it deprives Toll of
its honest wages and Nature of its manly worth !;
it widens the slave-pen, strengthens the chain of
Oppression, and lengthens the goad of the driver;
it ignores all law, human and divine, and de.
clares that upon the heights of Bunker, where
hero fathers once bartered their lives for lib
erty, s!ave-drivers may now barter women for
"merchandise," and apply the lash to the CULVER
ing flesh over the graves of Hancock and War
en-! a aaa
b Where now is our American liberty? where our
Repcaiicanism?-whe our boosted Democracy
where The protection of an uubought Judiciary
when Judges thus trucke to party needs, and
prostitute their high vocation to eject .sthe Little
Giant" Stephen Arnold, to the next Presidency
when the Supreme Court of the United States
Can box their compass to the gales Of faction, and
'.' "---ocnd the supple hiases of the knee,
Tint thrift may follow fawniug.
But we know it is done for party md not for
principle, for Democracy and not because of de.
votonto a great truth, for Slavery and its inf.
mite extension, and not as an exponent of thu