The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1857-04-30
poIi ii |.
Rrownson ON Taney.

The last number Of "Brownson's Quar-
terly Review" which is incomparably
the ablest Romanist journal on this side
of the Atlantic, contains severe rebuke
of Mr. Chief Justice Tanev for his deci-
sion in the Drej Scott case. The rebuke,
coming from such a quarter, must have
surprised those who know how hostile
Dr. Brownson has shown himself, to eve
ry form of AntiSlavery agitation outside
of the Slave States, and how swift he has
been to apologize for outrages hitherto
Eperpetrated by the Slaveocracy. Yet it
obviously appears. that both the Repub-
licanism and the Catholicity even of DR..
B., have been equally outraged in the
stride take in the direction alike of des-
potism and of heathenism by his eminent
Papistical brother who pollutes the place
one adorned by a Marshall. He de-
nounces the alleged grounds of that de-
cision as subversive, at once, of the Con-
stitution, and of the teachings of the Ca
tholic Church, and such, therefore, as no
true son of the Church either could,
would, or should have sanctioned. We
have room for only a taste of the learned
reviewers observations. He says: 1Hz
..Mr. Chief Justice Taney rests the
opinion of the Court on the estimation
in which the negro was held at the time
the Union was formed. They were re-
garded as not fit associates socially or po-
litically for white men, as having no rights
which white men were bound to respect,
! while nobody denied that they might be
| bought and sold as an ordinary article OF
merchandise. Suppose such was the
fact, what has that to do with the ques
tion Is it anywhere incorporated into
the Constitution of the Union, or recog
t nized by the laws of the United States ?
= Of course not. Then it cannot be cited
against the rights of free negroes under
the Federal Government.
: But we dispute the fact. There can
: be no reasonable doubt that Mr.. Jeffer-
son and many others, when they declared
all men created equal intended the prin.
ciple thus asserted after Pope Alexander
III, should apply in its fullest extent
. Mr.. Chief Justice Taney is Catholic
s and knows that from 1482 the Popes
II have condemned. on pain of excommuni
cation, the reduction Of African negroe:
= to slavery, and he knows that Mr.. Jeffer
$ son, in his draft of the Declaration of In
dependence, enumerated among the things
which justified the Colonies in severing
/. the tie which bound them to Great Bri
tain and in casting off their allegiance tt
the British Grown, the fact that thu
y Crown had refused to assent to laws pro
'e hibiting the importation of Africans t.
b, be held as slaves,
% "Mr. Chief Justice Taney seems to u
:, to proceed on the assumption that negroe
- : are politically and legally degrade
d race in the Union ; but such is not Il
e. fact. We regret that in gi'
to ing the opinion Of the Court the learne
bo Judge did not recollect what he is taug
- by his religion. namely, the unity of Il
0a race, that all men by the natural law a
es equal, and that negroes are men, AT
therefore as to their rights must be regar
IL ed as standing on the same footing wit
na white men. where there is no positive
- municipal law that degrades them. He
ne is what we dare maintain Is the error
mt, the Court We admit that negroes, b
not negroes any more than white me
to may be reduced by post We law to slay
mo ry, but planting ourselves on the Cpas
,h tuition. and natural right, as expoqnd
~ = by the Church and the Common La
'he we maintain, and will maintain in t
led face Of all Civil Courts, that where