The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1857-03-28
W;ckedness of tho Decision in the
Supreme Court Against the Afri-
can Race.

W;ckedness of tho Decision in the
Supreme Court Against the Afri-
can Race.
We give below extracts from an article in
the last Independent, written by the Kew.
Geo b. Cheever. l, is mastery produc
ton and We hope none will fail to read it.
After quoting portion Of Judge Taney's
decision, he says:
.In this horrible hand book oftyrannv it is
asserted, LIST. That according to the past CEN
terry Of opinion. adopted as law in the Constl-
luton, black men have no rights which white
,;.en ought to respect, but may be reduced to
slavery, bought aud sold, and treated as an
ordinary article Of merchandise; 2d. That
the negro race are excluded by the Consti-
tuition from the possibility of tein. citizens.
and from having any personal rights or bene-
fits: I'd. They are all articles of mcrchsn-
disc. all the negro race; 4th Their being
tree makes no difference, for the Constitution
treats and considers them as mere property,
and gives the government power over them
aS such.
These assertions tie Jud &C attempts to su.-
tain by deliberate falstiration Of the Con-
s:tu.on and OF history II they were true,
then the Constitution would be document
rcprobated by the Almighty, and entitled
only to the curses of mankind. 1t is matter
0: thankfulness that if such Infamous propo-
sitions were to be made under the solemn au-
thoritv of court of American ustice, the
Judge propoundirg them should have been
member Of the Papal church, so that it ia not
Protestant Christianity that ha, given such a
verdict, however Protestant ministers may
possibly be found TO sustain it. Ii is of a piece
with that religion which has always been ac
customed to mathematics races by the
wholesale, that re igion and church which
con>i gus all here,lcs to perdl!ion, and in time
past declared that they have no rights which
the in.:;!Lle reienny church ought to re-
spect. This habit OF persecution has come to
per>onitication IL our Supreme Court Of
Justice.
The annals Of the world cannot show more
astounding avowal Of wrong as the justified
principle of action. Because wrong has been
done in former age. and examples Of wicked
ness have been set, and impure and immoral
principles, habits, and OPINIONS have prevail
ed, therefore we will abide by them, even
when we have discovered their wrongfulness,
and when the moral sense of the world is
against them. Nay. the instruments OF pub
lie Justice, the declarations of law, the const-
:utsons framed, in those past epochs, on the
ground Of right, maintaining right principles
and just opinions, and capable OF no other
construction, we will interpret thOse very
instruments IN accordance with those i'm
moral principles, opinions, and practices, on
the pre,en>e that tie authors and trainers of
those instruments. cannot be supposed to
have been so far advance! beyond their own
age in tie knowledge and the love of Justice
as to have intended the support of justice,
rather than iniquity. They must have meant
to sustain the wrong. and therefore We are
bound to interpret their declarations of opin-
ion As a. anv rate, and in ak circumstance
in favor of the wronr. and will so interpret
and enforce them. They made them in a
dark are of the world, when inhumanItv,
tyranny. ignorance, and disregard OF the
rights of man were customary, and therefore
they must be constructed consistently with
that darkness. and i'll support of that in
!lumantv The Declaration OF Independence
must be asserted to he lie, must be in'errre.
ted as such, As not meaning what it declares,
because the authors of it we're honorable
men. and cannot tie supposed to have pro-
tessed any knowledge OF right and wrong be.
yond the customary principles Of morality in
their day, nor any rule of freedom, nor any
preference otiieedom above slavery, higher
than the world around them acknowledged
.ud obeyed.
Now we fear!essly declare that there never
was. under the whole heaven, more afro.
rions, Wholesale wickedness perretrated upon
the bench Of justice than this. For no. only
isit exasperated beyond conception BY issuing
from the tribunal of professedly Christian
nation. but it Isl preparation by principle,
and of widening reach and accumulating
lower to all time. 1t takes, moreover, not a
man. nor a few men merely. nor a province
TO lay waste. like Nerres, but a whole nation,
nor evea a nation merely, but whole race
Nv the throat, and s,rances it. and filings forth
the iitless corpse. lifele.s in law as to all
possibility of rights but with the living ca
pacitv of injury and insult, filings forth the
.trangIed race by the roadside OF the family
of man, for all human beasts CT prey to fatten
Thr never was sach a complication Of
vilIanies a. in this decision. Take the a.sump-
ton. to begin with, Of such a state Of dark
PCS. and vitiated opinion in regard to the
African race, unhumanizing and imbruting
them Not Only was the existence of such
universal opinion impossible, under the light
Of the Old and the New Testament. but. by
thu Ii.h, Of human history, the affirmation
Of it is and must have been known to be
g.arin. f,l>ehood. There never was any
suh opinion that the African race were not
:n-n. but merely property; aud even as to
|dcerg, the foremost minds in the world
~e~e beginning to dlssipate the awful delu.ion
that he slave trade could be just, and clearer
.iaht was breaking, and judicial decisions had
been made bS the hgh,s st Christian tribunal
in thu world, that were like sun shot into
midnight, Lord ChicfJustice Mansfeld's
gIo'i0as decision against slavery was issued