The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-03-21


Decision ofthe bred Scott Case.
We begin to think, indeed, that 1--WE are
in the midst of revolution" Words OF
this purport, which have been banded from
mouth to mouth in St. Paul during the past
month, uttered in derision Of weak, foolish
and faithless Executive officer, come home
to us with national force when we reflect
upon the recent decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States demanding to
perpetual slavery the man bred Scott and
his poserity. ,-a..
The points of this case, as decided by the
ultra pro-slavery majority of the Supreme
Bench at Washington, were given in the
Minmesotiam of yesterday. The facts OF the
case we presume are familiar to most OF our
readers. We will, however, allude to them
briefly: bred Scott, Slave in Missouri,
some years ago was brought by his master
to Fort Smelling, and was there held in in
voluntary servitude for considerable length
Of time. He claimed his freedom by virtue
Of being held as slave upon soil declared
by Congress in the Compromise act of 1920
to be free-that neither slavery nor involun-
tary servitude, except for the punishment OF
crimes, should exist thereon.
The Supreme Court, the highest judicial
tribunal in the land, has decided, that not
only the act of 1920, under which Scott
pleaded, was unconstitutional, but that even
the ordinance of 17S7-the ordinance of
Jefferson-"had no Independent constitu-
tional force Of legal effect subsequently to
the adoption of the Constitution 1t is
further decided, that no man who has Afri-
can blood in his veins can become citizen
of the United States; that the Constitution
recognises the institution Of African Slavery
in all the Territories of the United States as
a National institution; that Congress has no
power, either within itself, or by comforting
the same upon Territorial Legislatures, to
prohibit Slavery in those Territories that it
is only inherent in the sovereign State itself
to legislate in prohibition of the institution,
and even then the resident of Slave State
has the right to carry his negro property"
into free States, hold it there and make it
operative for his use and benefit, so long as
he may so will. In short, the decision 'cov-
ers the whole ground" and lays down the
doctrine in plain terms, that Slavery is Ma
tional and Freedom Sectional; that there are
not only no free Territories belonging to the
people of the Union, but that there is not
really even bona tide Free State in the
Union!
Well, we are glad in some respects, that
this great issue is "coming to head" so
speedily. We rejoice that we have lived, if
such were to be, to see the Supreme Court
of the United States trample with IMMUNITY
upon the sacred doctrine of the fathers ofthe
Constitution. Washington, Hamilton, Jay,
Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, the Adamses,
Marshall, Story, Kent, Jackson, Clay and
Webster, lived and died, after each serving
his country to aripe old age, in the profound
belief that the ordinance of 1887, and the
compromise of 1920 were as sacred as the
Constitution itself. 1t appears they were
sadly mistaken; and it remained for greater
lights than they to interpret the meaning
and force of their works.
1t is fashionable in some quarters to prate
loudly of dissolving the Union, particularly
at the South. The late President, Mr..
Pierce, had at least one openly avowed dis
unionist in his Cabinet during his whole
term; and Mr.. Buchanan has just appointed
two men as his constitutional advisers who
have more than thousand times threatened
to leave the Union unless the North succum-
bed to precisely this damnable pro-Slavery
doctrine as laid down in the decision of the
bred Scot case. The people of the North
are loyal to the Constitution, the laws and
the authorities which constitutionally gov
ern them. But we feel compelled, right now,
to state one positive fact, which must force
itself upon the mind of every thinking man
If the principles of this decision are to re-
main permanent and of legal force in the
Union, then indeed is the Union in dan
ger.