The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-03-25
Decision Of the Supreme Court
In the bred Scott Case.

liean press, says the Washington Union,
to use tue late decision of the Supreme
Court in the bred Scott CT se, as the ag.
itating medium to goad the weak, igaor-
ant and fanatical into a second crusade
against the Union, tho Constitution. and
the equality of the States, its efforts
thus far have not been attended with
even mischievous consequences. The
Democratic and conservative press of
the country have quietly but most en-
phatically endorsed this decision, as
we'll as the high and pure source from
which 1t emanated and it will prove
no cusy task, we think, when the coun-
try needs and seeks repose, to set aside
principles. the justice and constitution
atty of which arc now generally and
generously recognized, aud to damage
in the public esteem n tribunal which is
almost universally regarded as the ark
of safety in times of political peril.
AS an evidence of the high spirit in
which this decision is received by the
conservative press, We make room for
the following we'll. considered and well
written remarks ofthe New York Jour.
nal of Commerce:
THE DEcIsIoNoF THE SUPREME Court.
1t was not to be expected hat the alb
clifton press would readily concur in
the wisdom. justice, and nconstitutioali-
ty of tho decision recently delivered in
the Supreme Court of the United States
in the case Of Scott VS.. SANFORD but
it was hardly to be supposed that Jour
nails claiming to be respectable should
so forget what is due to public decency
aad -decornm as to assert that thesd&t ahn
and deliberate Judgment of the highest
tribunal in the land is entitled to TO
more F." moral weight than would be Ihe
judgment of those congrcgated in any
Washington ~bar-room," or to inlpugn
the honesty and purity of the great
constitutional lawyers who occupy the
exalted position of supreme and final
judges of all matters relating to the in
depreciation of the constitution and The
laws. We believe, however, that these
indecent and contemplate calumnies
will meet willis no approving response
beyond the limited circle of disappointed
factionists whose vocation it is to foment
strife and discord to subscrve individual
and selfish ends; that by the great
masses OF the people who prefer truth to
error, light to darkness, up IN important
political questions, tho decision will be
respected and %bonored, and that it will
be accepted as a permanent record,
stamped with the absolute authority of
The Constitution itself.
It is nov decided on authority which
of no appeal or question, and
which few will presume to dispute. that
negroes, whether bond or free, cannot be
citizens of the United States according
to the constitution that it is not in the
power of auy one particular State, by
comforting citizenship within its limits
on q negro, to endow him with full citi.
zenship in the other States of the Union
without their consents; that the ordi-
nance of 1877, adopted by tho thirteen
colonies while they formed a confedera-
ton for mutual protection" was su.
perseded by the present constitution,
which was not framed until after the
passage Of that ordinance, and which, so
far from prohibiting slavery or involuu-
tary servitude, expressly declares that
"uothing in the constitution shall be so
construed as to prejudice any claims Of
the United States or Of any particular
State" with regard to the common prop
erty; that as a necessary sequencfo of this
decision, the act Of 1920, knowE rs the
Missouri Compromise is void, and un.
warranted by the Constitution, it not D :
ing in the power of Congress to draw an
arbitrary line across the United States.
oDI - 1.41u-4 L. I'll IoA IT,
United States citizens are forbidden to
bold slaves; that the temporary resi-
dence of a slave in a FREQ State, does
not legally render him free when he re-
turns to a slave State; and hat it is
not 10 the power of Congress "to legis-
late slavery into any State or Territory,
nor to exclude it therefrom," but that TIE
Constitution vests that power in the peo-
pie of the States and Territories alone,
who arc perfectly free to form and regu-
late their domestic institutions in their
W way, subject only to the provisions
OF the Constitution of the u. States.
The vast and comprehensive social
and political Importance of this lucid
and convincing Judgment of the first
constitutional authorities in the republic
cannot be too highly estimated. 1t de
sipates the mist in which We have
been enveIoped for years; it exposes in
all their deformity the slavery heresies
by which we have been disturbed for
more than halt q century; it lays down,
in language stripped of all sophistry or
sectional bias, the relations which should
exist between the States and Territories
of tho Union; it gives to the North, to
the South, to the East, and to the West
the true chart and compass by which to
steer, and it proclaims to the people
that they alone have the right, at all
times and under all circumstances, to
provide their own local government, to
regulate their own affairs, and to decide
for themselves whether they will or will
not adopt domestic scrvitude as one of
their institutions.
The people, WHO reverence the Con-
stitution and the las, and who only
need to be shown tie truth to adopt and
obey it, will hail tho decision with salts
faction, and will regard its authoritative
and final sectional issues as almost the
greatest political boon which has been
vouchsafed to US since the foundation OF
the Republic. The demagogues who
sec tho fuel upon which they relied for
kindiing the flames Of discord and
fopotioism time spotnbo5 from thai