Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1857-05-14
Brownson on Taney.


ly Review, much the ablest Roman Catho-
lie periodical on this side of the Atlantic,
severely rehukes Chief Justice Taney for
his decision in the Dred Scott case. Mr..
Brownson castigates Mr. Taney not only as
a bad Judge but as bad Roman Catholic,
and denounces his decision as subversve at
once of the constitution and of the teachings
of the Roman Catholic Church, and such,
therefore, as no true son of that Church
either could, would, or should have sane
toned. He truly characteristics the decision
as at war with the authoritative teachings
of the Popes for nearly four centuries and
therefore at war with the tenets of the
Church. He holds that the chief Justice,
in giving decision upon the Supreme Bench,
should look beyond the law and the consti-
tuition of the United States-should look to
the doctrines of the Church and decide in
conformity with those doctrines. And there
can be no doubt that all our courts and our
jures would, if the power OF the Roman
Catholic Church were established in the
land, be required to make their official ac-
tion subordinate to ecclesiastical authority.
Mr.. Brownson says:
"In the States where slaves are property
the Federal Courts are bound to treat them
as property, and cannot discriminate be-
tween them and other species Of property;
but not, therefore, does it follow that it must
treat them as property IN the Territories,
where no local law makes them property.
"God. as Pope Gregory VII has declared
never gave to man dominion over man, nor
to one man the right to lord it over another.
He has never created some men to be kings
and others TO be subjects, some to be mas
ters and others to be slaves; but he has Gre
ated all men to be equal, and therefore AL
exander LII asserts that by nature all men
are free. This is the teaching of the Ca,ho-
lie doctors, and Of all Christian expounders
of the law of nature.
"The negro being man, human soul,
endowed by the law of nature with all the
rights of a white man, he must in all things
be held the equal of white men. except
where the municipal law makes distinction
to his prejudice.
"Mr. Chief Justice Taney seems 10 us to
proceed on the assumption that negroes are
politically and legally degraded race in
the United States; but such is not the fact
They may be so in some OF the States, but
they are not so in the Union, nor indeed in
oil the States. We regret that in giving ht
opinion of the Court The learned Judge dld
not recollect what he is taught By his religion
namely, the unity of the race, that all men
by the natural law are equal, and that ne
groes are men, and therefore, as to their
rights, must be regarded as standing on the
same footing with white men, where there
is no positive or municipal law that degrades
them.
"rhere can be no reasonable doubt that
Mr.. Jefferson and many others when they
declared all men created equal intended the
principle, thus asserted after Pope Alexan-
der Ill, should apply in its fullest extent
Mr. Chief Justice Taney is Catholic, and
knows that from 1882 the Popes have con-
demned, on pain Of communication, the
reduction of African negroes to slavery, ,and
he knows that Mr.. Jefferson. in his draft Of
the Declaration of Independence, enumera-
ted, among the things which justified the
Colonies in severing the tie which bound
them 10 Great Britain and in casting off their
allegiance to the British Crown, ths fact that
the Crown had refused to assent to laws
prohibiting the importation of Africans to be
held as slaves"
There can be no doubt that Roman Cath
olics are required by their religion to be
freesoilers, and there can be as little that
they will be required to manifest their free
soilism everywhere so soon as they can do
SO without thwarting the political views and
purposes of the hierarchy. Where is the
Roman Catholic, whether Bishop, Priest, or
layman, that dares openly stand forth before
the public and proclaim in words the slight
est doubt of the binding obligation of the de-
cisions of the Popes from 1882 down to the
present timeP-[Louisville Journal.
The Great Steamship Eastern Of
the Wonders Of The World.