Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-03-17
The Ex,ra-JudlciaI DeoI.ion.

The Washington correspondent OF the We"
York. Courier &. Enquirer writes as follows con
cerning the "opinion" of the five siaTehoiding
Justices Of the Supreme Court, on the bred Scott
case. and the object had in view in their passing
upon questions not properly before the Court for
adjudication
AS to the opinion of the majority being deois
sionvan sensible men, and cially all lawyers,
LAUGH at it. A gentleman high in the confidence
of the new Administration gives the following as
the objects for which the opinion was extracted
from the Court =
Ist. To support what the late Administration
did and the present one intends 10 do
I'd. To confirm an extra official edct of the late
Attorney General, in which, upon sumo unnamed
pretext, he pronounced the Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional
Sd To endorse the present Attorney-Generab
Black, in his opinion on the Passmore William
son case.
4th To cover new and as yet unstated preten-
sions of the democratic party, and, therefore, to
provide for new agitations.
Thus the opinion was emphatcally made to or
der. If this policy succeeds, a resolution will be
in due time adopted in democratic caucus, order
ing decisions as to whether it is constitutional
to explore the Dead Sea; to import camels
into Texas to send for sugar cane to Brazil;
to send expeditions for the survey of the Amazon,
to make maps of the Heavens off the coast of
CAle, to build Pacific Railroad, to improve
rivers and harbors, to protect home industry IN
short, to do anything which the democrats desire
not to have done and to prevent the doing of
what anyother party wishes done. When the dem
ocracy gets the fat of the court on these points,
it will instantly submit and cease talking upon
any of them
Having given the opinion OF the senior Justice
upon the Bench, Judge Mclean, to the extra
Judicial character of the decision rendered by the
majority of the Court, we give below The opinion
Of Judge Curtis upon this point, coufrmatory of
the charge that the five Southern Judges wander
ed far out of the path of their legal jurisdiction,
on the occasion, to gratfyEa partzan, sectional
purpose =
" dissent from that part of the opinion of the
majority Of the Court in which it holds that a
person Of African descent cannot be citizen of
the United States, and / regret that must go
further, and dissent both from what deem their
assumption Of authority to examine the constitu.
tionality of the act Of Congress commonly called
the Missouri Compromise act, and the grounds
and conclusion announced in their opinion.
Having first decided that they bound to
consider the suficiency of the plea to the juris.
diction eff the Circuit Court. and having decided
that this plea showed that the Circuit Court had
not Jurisdiction, and consequently that this is a
case to which the judicial power of the United
States does not extend, they have gone to exam
inc the merits OF the case as they appeared the
trial before the Court and Jury, upon the issues
Joined on the pleas in Bar aud so have reached
the question of the power of Congress to pass the
act OF 1920. On so grave subject as this, feel
obliged to say that, in my opinion, such an exet-
tion of judicial power transeends the limits of the
authority of the Court, described by its repeat
ed decisions, and as acknowledged in this opinion
OF the majority of the Court"
As favorable indication, the Southern press
already bagin to tremble, in view of the instabil
ty of the ground on which the majority of the
Court stand, and grumble out an acknowledg
ment that their late decision cannot be looked
upon, under thelcircumstances, as final quiet
us " Of slavery agitation, but that the great
question Of the freedom of the territories, and the
right to hold slaves North of Mason & Dixon's
line, must still be considered an open question,
maugre the fact that their five slaveholdng Judg-
ss have united to trumpet their despotic edct to
the world, as irrefutable law and gospel for the
North to submit to. The Columbia Times, print
ed in the very heart of South Carolina itself,
says -
Had the decision of this case been unani-
nous, 1t would have carried an Importance which
does not attach to it as it stands As it is, we
much fear that the great and important princi-
pies involved are by no means settled-that is,
removed from the of popular discussion,
and from thus furnishing still theme of contin-
ued agitation and excitement"
Awful! isn't it, that the mountain should
have labcred so long and been 50 fruitless in the
final result Of its laborious exertions?
Not content with having worked the country
into pitch of excitement. by the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise, in 1854, the Democracy,
under Southern control, have recently added new
and unwonted fuel to the fire, and their ultra
Southern supporters are already beginning to
tremble and shake in their shoes, in view of the
consequences. There are some things which the
people Of the North cannot be made to submit to-
Among these, is this partzan sectional edict
lately promulgated from the Supreme Bench by
its five slayeholding incumbents. The South,
having brewed the storm, must ride the whirl.
wind, and take the consequences, one of which
must inevitably be the final blotting out of every
Vestge Of the vile institution of slavery from the
land. And this result has only been FASTENED by
the unrighteous attempt of the Court at Wash
ington TO stie discusson,b by STOPPING to sanctify
the infamous edicts of the slave power, as embed
led in the administration now in power