New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-04-09

While there is 80 much to give us pain and 10
excite our approximations in the bred Scott decision,
we confess that no part Of it more thoroughly slirs
our indignation than that which at one stroke dis
franchises all persons Of color in the United States.
Great wrongs have at least the respectabty Of their
greatness; but in this can attemp. to crowd down
to lower depth struggling and per,ecuted race,
there is something akin to the ptiful pleasure with
which young heroes pull of the wings Of flies and
stick pins through beetles. Personal oppression 10
bad enough under governments avowedy auto
cratic; bad enough when prIcticed upon those who
never knew liberty and who are without hope and
without ambitions bad enough when justified BY
he local law of Slavery; bu. when the Supreme
Court Cf the United States launches its thunder
bolts at handful Of men and women who are -
free of right and by law as any siA-gowned gentle
man upon the bench, and who are striving, against
ipnumerab'e obstacles, for culture, for happiness
ard for a standpoint Of respecsabilisy-men and
women whom any wbite-skinned blackgusrd 10 at
liberty to .nub in railway car, lecture room ora
tbeater-wby, we feel very much ashamed OF our
Supreme Court, and very thoroughly reconciled to
The fortune which saved us from being Q Chief
Justice.
What will be tho legal consequences of this
decision we do not pretend to soy; but, while il
seems to be very sweeping and exhaustive in ito
character, we have no doub. that it will get every
where just that construction which the interests Of
. petty tyranny may demand; that doushface
Judges and commissioners, and marshals, will use it
to extenuate whatever injustice or meanness they
may find it necessary to perpetrate; and especially
that il will be used to harass and torture the free
colored population in the Slave States. That the
decision of Judge fancy drives very largo class Of
people, and class, too, peculiarly open to abuse,
out of the United States Courts, leaving them no
redress for the most fragrant wrongs, must be ap-
parent even to those who have never read Coke or
Chitty.
There were, according TO the census, 434 495 free
persons of color in the United States in the year
1850. OF these, 275, 400 were of unm1sd African
blood, and l59 095 mulattoes. We suppose that
Judge Tsney's decision makes no distinction in
favor of the lighter tints Of cutcle. Mr. De Bow,
who 10 very learned in ,uch matters, tells US that
where the proportion is less Than one eighth OF
African blood, the distinction of classes begins
Ito be obscured" How bleached man m1st be.
come in order to be enabled to prosecute suit for
the redre" Of injuries in the Supreme Court, We do
not stop to determine. 1t will be very fruitful
que.ticn for the commentators and the pundits
Well heIe are nearly half million of people, JUS.
I" much Native Americans as Headley himself
they are engaged in various avOcations, are amass.
ing real and personal estate are paying taxes AID,
whenever bad laws viii permit them, are, as class,
infinitely more respectable and worthy ofcitizenshp
than the vagabOnds who howl in Tammsny and
break each others heads al the primary meetings.
We venture TO say that in Massachusetts,, which