Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-03-27

Congress, the same, in my opinion, as the
Missouri Compromise Line
If Congress may establish a Territorial
Government in the exercise of its discretion,
it is a clear principle that a Court cannot con
troll that discretion. This being the case,
do not sec on what ground the act is held
void. 1t did not purport to forfeit property
or take it for public purposes. 1t only pro-
hibited slavery, in doing which it followed the
Ordinance of 1887.
(Rem'inde next week.
well, what do you propose to do about
it, is tauntingly asked by our Northern
chuckers over the late most unjust and de-
plorabe de,,ision in the bred Scott case
" Suppose Il is all wrong, in violation of law
and precedent, how do you expect to help
yourselves, What will all your protests and
agitation amount to :" Let us answer these
gentlemen briefly, but clearly.
|. We do not purpose TO resist the Federal
authorities, nor to break up the Union. We
do not esteem either rebellion or disunion the
proper remedy for political or judicial wrongs
while the Freedom of the Press and the
Right of Suffrage are maintained Especially
should we deem disunion most untimcly, now
that the highest tribunal has-though extra
iudicially and without authority
Slavery National, not a sectional, institu-
ton, making it a concern of the nominally
Free equally with the Slave States When
this doctrine comes to be positively establish
cd hereafter, it will be settled that Slavery
must peryade and control the whole Union or
be expelled from every part of it. We have
not desired such an issue but when it is
made up and forced upon us by the Slave
Power we shall not shrink from it, Disunion
involves the abandonment of our cnslayod
counlymcn to perpetual bondage we choose
not to desert them.
III. We do mean TO make plain to all our
countrymen who can read, the iniquty and
enormity of the bred Scott decision in all il,
parts, but especially in its fundamental denial
to the feeble and down-trodden of any right
of appeal to the Federal tribunals. By every
principle of righteous jurisprudence, the NOR,
humble or degraded an individual or class
may be, the more imperative is the duty o
the tribunals to hear the pleadings and assor
the right OF such suppliant or class w,
mean to make the American people perceiv,
and feel that injustice to a part is peril to all
and that the refusal to consider bred Scott
prayer for liberty on the express ground o
his being a black man, therefore possessing
no rights which white men are bound to re
spect, is fatal blow TO the rights and lbor
ties of all.
Ill We mean to show that decision o
the Supreme Court, though formidable, is no
irrevcrsible. That Court affirmed the Con
stitutional validity of the Alien and SediHo
Acts, yet the people annulled those acts, an
paid back the penalties imposed and oxacte
under them by the Federal Judiciary Tha
Court pronounced Bank of the Unite
States perfectly Constitutional, yet the peo
pie ultimately made a contrary decision
which prevailed over the Courts. So in othe
cases. So will il be again.
w. We mean to urge and effect a read
justment Of the basis on which Justices
the Supreme Court are apportioned No'
six hundred thousand free people in Slay
District have equal weight in the constitution
of that Court with four millions in Ere
District and six millions of free people i
Slave States have more weight than sixtee
millions in Free States. This is grossly M
just, and cannot be upheld Make the Jud
eal Districts equal let Judges be fairly Sc
lected tboreffom, and the bred Scott decisio
will soon be oyerruled and efaced,
V. We mean TO create and arouse I'M CT
lightened public sentiment which shall ult
mately place the Federal Government, in a
its departments, in the hands Of men VIII
love the Constitution and the Union mucl
but Liberty, Eternal Justice and the inalieu
able Rights of Man still more--men who wi
regard Freedom as the universal and eyerlasi
ing rule, and Slavery as the local and trans
tory exception-men who will give Shyloc
his pound of flesh, but warn him in takin
it to shed mo drop Of Christian blood INC
who will be as tenacious Of the rights Of me
legally free, like bred Scott, as Of those pc
mitted by vicious local regulations, over whiC
the Nation has no control, to claim proper
in the limbs and bodies of their folow-men
VI. Ia short, we mean to prove, by the ]
sue of this contest, that Justice is the law
Gods universe, to which all human Law
should and must conform, and that patei
waiting and earnest working will eventual
secure its triumph.
II there be treason in this, let the FEEDER
Distriet-Attorney hurry up his documents
NJ " Tribune.