Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-04-18
THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.

THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.
The report of the joint committee appointed
by the New York Legislature was presented on
Thursday by Mr.. Foot in the Assembly, and Mr..
Madden in the Senate, defining the position of
tbe.Empire State upon the bred Scott Decision
as touching Freedom in the States. Let the min
ions of Slavery see how glorious New York,
wheels into line! Read it, friends of Freedom,
and rejoicel
The Joint Committe of the Senate and Assembly
appointed to consider and report what measures,
If any, the Legislature of the State ought to adopt
to protect tho Constitution al rights of her citizens
against the serious and alarming doctrines Of the
Supreme Corrt of the United States in the decis-
ion Of the case Of bred Scott, respectfully
REPORT:
That they entered upon Il discharge of their
duty under a deep sense of the importance of the
subject committed to their consideration. They
could not fail to see that the sovereignty of our
State, the constitutional rights of her citizens, the
protection OF her free labor, her great commercial
manufacturing and agricultural interests, her ex-
tensive educational system, and the morals of her
citizens, were all assaulted and put in jeopardy bv
the unconstitutional, sectional and Pro-Slavery
doctrines announced by the majority Of the Judges
of the Supreme Court OF the United States in the
decision of the case mentioned; for those doctrines
will bring slavery within our borders, against our
will, with all its unhallowed, demoraliziug, and
~blighting influences.
Your committee have not been able to obtain
authenticated copies Of the opinions Of the five
Pro-Slavery Judges, who formed a majority of the
Court, and proclaimed the unconstitutional doc
trines which have so Justly alarmed the people of
this State. They have, however, abundant evil
dence OF their contents and of the principles they
announce.
There was one question before TIE Conrt for
adjudication, and that was whether bred Scott
was a citizen Of the United States. No Judge of
the Court had a right, aud far less was it his duty
to discuss, decide. or even express an opinion on
any other question or subject. Not only judicial
decorum, but numerous decisions of that very
Court, forbade him to express opinions on any
question beside the one directly before him. Yet
the five Pro-Slavery Judges, disregarGing official
decorum and established precedents, after decid-
ing the case before them, proceeded to discuss and
express opinions on FIVE other constitutions ques-
tons of vital Importance in the Free States of the
Onion
First: They express the opinion thatif a master
brings his slave into a Free State for a temporary
i s.j0"rr, the sl-ss dvos 49, becOnie Tree. ms is
in direct contradiction to a cherished principle Of
the common law, that when a slave places his foot
upon free soil be becomes a freeman-a principle
dear to the heart of every enlightened citizen of
the Free States Of our Union; and a principle
which has been recognized by the Courts of all
those States, By the Courts Of most of the Slave
States, and by the Supreme Court of the United
States itself.
Second: They express the opinion that the Ordi-
nance l1S1-the Magma Charter of Freedom in
all the States formed out of the Territory north
west of the OhiO--it is imperative and void-an
opinion which astonishes the intelligence of the
country, and is in direct opposition to the action
of the General State Governments, from their in
stitution,
Third: They declare that the Act of Congress
admitting the State of Missouri into the Union,
known as the Missouri Compromise. was uncon-
stitutional and void and hereby give the sanction
of their names and of the Court, to the unmitiga.
ted breach of plighted national faith accomplished
by the repeal Of that act.
Fourth: They discuss and express the opinion
that the clause in the Constitution of the United
States which declares that "the Congress shall
have power to dispose of and make all needful
rules and regulations respecting the Territory or
other property belonging to the United States, "
only applies to the Territory which belonged to
the United States when the Constitution was adop-
ted, aud confers no authority on Congress to pass
laws regulating the Territories acquired since: and
thus they deny to Congress the power to exclude
Slavery from lEem, or to authorize a Territorial
Government to exclude it; while every well inform
ed person in the country knows that every Terri
tory which the United States has acquired since
the adoption of the Constitution has been govern
ed by the laws Of Congress. The power of Con-
gress over those Territories, and the authority to
prohibit Slavery in them, has never been doubted
or questioned, till the PRONUNCIATION of the opin-
ions of the majority of the Court in this case of
bred Scott.
Flfh: They declare it to be their opinion that
Slavery is not a local institution. They hold that
1t is not confined 80 the limits of the State by the
laws of which it is created, but may be carried
beyond them, and into the Territories Of the United
States. This opinion is in direct opposition to at
least three solemn decisions of the Supreme Court
of the United States, and to the decisions Of the
] NArrta nf Ill tlA E..o Clakoz - 40 l. oA.z.o-
of the courts of most, if not all, of the Slave
States of our Union. 1t is contrary to one of the
fundamental principles of the common law, viz:
that every man has an inalienable right to his
liberty, and that it can only be taken from him
by q statute of the State in which he lives; and
every tryo in the profession of the law knows that
the Statute Of q State has no force beyond its
limits.
1t follows as direct consequence of this doctrine
that q master may take bis slave into a Free State
without dissolying the relation of master and slave
and your Committee cannot but be alarmed and
shocked at the apprehension that some future deeis
ion fthe pro-slavery majority of the SupremeCourt
will authorize a slave driver, as threathned by the
devotees of Slavery, to call the roll of his mana
cled gang at the foot of the Monument on Bunker
Hill, reared and consectated to freedom.
The proposition which the majority of the Court
laid down in deciding the question legitimately
before them-viZ. that no man of the African
race, descended however remotely from a slave. is
a citizen Of the United States though born a free
man, and his ancestors for many generations be-
fore him also freemen, and though ninety-nine
parts out of one hundred of the blood which runs
in his veins is Anglo Saxon, and his skin whittier,
his heart purer, and his head clearer than those OF
the judge who outlaws him, and though his father
may have fallen in the battle of New Orleans, on
the glorious eighth of January. at the call of our
Jackson, or his son, or his grand father served with
honor, or died in battle under our Washington, is
a violation OF the sacred principles announced is
our Independence, hostile to the spirit Of our insti-
%tptions and the age in which we live, a departure
from the liberal doctrines of the common law,
and opposed to the weigh of judicial authority in
this country and England.
Your Committee have no hesitation in express