New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-03-10


United States Supreme Court In the Dred SCOTT
case an abstract Of which We copied yesterday from
The National In,,Aigcneer, is stated 70 have been
delivered in ga tone OF voice almost lnaudible. In
this there wa high degree Of adaptation. Inc
utterance correspOnded TO the matter uttered. NO
wonder that the Chief, Justice should have SUNK
hi, yoics 10 a whisper, conscious, as be must have
been. that the decision which be promulgated had
been arrived at on grounds totally different from
those indicated in the opinlOn-thst opinion
being but mere collation. Of false state
mems and shallow scphistrits, got together
TO sustain Q foregone conclusiCn-k1owlng t'ss
be was engaged in pitfdl attempt to impose
UPON the pubic. However feeble his voice might
have been, what be had to cay was still feebler.
There is DOT the slightest degree of adroitness, In
senuity or plsusbility about it. Downright aud
bore. faced fasehood is its main staple. Auy slave
driving editor or Virginia bsr-room politician
could have taken the Chef Justices place on the
bench. and with the exception of q little holder
spe,kng Up, nobody would have perceived the diff
ference.
The only point which can properly be considered
n, decided 10 this case is that negro cannot sue IN
the United States Courts. That being so, bred
Scott had no right to be heard. OF course the
Cour1 had no occasion, and, having no occasion,
they had no eht-at least, no right which would
give their opinion any weight as au.hority-to pro-
nounce aDy Judgment on bis case. The Opinions
expressed by them are, therefore, merely or'te'
dieta-ndeed, they are hardly thai. Tney are
rather to be looked upon as a stump speech en-
BODIED into judicial opinion, with the view OF CIV
ing to it, by rea,on Of the place of its delivery,
weight 10 which otherwise it would have no title
The deciion that no negro can sue in the Courts
Of the United States is based on the sssumpt on
that no negro can be citizen Of the United States.
1t is not pretended that the Constitution contains
any direct exclusion of negroes from the rights OF
citizenship. That exclusion is entirely matter Of
inference. 1t is made to rest manly upon an his
toricsl basis, made up Of assumptions of pretended
facts exterior to the COnsttu 'ion-assumptons
too, which show, on the part Of the Judges concur
ring in this opinion, OH impudent reckessness OF
truth aud of their own reputation, hardly to have
been expected, even at the BAR from any advocate,
however uDprinciped, of any case, however des-
pera,e By way of illustrating this point, We will
take the following specimen:
at is difficult at this day to realize the state OF pub
lie opinion respecting that unortuD ste class negroes
with lie civilized yhtened portion of the world
al the time OF The Declaration OF Independence ana tue
adoption Of the Constitutions out history shows tney
had for more than centuI been r. 2aded ss beings
of an inferior order and unfit associates for the white
race either socially politically and had no rgh3
uhich shse men 2cerc bound 10 respect and the ba
man might be recuceG TO Slavery, bought and Sold
I'd Ofdi Article
This Opn,OR at that time Grds fced and unirersal UM
the cirized portion ofthe thae race IL uas regdrded
oarom IN morals, rhich no ote hough % dtsPA-
,ne ana epery one hGJnucHy acted upon II, uah1nf
doubling for a moment tie c0rrecntss 0f the OPINION
And In na'ion was this opinion morehIe1 aud gen,
ereGy acted upon than in Eogand the subJecs OF
which Cover ment not only seized them on the
Coast of Africa, but took them, % ordinary mef-
chapdise, to where they could make profit on them
The opinion thus entertained universally Impressed
On the Colcnts this eide of the Atlantic according
IT, negroes OF the African were regarded by them
a. property 6nd held and bought and sold AZ such 10
every ole OF the Theen Colonies which united in the
Decoration of Independence. and ai,erward form5d
| tie Constitution. The doyhine of which we have
spoken stfikingly enforced by the Declaration Of
| Independence"
Such is the pretended historical basis for con-
verting the Declaration Of Independence into a
declaration that negroes have rights set forth BY
Coul. that cannot be upIosed not t. know that
as early az 1905 Lord Holt had held that the law
of England afforded no warrant for holding any
body in Slavery, ard that 10 this matter, negroes
| did not differ from other men-a doctrine solemnly
reiterated and forever established in the famous
csse Of Somerset, three years previous to tbs De
c'aration of Independence. Much as this opinion
presumts on the ignorance of the public, its authors
can hardly be supposed to be themselves ignorant
~. 30 nc -
about the same time promulgated by the legal til
Dumas of Scotland, France and Germany.
So far, indeed from it being received at the time
Of the Declaration of Independence as AN axiom
that negroes had no rights, aud that anybody might
lawfully reduce them to bondage, i. wal precisely
at that period that Christendom fully woke up to
tie il ea that all men had the same natural rights,
and that negro Slavery was no less a usurpston
and an abuse than white Slavery. Nor is there any
room to doubt that it was this very idea which the
authors of the Declaration Of Independence in
tended TO embody in hat document. The Court
admits that the phraseoogy used would seem to
"embrace the Whole human family, and if used ia
ian instrument at this day would be 50 UNDER
"stood and the only objection oere to this inter-
probation is the following:
They who framed the Declaration Of Independence
wee men Of too much honor, education aod NELL.
gence tossy what they ddno believe and they knew
that in part Of tie civilized world were the negro
race, by common consent, admitted to the rights
ir6emen. They spoke aid acted according TO the prsc
tees doctrines and usages of the day. That urfortu
nate race was supposed to be separate from the whites
and was never thought or spoken of except as prop.
erty."
Admit this alleged conformity TO 50 the practice,
doctrines and ussges of the day. and the negroes