The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-03-14
nvnsIoN OF THE SUPREME COURT IN THE DRIED
SCOTT CASE.

~ SCOTT CASE
Notwithstanding the systematzed attempt the part
f the bacrepubcan press TO use the late decision Oh
A supreme Court in the bred Scott case as the agatng
medium to goad the weak ignorant and fanatical into
seoud crusade against the Union the constitution and
the equality Of the States its efforts thus far have not been
attended with even mischievous consequences The dem
ae and press Of the country have quietly
lint most emphaticaly endorsed this decision as well as
,bs high and pure source from which 1t emanaed and 1t
will proye no easy task we think when the country needs
and seeks repos set aside principles the justice and
situtionaty Of which now generally and generously
recognised and to damage in the public esteem tribunal
which is almost universally regarded as the ark Of safety
in times of political peril
A an evidence Of the spirit in which this decision is
ceved by the conservative press we make room for the
following weconsidered and wewritten remarks OF the
New York Journal of Commerce:
THE DECISION OF THE SupRExE CoURrIt was not to be
expected that the abolition press would readily in
the wisdom justice and constitutionaity OF the decision
recently delivered in the Supreme Court of the United
States the of Scott Sanford but it was hardly
10 be supposed that journals claiming TO be respectable
should SO forget what is due to public decency and deco
rum as to that the solemn and deliberate judgment
of the highest tribunal in the land is entitled TO more
moral weight than would be the Judgment of majority
OF those congregaed in any Washington bar-room"
10 impugn the honesty and purity Of the great cousu
tona lawyers who occupy the exalted position Of supreme
and final judges of all matters relating to the intorpreta-
ton OF the constitution and the laws We believe how
ever that these indecent and contemplate calumnes will
with approving response beyond the limited circle
of disappointed actionists whose vocation it is to omen,
strife discord to subserve individual and selfish ends
that by the great Of the people who prefer truth to
error light to darkness upon important political ques
TONS the decision will be respected and honored and that
it will be accepted permanent record stamped with
the absolute authority Of the constitution itself
tits now decided on authority which admits of no ap
peal question: and which few will presume to dispute
that negroes whether bond free be citizens of the
United States according to the constitutions that il ID moi
the power of one particular State by comforting
citizenship within It's limits negro to endow him with
full citizenship in the other States of the Union without
their CONSENT that the ordinance of 1857 adopted by the
thirteen colonies while they formed confederation "foI
mutual protection" superseded by the present con-
sutiop which not framed until after the passage
that ordinance and which, far from prohibiting slavery
involuntary servitude expressly declares that nothing
in the constitution shall be construed to prejudice
any claims of the United States Of any particular State
with regard the property; that necessary
sequence of this decision, the act of $780, known thu
Missouri Compromise is void and unwarranted by the
constitution it not being in the power of Congress to draw
an arbitrary line the United States and to declare
that of that line United States citizens forbidden
to hold slaves that the temporary residence of slave
free State does net legally render him free when he
turns slave Sate and that 1t is not in the power Con
gress legislae slavery into any State or Territory
10 exclude it therefIomp but that the constitution
that power in the people Of the States and Territories alone
who are perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way subject only to the provs
ions Of the constitution of the United States"
The and comprehensive social and political import
ance of this lucid and convincing judgment Of the first
situonal authorities in the republic cannot be too highly
estimated 1t dissraes the mist in which have beer
enveoped for years 1t exposes in all their deformity thu
slavery hereses by which have been disturbed for
than half century, it lays down, in language stripped
all sophistry sectional bias the relations which should
exist between the States and Territories of the Union
gives the North to the South to the East and 10 thu
West the chart and compass by which to steer and
procaims the people that they alone have the right
all times and under all circumstances to provide their
local government regulate their affairs and TO de
eide themselves whether they will will not adopt do
meec servitude of their institutions.
The people, who the constitution and the laws
and who only need to be shown the truth to adopt
obey it, will hail the decision with satisfaction and will
regard its authoritative and final settlement of grievou
sectional issues almost the greatest political boon whc
has been vouchsaed to since the foundation of the
public The deagogues who the fuel upon which the
relied for kindng the flames Of dscord and anatcism thu
snached from their grasp seek to assai the usrou
Judges by whom this grand exposition of constitutions
rights has been promulgated but their shafts neve
reach the height which those gifted occupy, we
by their official station in the veneraton and respect
the people