Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-04-03
A Geographical Judioiar.

* The New ork Erusnf,.-
Baptist paper, and one of the mo.t
Of the religious Journal. oet
North, has an able article of tbree -
umns on bred Scott decision. un5..5
head of " A Geographica,
dietary" The writer speaks Of II. \
eision as new, and Judge made h.,
recasting the constitution. As to il.
manency, there are but few fnag,;..
the whole history of the race and i
bred Scott decision is no fnal,v g.
nation like ours, and for the nins,...s
century. The annals of the past u,r,r
parallels, which statesmen Of the mr..
day must have forgotten, if thew veB,,..
on such -auguries." The following ~
tract is foreible and pointed;
This fearful revolution has inv.ll
our Law Courts. The Missouri O..
promise rested on a principle older H.,
itself. The most daring of mere D,Es
clans, who least affected the jurist vosl3
not, few years since, have venture3 =.
impeach the constitutional charaeie, ..
that principle. Indeed, had D.,;l
Webster and Henry Clay been living N
1857, this new decision would not h.
been hazarded. Their whole lives hal
been entwined as statesmen about III.
constitution and just as Selden's autbo.
rity, though bat at the bar, would. Or
question of the Interpretation of the
English Constitution, have weighed down
the opposed judgment of the entire BeReE
of the kingdom, so in the case Of The
Massachusetts statesman, his AUTHORITY
as to the meaning of the Constitution Of
this Union, would have counterpoise3
and swallowed up that Of the entire 81.
preme Court, had they been united-a,
HappIiy tue1 were not.
But it is urged, they have made tia
law, and by an overwhelming majority.
Five to two have spoken. We reply:
When the first Charles of England need
ed money, but would shirk Parliament
the twelve Judges were consulted as ia
the legality of Ship money, sort Of
taxation, levied without asking leave Of
the refractory Commons. Two doubted
but under political pressure, Joined with
tie other ten, and assented to the lawful.
ness Of the impost. 1t was, without bat.
tie or proclamation, a quiet and most DOR.
tentous revolution. Wentworth. better
known afterwards as the unhappy Lord
Straford, himself a renegade from the
cause Of freedom, was man of very re-.
markable endowmcnts and of many no.
blest traits of character, spite of bis grave
faults. 1t would be wronging him, in
his sepulchre, 10 compare any one OF our
Northern statesmen who have sought TO
bctray Freedom and the North in the
present contest, as even approaching
Wentworth, in greatness of character
and endowment. He followed out his
scheme of THoROUGH,' to use his ex.
pressive phrase for Absolute Power
with an energy and subtility that were
Incompatible. Then, as now, Righ
struggled against the desertion Of its Old
and natural allies.
vi that unanimous declaration of III,
Judges, Wentworth said it was tn,
greatest service that profession TtL
Judges hath done, the crown in M
time But Hampden pushed in his owl
person the question to trial. The tw
, Judges, whose consciences had vieIde
; to courtly stress, recovered themselves
and two others joined them. They yer
minority of four, sustaining Hampdel
and denying the legality of the impost.-
! But majority of the twelve Judges raj
he'd about the Court, and legalized ship
money. 1t was eight to four or two
thirds against one-third of the Supreme
Judiciary. BY almost that precise ma
Jority, or five against two, (within a
small fraction of one-third withstandiHg
two-thirds,) the new doctrine of our su.
preme Court is maintained. And 50 en-.
uneiated, it is heneefortb, individually
and irrevocably-say some-the Law o.
the land.
just as much, in all sad and conscien.
tlons solemnity, We answer, as ship
money DOW is, first by the unanimous
twelve, and next by the majority Of th'
eight against four of the twelve judges
rendered the law Of the British Empire
just as much, and just no more. Far a
that old shiP-money judgment lacked thi
basis of history and good precedent, Q
the ancient Constitution, and Of the Ia
tional sympathies, it fell short Of reach
me ss4sr. 49, IL Il