Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-04-12

enter into any discussion Vi tnese uocliHts.
l will say, however, that if the opinions an
nounced by that court are founded on sound
principles. and formed within the pale of judi
cial authority under the Constitution they
will stand, and ought to stand; if otherwise,
like hundreds of decisions in the juridical his
tory of this country and Great Britain, they
will yield to further and closer investigation
without any disorganizing interposition of the
legislative power. If, as many gentlemen
here say, they were extra judicial opinions,
obiter dicta. voluntary announcements of SEN
timents and opinions, they can do no injury
in any quarter; because, whenever the same
questions shall again arise, they will be open
to argument and REHABILITATION. Whatever
NAV be the decision of that court on the power
of Congress to interfere with the question of
slavery in the Territories, and however clear
and well-founded in principle and authority
its decision may be, l have supposed that in
asmuch as it is question of constitutional
construction or Interpretation, and relates to
the jurisdiction and power of a separate de-
partment of the Government department
always more or less under the influence of
political coDsiderations-the question would
not be regarded as permanently settled; and
that whenever in future, as heretofore. Con-
gress shall be called upon to legislate concer-
ming Territory, the question will again be-
come a subject of discussion and such
decision as the maj rity shall think
proper to declare. Congress was never
awayed by the opinion of the Supreme Court
on the question of its power to establish a ma
tonal bank; nor will it be controlled by any
OF its opinions on questions involving politi-
cal considerations. If / am right in these
views. and when it is clear that no injury can
be done to either the North the South by
the opinion recently pronounced by the Su-
preme Court upon this question, why should
1T be made preteXt for continuing this dan
gerous slavery agitation?
AS to the opinion of the court on the ques-
ton of the recognition of property in slaves
by the Constitution, will say but word or
two. l will not enter into any argument of
it; but l will refer the honorable Senator from
New York, and others who agree with him,
to an authority which | think they will not
disavow, and for which all who have any adj
miration for great ability, associated with all
those dersonal qualities that give weight and
character to statesman, will respect. l al
Jude to Rufus King, of the organic period of
our history. | allude to him not only as au-
tholtg on point of cons titutional law, but
as a model of senatorial propriety in discus
sion of questions affecting the personal sensi-
bilties and interests of brother Senators. He
is known TO have been, if not the mover. the
ablest champion of the slavery restrictive
policy. He was also member of the con-
VentiOn that framed the Constitution. In his
speech at the commencement of the cOntrO-
versy upon this subject in 1857, in reviewing
the history of the concession made by the con-
vention which framed the Constitution, to the
slaveholding States, of representation
founded upon three ffths of their slaves, adj
dcd to their free population he contended
that it was unequal and unjust to the free
States, on the ground that ii was reprcsen-
tatlon found on property, and so understood
when the concession was made; and If the
irla NNraS rif to ,.,Hr
ded to property in the free States well IN
the slave States
That eminent man, while he showed him
self determined opponent of the extension
of slavery, never sought to weaken or under
mine any of the securities which existed for
the protection of slaves property, by the an
nouncement of any doctrine or sentiment not
in strict conformity with the obligations and
requirements of the positive institutions of
the Government in the councils of which he
participated. He always spoke within and
under the Constitution. He may have held
slavery in as great adherence as the Senator
from New York processes to do. He have may
considered that, a question of Christian
ethics, man cannot be the subject of property;
but if such was his opinion, the greater the
honor that will attach to his memory as a
statesman, for his forbearance to set up his
private opinions as of higher authority than
the Constitution and Government in the SER
vice of which he was engaged.
The honorable Senator from New York
further announced to us, in eXultant tones
that "dt last there was a North side of this
Chamber, a North side of the Chamber of the
House of Representatives., and North side
OF the Union, as well as South side of all
theses" and he admonished us that the time
WAS at hand when freedom would assert its
due influence in the regulation of the domes-
tic and foreign policy of the country.
When WAS there q time in the history of the
Government that there was no North side of
this Chamber and of the other! When was
there time that there was not proud ar
ray of northern men in both Chambers, dis
tinguished by their genius and ability, devOt-
ed to the interests of the North, and success
ful in maintaining them?
Though il may be true that southern men
have filled the executive chair for much the
largest portion of the time that has elapsed
since the organization Of the Government
yet when, in what instance was it. that a
sOutherner has been elevated to that high
station without the support of majority of
the freemen of the North?
Do you of the North complain that the
policy of the Government, under the long
continued influence of the southern Presi-
dents, has been injurious or fatal to your in
terests? Has it paralyzed your industry?
Has it crippled your resources? Has it i'm
paired your energies? Has it checked your
progress i'll any one department of human
effort! Let your powerful mercantile marine,
your ships whitening every seattle fruit of
wise commercial regulations and navigation
laws let your flOurishing agriculture, your
astonishing progress in manufacturing skill.
your great canals, your thousands of miles of
railroads, your vast trade, internal and ex-
tcrnal. your proud cities, and your accumu-
lated millions of moneyed capital, ready to
be invested in profitable enterprises in any
part OF the world, answer that question. DO
you complain of a narrow and jealous policy
under southern rule, in extending and open
ing new fields of enterprise to your hardy
sons Ill the great West, along the line of the
great chain of American lakes, even 10 the
head waters of the fathers of rivers, and over
the rich and fertile plains stretching south
ward from the lake shores? Let the teemug
populations the hundreds of millions of
annual products that have succeeded To the
but recent dreary and unproductive haunts
of the red man-answer that question. That
very preponderance of free States which the
Senator from New York contemplates with
such satisfaction, and which has moved him
eXultingly to eXclaim that there is at last a
North side of this Chamber, has been FASTENED
by the liberal policy of southern Presidents
and southern statesmen; and has il become
the ambition of that Senator to unite and COM
bine all this great, rich, and powerful North
in the policy of Gripping the resources and
REFRESHING the power OF the South Is this
TO be the one idea which is to mould the policy
OF the Government, when that gentleman
aud his friends shall control it IL it be- then
appeal To the better feelings and the better
judgment of his followers to arrest him in his
mad career. Sir, let us have some brief in
terval of repose at least from this eternal
agitation of the slavery question. Let power
go into whatever hands il may, let us save the
Union
| have all the confidence other gentlemen
caA have in the extent 10 which this Union is
intre.."h,d in the hearts of the great mass OF
the people OF the North aud South but when