The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-26

SCOTT DECISION, AND IN yINDICATIoN
OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES.
we take the following eloquent defence of the
Dred Scott decision from the admirable speech of
the Hon. }. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, delivered in
the Senate of the United States, on the lIth of
March His noble vindication of Judge Tanev, from
the charges brought against the latter, by Senators
Seward and lamlin, is an honorable tribute to the
dignity, mpartiality and spotess virtue of the ven
cradle chief justice of the Supreme Court
we regret that want of space precludes us from
publishing the whole of Senator Beniamin's speech
which embodies remarkably able exposition ofthe
legal rights of the South under the common law of
the new world.-[EDs. DAILY ExcuANGE.l
Now, Mr.. President. come to another noint in
my argument, which approach with extreme pain
with qnteigned regret. From my earliest child
mood l.have been taught to the Judges of the
highest court in the land, selected to render
justice between litigants, not more by reason of
thelr eminent legal requirements than because of
spotless purity of character, and undimmed lustre
OF reputation, which removed them far far beyond
even doubt Of their integrity. The long line of
eminent judicial worthless which seemed to have cul
mlnatedi in Marshall has been continued in the per-
son of one upon whom the highest eulog gum that can
De pronounced Is to say that he eminently wor-
thy OF being the successor of that illustrious udoe
Know not, Mr. President whether vou as l. have
mad the good fortune to see that magistrate in the
administration of Justice in his own circuit. or in
the court sitting below u.s. of which he is the hon
| ofed chIef know not sir, whether it has been
your good fortune, as it has been mine to hear the
expressions OF aftectionae reverence with which he
Is spoken of by the people amongst whom he has
passed MS pure, his simple, and his spotess life
Know not, sir, whether you have listened as have
with interest to the expressions of respect and ad
mlratlon that come from the members of his bar in
thelf familiar intercourse with each other-sponta-
neous tributes, worth thousand abored euogies to
his eminent Sa0acity. his Ieua1
the MID and serene dignity of his judicial deport-
ment-above ALL sir, above all, to the conscientious
earnest, almost painful sense of responsibility with
which he holds the scale of Justice in even and i'm
partial hand between the ltigants whose rights de-
pend upon his Judgment
MIR. President, he is old very old. The nfirmi-
ties of age have bowed his venerable form. Earth
has no further object of ambition for him; and when
he shall sink into his grave after long career of
high office in our country, trust that do not rude
y or improperly invade the sanctty of private life
in saying that he will leave behind him. in the scan
ty heritage that shall be left for his family the no.
blest evidence that he died he had lived, being
honorable to the earth from which he sprang, and
and worthy of the heaven to which he aspired
This man, sir, thus beloved, thus revered, thus
esteemed has been compared upon this floor to the
infamous Jelfreys, by the Senator from Maine Mr.
Hamlin. This man has been charged by the Sena-
tor from New York Mr. Seward, with corrupt
coalition with the Chief Magistrate of the Union
He charges, in fact-not always in direct language
but partly by bold assertion and partly by insidous
suggestiOns-thatt the Supreme Executive Magistrate
OF the land, and the judges of highest court and
the parties to the Dred Scott case, got up a mock
trial-that they were all in common colusion to
cheat the country. He represents the venerable
Chief Magistrate of our country, whose reputation
hitherto has been beyond reproach-he represents
the venerable Chief Justice-as enacting a solemn
farce, in the face of the American people, on the
eastern porticO of this Capitol and he tells u.s. that
on the day when that great OF upturned faces
was here presented, ali looking on the solemn pa
0eant that paSSino bnf0rp thnm fha of
tice OF the nation whispering into the ear of the
PRESIDENT the terms of this netarious bargain-and
that, too at the very moment when the former was
administering and the latter taking the oath of of
flce, by which the high majesty of Heaven was in
voked as witness to the purity of his intentions in
the administration of the vernment of his countrvI
Mr.. President, accursed, thrice accursed, is that
ie spirit ofparty which desecrates the nobest SEN
timents of the human heart; and which, in the ac-
complishment ofits unhnly purposes hositatAs no
reckless Violence of assault all that is held sacred
by the wise and good. 1t was difficult, extreme
ly difficult, for us all to sit here and hear what was
said, and observe the manner in which it was said
and repress the utterance of the Indignation that
boIledup within us. All this is charged by the Sen
ator without the proof of solitary fact, without
the assertion even of fact, on which to base the
foul charge Luckily, sir, luckily for u.s. these emf
nent men are too highly placed in the reverence
the estimation, and the regard of the American peo-
pie, to have their bright escutcheon injured by such
attacks as these Mr.. President, in oiden times a
viper gnaWed a file.
Although IL may not be possible to make direct
answers to all these nsnuations, because no fact is
even suggested on which they rest there are some
of them in relation to which | have the authentic
evidence upon my desk in proof Of their iasity
Was this case got up? What are the facts .
Men should be little careful in making such accu-
sations these unless indeed, they care not wheth-
er they be true or false, being intended to answer
the same purpose, whether the one or the other
This case was got up, was it? By accident or de-
sign? In the eXquisitely decorous and appropriate
language OF the Senator from New York, the Chief
Justice of the United States and the Chief Magis-
trate OF the Union were gambling at cards for the
case, and Dred Scott was dummy in the imaginary
game! What truth is there in these insnuations of
design? Why, sir Dred Scott had sought his free
dom by the assertion of his rights in the State courts
of Missouri years before the Kansas Nebraska act
was suggested, and years before the President
of the United States candidate for office;
years before he was even Minister to England
This determined in the supreme court of
the State of Missouri in 1852, adversely to Dred
Scott and remanded to the lower court for fur
ther trial. Mr. Buchanan had, | believe, not then
gone to England. The Kansas bill had not been
heard Of and was not in the imagination of any man.
When the case got got back into the lower court
the counsel for Dred Scott finding that the opinion
OF the supreme court OF the State adverse to his
rights, withdrew his case from the State court and
endeavored to better his clients chances by going
into another jurisdiction That is the way the case
got into the Federal court; and when was this?-
The case was carried into the Federal court in the
city Of St. Louis, in November, 1853, before even
the meeting of the Congress which passed the Kan
sas Nebraska act of course months before Mr. Dix
on the Senator from Kentucky, first sprang upon
the country, by his amendment, the question in re-
lation to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
Here is the record:
'Be remembered that heretofore to wit on the sec
ond day of November in the year of Lord 1883 came
the above named plaintiff, Dred Scott by his attorney
and filed in the clerks office of the circuit the
United States for the Missouri district the following
caraton against the defendant John F. A. Sandford'
Was that a case gotten up by design, between
the President and the court here? 1t was never
carried there until they had lost all chance in the
State COURT it was carried there as the last desper
ate of deea ted counsel; eager to maintain
what he conceived to be the rights of his client
Who was the counsel? The Senators from Missouri
can tell us who X. NJ. Field, of st. Louis, is and
probably they will verify the assertion which |
make here upon hear-say-I give it only upon hear
say-that he is one of the most determined Free
Soilers in the State of Missouri; has always de-
cned to vote at elections until he able to cast
his vote for FreeSoil candidate, and until he aid
ed in the election of the FreeSoil Representative
from the st. Louis district who sits in the other
Chamber.
This case, thus instituted in November 1853 was
determined in the court below, and writ of error
was taken to the Supreme Court of the United
States before the Kansas bill passed, and whilst
Mr.. Buchanan was in England When it reached
the Supreme Court of the United States what be-
came of it? What does the Senator from New York
say became OF it?
The counsel who had appeared for the negro vol
unteered from motives of charity and ignorant course
of the disposition which to be made of the cause
which the Senator had previously insnuated was
gotten up by design
had argued that his client had been freed from slavery
by operation of the Missouri prohibition 1920 The o-
posing counsel, paid by the defending saveholder'-
happen to know, however, whatever may be the
fact with the other that one of the opposing coun
sci was not paid by any STAKEHOLDER at ALL that one
of the opposing counsel volunteered as amicus crio
by virtue of his position head of the bar of the
Supreme Court of the United States, by virtue of
his position as ex-Attorney General of the United
States, by virtue of his position as compeer of the
honorable Senator, and his former colleague on this
1oor from the State of Maryland, Mr.. Reverdy
as omicns caria, because the whole section of the
country to whose interests he had been devoted