Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-03-01
GBr 9alIp SPg,
MONDAY, MACH l, 1858


In the course OF the DEBATE IN lne MUSE Oi
Representatives, at Boston, on the Jury bill ref
esence being made by the opponents Of the bill to
the bred Scott decision, Elk Attorney General
Cushing took repeated oecasion to state not only
his dissent from Nj. Buchanan's construction Of
that decision. and from the Presidents position,
as stated to the New Heven memorislists, in re-
gard 10 the powe. of the general government over
slavery in the territories and its relation thereto
but Gen. Gushing affirmed his unqualified dissent
from many Of the points and conclusions said Or
claimed to be arrived at by Chief Justice fancy,
speaking for the majority Of the Court, in the
bred Scott prouunciamento from the Supreme
B nch. Mr.. Gushing said the only point def
nitsly settled by the decision, that bred Scout
not being citizen by virtue Of coloTl could not
sue in the United States Court, and therefore the
Circuit Court of Missouri had no jurisdiction in
the case He denied that that decision legally
settled any other point, either of the right Of
Shareholders to bring their slaves into free State
and hold them there, the power of Congress over
slavery in the territories, or the legalization Of
slavery in Kanzas or other territories, claimed
BY Mr.. Buchanan in his New Haven letter. We
quote from Mr.. Cushing's speech in the House,
on Friday, as reported in the Boston papers,
FLOWS, showing that he puts very different con
stluction upon the bred Scott decision, from that
entertained by the President and others, and by
the majority OF his party, well as from the ma
ioriiy OF the Court itself;
alt is said that it is decided that shareholders
may bring their slaves into Massachusetts.
The very opposite is the fact, for it'was decid
ed that each State in virtue of its rights of SOW
ereiguty, is the sole determiner OF the question of
the legal status Of person domlelled IN that
State Instead of enefuaching upon Masachu
sets, she is the complete. absolute, and final
Judge OF the legal state Of persons within her Dor
ders The opposite would be monstrous, and
would justify an appeal to the reason OF the
sword, to revolution. The United States cannot
impose legal status contrary to the State con
stitutIons The law of Massachusetts is accepted
as the determination of the state of persons in
MASSACHUSETTS.
Mr.. Churchill of Milton inquired if the Presi-
dent had not, in pursuance of the decision Of the
Supreme Court, proclaimed that slavery existed
in Kanzas as well as in Georgia
Mr. Cushing replied that if the President did
say so, he did not say that slavery was carried in
to Massa huse ts but only into the territories He
appealed to gentlemen TO the opinion of
Justice Nas0n "a to the sovereign power of the
Safe within its own territory to determine the
status Of men in that State
Mr. Faster of Monsoon asked If the Supreme
Court did not decide that the act Of Congress
North ola certain line, was contrary to the con-
stiiuton?
Mr. Gushing replied that this merely
ondsry point, involved in the decision of the main
point 1t is said that colored citizens de-
paved of their rights, privileges, and immunities.
hey sre only deprived Of the privil ges OF sue
lag in the Circuit Court and they stlll retain the
right Of sueing i'll the Courts If Admiralty, and
in nearly every where they before had the
Tgtt they retain their political rights in the
sahir oh hay Z IN ri 10 tS
upon them. The decision of the Supreme Court
does not touch the question of slavery in Massa
oh 20 is. The constitution and laws Of the State
ma, give the colored man the right TO vote for
the esident Of the United States and for all 9TH
er officers
Mr. Cushing cnntended that it could not be
that the sense Of the North would be violated,
even If colored men deprived of citizenship,
for in five Northern States the people have voted
not TO admit hem to that privilege the Topeka
constitutions the embodiment OF all human lib
erties-not only excludes them from citizenship,
but dives them out of the State
During the discussion in the House, on Satur-
day, Mr.. Churchill of Milton, in the course Of his
speech, proceeded to read from that part Of the
bred Scott decision which affirmed the unconsti-
tutionalitY of congressional action restricting
sltyery into the territories, &C., also from Mr.
Buchanan's New Haven letter, in which the lat
ter construed the bred Scott decision deciding
that slavery existed by virtue Of the Constitution
of the United States in Kanzas and in all the ter
sritories, as we'll as in South Carolina and Geor-
gia. &c. Mr.. Cushing then arose. and distinctly
reiterated his dissent from that doctrine. It
might be, Mr.. Gushing said, Mr.. BucAanan's
opinion, and the latter's construction Of the
stitution deduced from the bred Scott decis-
ion, but it was far from his (CushiDg's) view of
the matter, and from the construction he put upon
the constitution, with all the light of the bred
Scott decision. Thus are Caleb Cushing and
President Buchanan most wofully at loggerheads
en- this important question, on principle
laid down by the head of the national ad-
minishation as the fundamental basis of the pin
ciIl's of the party in power, and considered by
the President and his particular adherents and
advisers. at Washington, as the test Of iealty to
the party. hereafter.
II "eaoh State, in virtue of its rights Of soYer-
eighty, is the sole determner of the question of
the legal status Of person aonsicalea IN that
STATE as admitted by Mr.. Cushing above, and
"the United States cannot impose legal status
contrary to the State constitution, and the law of
Massachusetts is accepted as the determination Of
the state ofpersons in Massachusetts" we cannot
see how Anthony Burns, OF any other person
dwelling in Massachusetts, who may have his
freedom or illegal status called in question by
any other person living within or without the
State, if his claimed right of personal freedom
has been granted him under the provisions of the
s'Personal Liberty Act, by jury oftweve men.
who have the right, as Mr.. Cushing admits, to
judge Of the law we'll the fact can be
thereafter deprived Of his liberty by any law the
United States Congress may enact.