The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-09-26
RIGHTS AND REMEDIES OF SOUTHERN CITIZENS
6ti In THE TERRITORIES 20 3B 58li nH

We have not met with paragraphs for some time
that express our views clearly, that meet the
struggling objections which begin to get abroad at
the South against tho Nebraska,Ka Kansas bill more
fully than those we copy below. solgi sHai. saa 80
I The complaints which have been made against
that clause Of the bill known as the Badger amend
ment, which provides that nothing in the bill shall
be SO construed TO revive any laws force prior
to 1920 in the territories north of SO deg. 80 min,
protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or excluding
slavery"--complants which are based upon the OBJ
lection that tho old Spanish laws favorable to slave
~ there are not revived by the clause repeating the
Missouri Prohibition which last in effect abolished
themdo not seem to to be very well founded ;or,
II well founded, do not seem to us to have much
force The old Spanish laws, whatever they were,
were not repealed in TERMS by the Missouri Pro-
hibtion, but only repealed in effect while that
Prohibition supposed to be valid. When il fell
under the bred Scott decision the old Spanish laws,
30 far as the Prohibition had affected them resumed
all the vitality they ever had for while the Nebras-
ka.Kansas bill did not profess TO revive them or to
"legslate slavery into the Territories neither did
it purport to prevent their revival or to legslate
slavery out of the Territories" That bill neither
did the one thing nor the other but left the question
as to the revival or nonrevval of those old laws en-
tirely unaffected by any thing in itself contained
and thus, inasmuch as the Missouri Prohbi-
ton has been decided by the Supreme Court
to have been from the first unconstitutional,
null and void, it never operated and never could
have operated to repeal those laws. IL therefore,
those laws have never been repealed in any other
manner, they are certainly not repealed by the un-
constitutional, null and void Missouri Prohibition
and as nothing in the Nebraska Kansas bill is to be
construed reyivng, preventing the revival Of,
the old Spanish laws, those laws far this bill is
concerned, are precisely IN satu quo ante the Mis-
souri enactment. .f
The objection that the Badger amendment pre-
vents the revival of the old Spanish laws u.s. there
fore, not well founded But even if it were and if
those old laws were still dead lying lfeless in
their graves by the operation Of the Nebraska
Kansas bill, still, we do not see that the rights
of the southern people in the Territories are
much the worse off for the fact. We arc in
clined to think those old laws are myths at best,
and that they have occupied much larger space in
the imaginations Of politicians than they have ever
done in the statutes and codes of the old Spanish
territories At all events, we think the rights of
southern citizens in the Territories much more
safely protected under the @gis of the constitution
than they would be under tho forgotten legislation of
an ancient and alien jurisdiction. The Supreme
Court Of the United States find an ample protection
for those rights in the constitution Of the Union
and for ourselves, we think it much safer for those
rights that that august tribunal should find them there
than that IL should have to seek for them in the OBJ
solete statute-books Of deunct government and Of
foreign language. MA .te y, 4 rs aaiiasa ~ (
This court has declared that the right Of property
in slaves and the right to protection for this prop
erty from the laws and courts, exists The Nebraska
Kansas bill gives the shareholders the right Of ime
diate appeal to the Supreme Court of the United
States upon all conceivable questions affecting the
right Of property in slaves that arise in the local
courts Of the Territories. These local courts are
constituted Of judges appointed by the President Of
the United States, national officer, who will always
we trust, be the elect of national party and who
is bound by his oath Of Office to support the const
tuition of the United States, which guarantees the
rights Of southern citizens in the Territories = ai
We think therefore, that there is full protection
of law for slave property in the Territories even
where majority Of the residents may happen to be
unfavorablc to it and glad to be confirmed in
this position by SO thorough southern journal as
the Charleston Mercury, from which we copy the
following able article asF3 ea aela 4
The bred Scott decision determined that the southern
people had right to colonize Territories with their
slaves and that their slaves like any other property
were entitled to protection in Territories.
But it has been said slave property TO exist property
in Territory requires special legislation by territorial