Nebraska advertiser., 1858-02-04
Thirty-Fifth Congress.
Washington, Jan. 90.


NAT
Mr.. Iverson of Georgia introduced a
bill to increase the efficiency of the army
and marine corps by retiaing the disabl-
ed officers. Referred to the Committee
on Military Affairs.
Mr.. Iverson also gave notice of his in
tention to introduce a bill to change and
regulate the mode of appointing cadets
10 the military academy at West Point,
and to modify the laws relative to that
establishment.
Mr.. Hale of New Hampshire, resum-
ed his remarks, commencing on two of
the positions held by the Supreme Court
in the celebrated bred Scott case. Firstly
The court affirm hat the right of pro-
perty in slaves is of the same nature. as
the right of all other property; and, Sec
Ondly, That the right to hold this descrip-
ton of property, and rafic in Slaves, at
the time of the American Revolution, and
the adoption of the Federal Constitution,
was so universal recognized and acknow-
lodged, both by England and this country
that o man thought of dIsputing it. He
took issue with the court on both these
points. The legal principle was %unsound,
and unsupported by authority, what pur-
ported to be the statement of a fact was
equally unsupported by the truth of histo-
ry. The frstproposition was more dis
tinctly andf6lly explainedin the Lecomp-
ton Constitution, where it is declared that
the pght of property is before and high
eTthan any constitutional sanction, and
fhe right of the owner of a slave to such
slave and It's increase, is the same as any
personal right.
He had a higher respect for the Lee
compton Convention than for the Supreme
Court, because the Convention had been
more explicit than the court in stating
Just what they meant. He did not deny
that in the States tolerating slavery there
was a legal property in States. In some
of the free States there was a qualified
property in human beings. In New
Hampshire, criminals were sent to the
penitentiary ,forthe public good, and any
body might contract withthe warden hav-
ing the custody of these prisoners for
labor. The laws recognise his right to
the labor Of the Convicts, and he can
take them where he p~leases, within the
Jurisdiction of hat State; but if he shall
cross the Connection river, and undertake
10 make them quarry marble in the
Green Mountains of Vermont, his right
to their labor would cease. Precisely 81
was the right of the stakeholder to
The labor of his slaves. 1t is legally right
where slavery exists by law, but nowhere
else.
The moment the slave goes beyond the
Jurisdiction which imposes ~seryitude, that
moment he was free. There was an es-
;ential difference between the labor of
beings and the right of property
inanimate things, aud in the brute Gre
A man may go all over the world with
| horse, and everywhere, both among ci-
lIlzed and savage nations, his right to
ownership will be respected. This right
ioes not depend upon the existence Of
statute law, but because by the universal
consent OF mankind ahorse is the subject
II property. When the horse was Gre
tied ne was made to be the property of
nan and man was made to own him.
Fhe right dates back to the earliest period
# recorded time. When God created
he earth and gave it TO man to cultivate,
md filed the hand with cattle, and the
ga with fish, and the airwith fowls, God
rave man dominion e the cattle, and
he fish, and the fowls, but never gave
Inn dominion over his fellow-man. He
'eserved his last and greatest work for
us own peculiar ownership. This dis
lnction has been recognized by every
writer who ever wrote on the subject, and !
" no States more clearly Snd decisivelv
han by Virgins, Maryland, and Loui-
iana' ard other slavehOlding States.