The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-09-02
THE NAT oNAL ERA WASHINGTON, D. c. SEPTEMBER p 1858

1
| thousand dollars. How. many persons do vol
suppose, are employed at the New York custom.
! house, and how much revenue collected2 The
last year reported more than forty-two millions
of dollars collected at New York, and there wen
more than thousand persons employed in ID
collection, and building costing little over |.
| million was sufficient to do the business in.
| Do you suppose such an appropriation as thai
for the custom-house at Charleston could be OBJ
tanned to erect public building in the Northern
States mol no The custom-house in the
city of Philadelphia only cost some four or five
hundred thousand dollars that in Boston abou
| q million, while that in New Orleans has cos
more than three millions.
| vorcE. And sinking at that. [Laughter.l
Mr.. TRUMBULL. Yes, sinking at that Like tie
Treasury my friends, it is built on sandy found
alton. CRenewed laughter.]
| While three-fourths of the money appropril-
ted for Notifications at the last session is to be
| expended in slave States not dollar was appr,-
priated for the fertilization of the Northwestern
frontier. While the party can appropriate FIVE
millions to build two houses, one at Charleston
and the other at New Orleans, how much money
| do you suppose it appropriated at the last sts-
sion to save the hundreds of lives lost in sight
OF your city, upon this lake. and to save the mil
lions of property that annually 60 down to the
bottom, for want of some little Improvement of
your great harbors2 Not dollar could be OBJ
I
| tanned fer such purpose
THE DRIED SCOTT DECISION.
Now, what did this party design by the policy
inaugurated in ls542 / have shown you how
| they have gone on step by step, advancing first
one opinion, then another, and then another, I'M
til they have got Slavery into Kansas denying
first the power of Congress to exclude it. then
denying the power of the people of Territory,
| while in Territorial condition, to exclude it.
Next they will deny the power of the people,
when they form State Constitution, to exclude
it and that such is the next step to be taken, is
manifest from the bred Scott decision.
| | wish, fellow-ciizens, to get before you, if
can, clear idea of that bred Scott decision,
| and what it decided in that case The case was
| this:
| A man by the name of bred Scott brought a
suit for his freedom in the United States court
| in Missouri, on the ground that he had been
taken by his master to Rock Island, in this State,
and there held for some time and afterward
| taken TO Fort Smelling, Minnesota, which was
then Territory, and part of the Louisiana pur-
chase, from which Slavery was excluded by the
Missouri Compromise; and he insisted that, by
virtue of the laws of Illinois, and the laws of the
Territory in which he was at Fort Smelling he
| was free man. The defence set up this plea
| That bred Scott was a negro descended from
parents who were imported from Africa and held
as slaves, and, being such negro, he had no au-
thority to sue in the United States courts and
therefore the court had no jurisdiction over the
| case. Now, the defendant didn't set up that bred
Scott was slave, mind you. He said he was a
| negro, descended from slave parents
A VOICE. That's niger up there, too.
Mr.. TRUABULL l presume the person that
made that remark belongs to the African Democ-
racy, and is in the habit of calling out "Nigger"
! to everybody else, while he is hugging niger
under each arm. Great cheers and laughter |
have heard of just such men before, and they
are in the habit of calling out, "Woolly head, !"
Abolitionist," "Nigger such epithets being
the only arguments they have. Now, want to
expose that man.
ANOTHER VOICE. He's not a man /; let him be-
Mr.. TRUMBULL. Iwant to hold him up before
this audience and in doing so, will expose nu-
| merous class like him. He is one of our Doug
| las men, / take it. | will hold him up here, and
| let you see him with the woollyheads around
him. | will expose him in all his nakedness
This is just good a place to expose the
hypocrisy of that class of men as anywhere. See
| if do not state him fairly. He is one of those
| who believe in the bred Scott doctrine-the
| right to take slaves into Territory, and cries
out at the same time, popular sovereignty j."
| [Cheers and laughter He goes down into Mis-
| sissippi and North Carolina, where he owns a
| number of negroes, and marches up to Kansas.
| He is going to emigrate there, and some of his
| negroes are black the African, with fiat
! noses, thick lips, and woolly heads, and some are
little whittier, laughter, and some are mulat-
toes and some of them are so white you can
| hardly distinguish the negro blood in them
| Laughter. Well, he marches up to Kansas
and, when he gets up to the line, the free white
men of Kansas meet him, and say, " We do not
want you to bring these niggers here we don't
resolved it shall not come here" But be an
swers, al am for popular sovereignty and the
bred Scott decision, and will introduce my ne
groes. You are woollyheads F; daughter; you
are Abolitionists you are negro worshippers.'
And here he has his whole drove of negroes OF
all sorts of blood, around him, and calls free
white men, who do not want anything to do with
negroes, woollyheads. Pretty subject he, sur
rounded by negroes, with every kind of blood in
their veins, to talk about amalgamation. Laugh
ter. He wants to introduce them in among free
white men, and they say they will have none of
his negroes. Talk about popular sovereignty
and negro-worshppers, when every free white
man In Kansas stands on the border and says,
you cannot come In here with your negroes
| You shout " Popular sovereignty" Squatter
sovereignty! and, under Dred-Scottism, de-
clare you will force your mixed breeds into the
Territory, IN spite of its inhabitants laugh
teri That is the position your class Of men
|
opponents have. He's used up.l ! have
done with you, sir, and will now turn to the
/ Dr..a Scott decision. Yociferous applauie.]
Iwas nut to explain to you what tie plea
cot nm was. What ..d the Supreme Court. de-
eide They decided that person OF th' char
acter described In the plea had no authority to
bring suit in the United States court; ard they
dismissed the case for want of jurisdictsn, sta
ting that the court had no authority to eiter any
iudpment in the case, because q negro bad no
fright to sue in that court. Now, was tot that
1.-THE end of the case2 1t ought to have ben the
end of it but for political reasons, the Jmges go
on and give their opinions separately ulon the
authority Of Congress 10 exclude Slavey from
the country In which Fort Smelling was located,
which was unnecessary to the decision. fhe re-
sult of the case did not determine whethr bred
Scott was a slave or free man, and tiS ques-
ton of the authority of Congress to passh law
excluding Slavery from the territory mort of $50
3O/ was not involved; because, i'll the nego could
have derived his freedom from being iHs region
of country where Slavery was prohibitedby law,
he had it by residing at Rock Island. he state
| of Illinois had abolished Slavery, and hthe fact
of his having been brought within free urisdic-
ton gave him freedom, he had it byreiding in
this State But the judges, for political purposes,
90 on and express their opinions concerning the
authority of Congress and Territorial egisla-
ture to pass laws excluding Slavery frol Ter
ritory; such opinions are extra judicia, and Of
no binding force. / state this for the eneft Of
that class of citizens who are very muh disin-
clined to make any attack upon the deciion of a
court These are the opinions of IT, Judges
separately given upon questions not bare them
and are they not to be censured for gotg out OF
| the case to express such opinions2 [Ys, yes.
There is no Importance in these ONIONS, as
judicial decisions, at all, and they an only i'm
e portant in this Respectfully have bee adopted
by the great Democratic party, so-cled, a. a
- Of tie nd Dunh H., xIo,