Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-11-13

ChiVllub VI ptOIHlds llb
meant precisely what he said. Referring to the
present attitude o! tho Federal Government, to,
"ards The State Government, he frankly told the
couttry the plain, unvarnished. though to some,
most unwelcome, truth. lie is prepared TO dav.
were 1t policy to do so, to say tho same thing of
any hominaIty Frtt State. lie could say with
equal truth. that Pennsylvania and Ohio are as
much Slave States as Virginia and Kentucky.
INC argument by which every State ia proved
10 ne a slave State is short aud easily understood
1t does not require n lawyer or a irdge to explain
or make it clear. A child may comprehend it.
AOram Lincoln of Illinois, in his speech, on the
,,h INST at ualesburg, stated it very pointedly.
We give the pith Of his reasoning.
The second clause of the sixth article Of the
Constitution Of the United States is rs follows:
The Constitution and the law Of the United
States which shall I've made in pursuance thereof
ahd all the treaties which shall be made under
the authority of the United States, shall be the
supreme law Of the land and the urges in every
State shall be bound thereby. ANYTHING in the
Constitution or laws Ct any State to the contrary
Notwithstanding
The supreme Court of the United States, the
highest Tribunal in the land, a Court of the last
resort, from whose decision there is no appeal,
laid down, in the decision 10 the bred Scott case
this proposition.
Now as We have already said in an earlier part
of this opinion, upon a different point, the right
OF property in a slave is ID distinctly aud expressly
affirmed in the Constitution
Now look narrowly at Mr.. Lincoln's reasoning
and see if there i, any flaw in it, or any po,sibili,
ty of getting over or around it. Here il is in his
own words:
Nothing in the Constitution or laws of any
State can destroy a right distinctly and expressly
affirmed in the Constitution of the United States.
The right of property in q slave is distinctly and
expressly affirmed in the Constitution of the Unit
ed States.
Therefore, nothing in the Constitution or laws
OF any State can destroy the right of property in
a slave
We may deny, as Mr.. Lincoln does, that the
light of property in a slave is distinctly and ex.
rressly affirmed in the Constitution. But the do.
cision of the Supreme Court is against US. and
has stood for eighteen months unreversed, and
will stand for n century to come, if slavery goes
on increasing in power and influence as it has
done for the last seventy years. When a man has
been sentenced to be hung by a Court of the last
resort. from whose decision he cannot appeal. or
BRING a writ of error to reverse its ruling in his
it will avail him nothing to show that the
'easoHs given by the Court are unsound. The
entence must be executed. The man must die,
md die iguobly on the gallows. The opinion of
he Court in his case may be pronounced to have
'een erroneous by the same Tribunal, when a new
ct of Judges have taken their seats upon the
'ench. But the reversal will do him or his friends
10 good. The brand of a criminal is upon his
memory. He died the death of a Scion.
The men of this generation are precisely in the
situation Of the supposed criminal. The Supreme
court have decided that they are all subject to
slave law. There is no appeal, No writ Of error
can be prosecuted in a higher Court to reverse the
decision. They may find fault with the reasoning
Of the Court and argue as Mr.. Lincoln does, that
The premises upon which the opinion is based are
but the sentence has been passed upon
hem and must and will be executed.
Talk about the reversal CT the decision BY q
Of the Judges! The Judges are in for life,
Ind none Of their seats can DO vacated except by
ieath, resignation or impeachment. There is no
egal ground, that we are aware of, to impeach
Of them, and if there ISL is not likely that the
present Uni ed States Senate, sitting as a Court
t impeachment. would remove any of those who
united in the bred Scott decision. Nor will the
that put them there suffer them tc resign.
50 it must be many long years before the Court
AN be so changed by tho appointment of new
Judges as to ensure a more righteous decision.
1t may be said that by act of Congress, the Su.
Court may be re organized by increasing
he number Of Circuits, and Of course the number
If the Judges. This will require an act Of Con,
,ress to be passed by both the House and the Sen
ne, and approved by the President. No such
aw can be put in operation before 1861; and not
hen, unless a political change shall have come
the country equivalent to a Revolution. The
present appearances indicate that we may as we'll
wait for TIE present judges to die or resign, and
or their places to be filled by new and better men,
IS for an act such as we have referred to, to become
law.
Free State men, North and South, may thus
Zee precisely where they stand condemned BY the
Court for political heresy in holding and
advocating unconstitutional doctrines, fer which
lave codes in all the States and Territories NAV.
before the lapse of many years Of pro- slavery
Democratic domination, send men and women to
he Penitentiary, or hang them by the neck, as
he bogus Slave Code of Kansas recently prescrib.
ID. But We can appeal to the decision of a High
II Tribunal" True, and so could and so did that
preacher who was incarcerated last year
n the Mary land State Prison for having in his
a copy of Uncle Toms Cabin But
lis appeal to God and the People did not save him
rom II felon's fate. Nor will our appeal save us
nd our children, unless we become strong enough
. numbers and influence to vote down or break
own this whole system of chattle slavery.
SENsITIVENEsS OF SHAREHOLDERS.