Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-03-18

SdulZatiOn, Quilt upon q lO!eiSu anu TFo-
luus issue, which had just strength enough
& life enough to giveto Pro-Slavery party
the aid required 10 produce that untoward
result. The new President, under a show
of moderation, masked a more effectual in
tervention than that of his predecessor, in
favor of Slave-Lsbor and Slave State.
Before coming into Office, he approached or
was approached by tine Supreme Court Of
the United States. On their docket was
through some chance or design, an action
which an obscure negro man in Missouri
had brought for his freedom against his re
puted master. The Court had arrived at the
conclusion, OH solemn argument, that inso-
much as this unfortunate negro had, through
some ignorance or hicane in special plead
ing, admitted what could not have been
4 Psoyei, that he had descended from some
African who bad once been held in bondage,
that therefore he was not, in view OF the
Constitution, citizen of the United States,
and therefore could not implead the reputed
master in the Federal courts; and on this
ground the Supreme Court were prepared to
dismiss the action, for want of jurisdiction
over the suitor's person. This decision,
certainly as repugnant TO the Declaration of
Independence and to the spirit of the Con-
stitution as to the instincts of humanity,
nevertheless would be one which would ex-
haust all the power of the tribunal, and ex-
clude consideration of all other questions
that had been raised upon the record. The
counsel who had appeared for the negro had
volunteered from motives oil charity, and, ig-
norant of course Of the disposition which
was to be made Of the ca1se, had argued that
his client had been freed from Slavery by
operation of the Missouri prohibition of
1920. The opposing counsel, paid by the
defending STAKEHOLDER, had insisted. in reply,
| that that famous statute was uncOnstitu-
tional. The mock debate had been heard
in the chamber of the Court in the base
ment Of the Capitol, in the presence of the
curious visitors at the seat of Government,
whom the 'dulness OF a Judicial investigation
could not disgust. The Court did not hesi-
tate to please the incoming President, by
seizing this extraneous and idle forensic dis
cussion, and converting it into an occasion
for pronouncing an opinion that the MIS-
souri, prohibition was void, and that, by force
of the Constitution. Slavery existed, with
all the elements of property in man over
man. in all the Territories of the United
States, paramount TO any popular severe ign
ty within the Territories, and even to the
authority of Congress itself.
| L. ho
forgot its own dignity, which had always
been maintained with just judicial jealously.
They forgot that the province OF the Court
is simply "jus dicere,'' ard not at all ':jas
dare" They forgot, also, that one "ioul
sentence does more harm than many foul
examples; for the last do but corrupt the
stream, while the former corrupteth the
fountain" And they and the President
alike forgot that judicial usurpation is more
odous and intolerabls than any other among
the manifold practice Of tYralny-5
The day .! Inauguration came-the ffrst
one among all the celebrations of that great
national pageant that was to be desecrated
BY coalition between the Executive and
Judicial Departments, to undermine the
National Legislature and the liberties ofthe
people. The President. attended by the
usual heightened procession, arrived and
took his seat on the portico. The Supreme
Court attended him there, in robes which
yet cxacted public reverence. The people,
unaware of the import Of tha whisperingS
carried on between the President and the
Chief Justice, and imbued with veneration
for both, filled the avenues and gardens far
away as the eye could reach. The Presi-
dent addressed them in words as bland as
those which the worst of all the Roman En-
perors pronounced when he assumed the
purple. He announced (vaguely, indeed,
but with self-satisfaction) the forthcoming
ra-judicial exposition of the Constitution,
and pledged his submission to it as authori-
tative and 6naI. The Chief Justice and his
Associates remained silent. The Senate,
too, were e.here-constitrtional witnesses OF
the transfer Of administration. They too
were silent, although the promised usurPa-
ton was to subvertdhe authority over more
than half of the empire which Congress had
assumed cotemporaneorsly with the birth of
the nation, and had exercised without inter-
rup:ion for nearly seventy years. 1t cost the
President, under the circumstances, little
exercise Of magnanimi1y, now to promise to
the people of Kansas, on whose neck he
had, with the aid of the Supreme Court,
hung the milestone OF Slavery,a fair trial in
their attempt to cast it off and hurl it to the
earth, when they should come to organize
State Government. Alas! that even this
cheap promise, uttered under such great
soleminties, was only made to be broken.
The pageant ended. On the 5th Of March.
the Judges, without even exchanging their
silken rotes for courtier's gowns, paid their
salutations to the President, in the Execu-
tive Palace. Doubtlessly the President re-
ceived them as graciously as Charles |. did
the Judges who had at his instance subvert-
ed the Statutes of English Liberty. On the
9th of March, the Supreme Court dismissed
the negro suiter, Dred Scott, to return to
his bondage; and having thus disposed OF
that private action for ar alleged private
wrong, on the ground Of want Of jurisdiction
in the case, they proceeded with auusing
solemity to pronounce the opinion, that if
they had had such jurisdiction, still the un-
fortunate negro would have had to remsi n
in bondage, unrelieved, because the Missouri
prob bition violates rights Of general prop
erty involved in Slavery. paramount to- the
puthority of Congress. A few days later
pies OF this opinion were multiplied by the
Sena,e's press and scattered in the name of
the Senate broadcast over the land and their
publication has not yet been disowned by
the Senate. Simultaneously, Dred Scott,
who had played the hand of dummyin this
interesting political game. unwittingly, yet
to the complete satisfaction ofhis adversary, /,
was voluntarily emancipated; and thus re-
ceived from his master. as reward, the free
dom which the Court had denied him as q
righ..
The new President oF the United States,
having organized the formidable judicial bat