The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-16
SPEAKING EVIL OF IDENTITIES.

upon the controverted questions of politics
conclusive and reversible. All who ventured
to doubt the correctness of its dicta, or to
protest against the right of the Court to deter
mine constitutional questions for the coordinate
departments of the Government, were de-
nounced as traitorous fanatics The Court had
conceded what the Slavery propagandists want
ed, viz: the pound of flesh" and the Judges
were all " Daniels come to judgment" But it
seems that the modern Shylocks, no more than
their ancient namesake, have any wish to be
fettered by too-literal construction of the
bond" They not only want the pound of
flesh, but they wish to cut it out in their own
way, regardless of the consequences; and when
the Court interposes its authority to enforce UNI.
palatable conditions, they cry out shame and
denounce the Judge as usurper.
The Mobile Register is shining light among
the fre-eating bred Scott school of politicians
Doubtless its files would furnish many beautiful
and touching eulogies upon the Judges of the
Supreme Court, coupled with fierce anathemas
against wicked Abolitionists who have ventured
to question. their infallibility Whatever that
Court has decided favorable to Slavery is held
to be more sacred than the Constitution or the
Gospel but let it dare to interpose an obstacle
to the extension of Slavery and its infallibility
is gone in an instant, its ermine is torn from it
with ruthless hand, and trampled under foot
The following article shows how much real sim
eerity there was in the late Southern ovations to
the majesty and authority of judicial decisions
From the Mobile (Alabama) Register
Judges and the Law.
Some ofour contemporaries appear to disap-
prove OF the remarks we made on SATURDAY. last
concerning the course of Judge Campbell in
relation to Slavery and its extension. They
seem to imagine that courts are to be held
sacred, no matter whether their proceedings are
lawful or unlawful, and that I" the divinity which
doth hedge about" judge is not to be broken
in upon by the profane hands of the unearned
multitude. If a man is so bold as to resist the
usurpations of power-even though they effect
our nearest and dearest rights-he is to be
held law-breaker and law-despiser if those
abuses are committed by person clothed with
judicial functions. Through the tattered gar
ments of simple citizen, small vices against
the law appear but the furred robes of au-
thority are to cover the most outrageous Of
fences against law, justice, and right. We
must be pardoned if our political morality
shrnks from the avowal of such doctrines, and
! we hope contemporaries will not deem us
heretical if We fail to perceive the virtue either
of their professions or their practices.
In simple judgment, there is but one
supreme authority in the land and that is the
will of the people embodied in the form of law.
The judges created by the people can interpret,
but cannot override or destroy, the law; and
when judge so far forgets his duty as to tram
pie under foot the traditional maxims which
form the basis of our whole jurisprudence, the
elevation of his Office heightens and magnifes
his crime. The common man sins, and his ex-
ample does little injury but when the priest
sacrilegiously casts into the dust the offerings
on the altar, the whole temple is filled with the
contagion of his crime and impiety. The Judge
Of the Supreme Court of the United States who
ignores all the established principles of law and
evidence in order to carry out policy of the
Union, :" Is far more deserving of popular censure
and popular punishment than the simple con-
vict, whose ignorance may diminish, though it
cannot justify, his offence.
The questions touching which Judge Camp
bell has shown an intolerant and altogether
extrajudicial zeal, are those nearest the heart
of every true Southern man. He was not con-
tent with the highest authority known to the
law for the determination of facts. In the case
of Gen. Qutman, the grand jury refused to find
a bill and yet the Judge, taking the question
of guilt or innocence from those to whom it
properly belonged required bonds from the
distinguished MssissipPian. Gen. Walker too
was tried by jury of the country, who refused
to find him guilty and the District Attorney,
against the suggestions Of the Judge, insisted
on entering nolie prosequi. By the rules of
English law, older than Magma Charta itself,
the court was bound to infer the innocence Of
the prisoner until the jury declared him guilty ;
but with contemptuous disregard of this
merciful MAXIM Judge Campbell proceeded to
impose bonds which presumed the offence to
have been committed. This was of piece
with his interruption of Gen. Walker, when,
exercising his right as prisoner, he defended
his conduct, and in doing SO was forced to amin
advert upon the course of the Government
towards him.
We trust we shall never so far forget our du
ties to the public to fail to censure in proper
terms such dangerous doctrines as those enun-
ciated in the decisions of Judge Campbell at
the last April term of the Circuit Court Of Lou
isiana. Even had his acts at that time been
prompted by proper motives, we should not
have failed to characterize them as arbitrary
and illegal But when the Judge himself told
us afterwards that he was controlled in these
acts by desire to carry out "a policy of the
Union" and so far forgot himself as to insult
the people of these Gulf States by insinuating
that the only means of preserving them from
falling to level with the Barbary States of
Africa, was, by enforcing the neutrality laws
according to his Interpretation Of them-our
Indignation at his motives was equal to our
censure of the principles he enunciated. His
acts on the bench were an injury to public law
and public Justice the letters in which he gave
the reasons for those acts were an insult to the
public conscience, and an outrage on the senti-
ments of the whole Southern people.
For ourselves, however, we were disposed to
forget the last The history of the judicial
proceedings to which we have alluded is too
black for any journal jealous of the national
honor to desire to keep them before the public
view. But when we read in the telegraph re-
ports from Washington, that Judge Campbell
was supposed to have prompted the Presidents
Proclamation, and when we further saw that
special term of the U. s. Circuit Court had
been ordered here we were forced to revive the
memory of events we desired to have forgotten,
and to protest against the recurrence of scenes
derogatory to the national jurisprudence.
| SO far as relates to the proposed emigration
to Nicaragua, the facts ali go to show that no
offence against the law has been intended or
committed. If there was any evidence at
Washington to sustain the charges against
General Walker, why was he not arrested when
he stood, as it were, in the immediate presence
of the Federal Government? If he were con-
scious of any violation of law, why should he
have trusted himself in the very midst of the
| Federal authorities?
If Judge Campbell suggested the statements
made in the Presidents Proclamation, he should