New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-04-20
A WORD OF COMFORT.

Some of our Philadelphia contemporaries are not
vet able TO reconcile the decision of Commissioner
Lopestreth in the case of the alleged slave D,niel
Webster to the tenderness of their constitutional
couscierces the csu.e Of dry goods, and the inter
est. of Buchanan politics. Hitherto Philadelphia
has been loyal in her Southern relations has never
refused to give up an alleged fugitive from labor
even 10 the point of surrenderiog the wrong man
rather than not surrender somebody and has
tbereb, gained great gain in the business of jobbug
and medical students And she takes it hardly
now that United States Commissioner, bone OF
her bone and flesh of her flesh, should think 1t
necessary to bother about evidences OF identity,
legal tecbnicahties, and a Judicial conscience, IN
ca.e of mere Niger" whom pious and respect
able Southern gentlemen we're seeking as an astrsy
from the plantation of Virginisn lady. To such
pitch of disgust and dread does this event seem
TO have goaced some of the most sober minded men
Of that BALL wick that our yeliest fears are excited
for the stability of their reason.
But let us speak words of comfort TO our breth'
rem. All wealth is uncertain, whether it has two
legs or four or none at all. 1t is the cOmnOnest
experience to fail in getting fa in keeping some
precious bit of property, from trOttiDg horses aud
setting dogs, to houses and lands. Butwe all learn
in due time, TO bow to the inevitable DEGREES OF Ia"
and luck We know that the wisest OF men some
times fail to save their bacOn is there any good
reason why the same law should not attach to prop
erty in these unfortunate sons OF Ham, and those
who ose them be. on the ,sme principle recon-
nt fnrt ia n
argument merely but for the s'ke OF patriot
lem. the solemn duty of returning these wrong
headed black men, who ignorant that the "pur
suit of happiness does not always mean that one
must run after it., are constantly escaping
from their happy homes, to the great scandal OF
Constitutions and Supreme Courts and Congresses
assembled granting ths solemn duty as binding,
is If not also incumbent upon US, when we under
take to do it, to be quite sure that We d. It with
ont bluuderi As the South will have it that all
her people. who are anything short of dlrty-whlte
in color, are mere property, as h~-aoIdlDg
citizens we are bound, when the question OF
individual right TO such property is forced upon
Ms 70 be as careful in settling il as We should be
were the animal claimed dog or horse. We
must not LET our zeal outrun our discretion, IL
we would be just. 1t is the right Of hun to whom
"seryice Is due" that We have bound ourselves
TO respect, ard not the mere claim of any one who
may choose to assert il. o. the whole, then,
we are persuaded that Philadelphia may rest salts
fed that in this case she has done tbs right and
fair ttirg. 1t was wise no. to surrender Daniel
Webster. q thing which measured FIVE feet ten
inche. in length, and which could not have been in
yirsinis since 1853, as the evidence conclusisey
proved, for Daniel Dangerfeld, another thing,
measuring only fye feet seven, and which ran
away from Virgins in 154. How unhappy
would be the reflections of our Phlsdel-
phia friends it, in their haste to give
Daniel Webster to the first claimant they should
find a week zoo late that that valuable chstsel had
been surrendered to the wrong man The South
heref we think, viii commend the care and dis
cretion which has rendered such catastrophe i'm
possible. For our part, We are persuaded that Dis
solution. which, Ike the GOOD Time" is always
looming" has not come yet; and We hope to reas-
sure our sster metropolis that the gra" is not about
TO spring in Third street. that Church alley il not
immediately to become bowling wilderness, and
that the splendid grounds Of Pennylvania College
are not to be mere preserve Of grey squirrels and
tame deer, and 10 know no more forever those