Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-06-01
THE OHIO RESCUE CASES.


In the Supreme Court of Ohio, at Colum-
bus, the cases of Bushnell and Langston, two
of the 0berlin violaters of the Fugitive Slave
Act and johnson charged with attempting to
rescue a fugitive at GAINESVILLE, have been ar
gued. A brief Geographic despatch has re-
ported that Bushnell and Langston have been
remanded to the charge of the United States
officers and the probability is that Johnson's
case was dismissed, as he had not been SEN
fenced johnson was in Jail in Hamilton
County. Bushnell and Langston were in
Court in charge of a sheriff. The despatch is
quite indefinite, and we may not fully under
stand what it means to say.
We find in the Cleveland Herald some ac-
count of the arguments in the case. Mr.. Rid
die, the lawyer who appeared for Bushnell and
Langston, stated the question thus: the ap-
plication for the writs declared that the prison
ers were held without legal authority; and the
reply to it sets up record of the Uuited States
/ District Court for the Northern District of
Ohio, showing Imprisonment under sentence
of that court, for rescuing a slave, holden,
&C., under the Act OF September Is, 1850, viz:
the Fugitive Slave Act. Against that record
and the seal it bore, he maintained that the i'm
prisonment was illegal, and the Judgment in
the case of these prisoners nullity, for these
reasons =
''1. The alleged Law is not law
l. Under the Constitution of the United
States, Congress had no power to legislate
upon this subject.
2 Conceding the power to legslate, Con-
gress had no power to pass the act in ques-
ton.
8. If the act be constitutional no crime is
scharged under it, or shown by the record ex-
EiIplified in the return.
fhe- Act of September IS, 1850, contra
mes the Ordinance Of 1887, of antecedent and
perior obligation, and is therefore void"
lie argued the unconstitutionality of the Flu
tive Slave Act at considerable length. Mr..
tSwayne, for the United States, stated that the
}counsel on that side had agreed to submit the
case without argument more than printed
brief. He said the merits of the whole ques-
: ton bad been argued at previous hearing
Attorney General Wolcott appeared in the
case by direction of the Governor, and spoke
two hours and half His speech is described
as mastery effort but we find no report of it.
A correspondent of the Cleveland Herald
says
incidentally Mr.. Wolcott remarked that
the decisions of the Supreme Court 'in the
earlier and better days of the Republic were in
favor of liberty, and sustained the legal propo-
sition he had affirmed in this case. But that
court-everybody knows, and why not men,
ton it even here-it is in the mouths of all, a
toni tntl oil .ir vbry
1.-THE Supreme Court of the United States is
sectional court constituted for sectional ends
every Justice on that bench selected with ref
erence to a sectional decision.
In illustration of this assertion, he referred
to the appointment of a Judge to fill the va
cancy occasioned by the death of Judge Smith
Thompson of New York President Tyler
nominated John C. Spencer jurist whose
reputation was as wide as this continent at
least; the Senate failed to confirm him. Presi-
dent Tyler nominated Chancellor Walworth
Democrat, and therefore politically accepta-
-ssrrr eies IS 1Is4e SaaatA hut Chan
Court of Errors, and as such had pronounced
an opinion, reported in 14th Wendell) revers-
ing that of Judge Nelson, which affirmed the
consttutonality of the act of '93. Walworth
was rejected. Then Nelson, whose opinion on
this question had been REVERSED, was nominal
ed and confirmed NEED / ask why q said
the Attorney General.
towards the close, Mr.. Wolcott said 81
hesitate to refer to single topic. Yet hear
sPt-you hear it,-everybody hears it said up
pn the streets, if this Court shall exercise its
lnquestionable prerogatiye IN the enlargement
these prisoners, there win be a confict-a
pnfict between State and Federal authority.
HAT THEN Are we children ?-are we old
men to be frightened FROM our propriety by
lenace like this reverence law but not
loxnr <1fIg ,I@o - Tor.l0.