The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-12-22

the South to restore the principles oil the
early Presidents. Let the South adhere
to the rules OF government as advocated
by the Republican party, and the strug-
gle between freed and slavery viii end.
How did this struggle commence, and ,oho
are responsible.
It is notorious that the propagaDdists
of slavery have taken the lead and kept
up agitation, and because the men of the
North have concluded to have slavery
kept where it is they are denounced. We
must suffer ourselves to be borne down
under the tread of the slave power, or We
are pronounced sectionalists and agitators.
Who rebelled against acts of Congress
fostering national industry, aud tried to
nullify constitutional legislation I Who
agitsted for Texasl Who divided up
Mexico, and agitated to carry slavery in
to that territory of freedom | Who struck
down the Missouri Compromise !! Who
overrun Kansas, and sent devastation
and ruin into every babitationi Who
undertook to suSvert the will of the peo-
pie of that Territory Who subdued the
highest Court known to our institutions,
and wrung from it an opinion antagoDi-
zing all, law, liberty, and humanity =
Was this the work of the freemen Of the
North Is it not true that the Demo
cratic party attempted to do all this in
subserviency to the slave interests, and to
advance the slave power
SutugatiOn Of the Supreme Court.
The last citadel of the fortress of liber
ty has surrendered to the slavery propa-
gsndist., and every branch of the govern
ment now obeys their behests. The bal
lot box alone is left to the people. The
Judges of the Supreme Court. no longer
representing the people in the fair ratio
they did when the Court was established
and its circuits formed, have allowed that
this high tribunal to become sectional and
partisan in its DEGREES.
The vast excess Of population of the
free States over the population of the
slave States is unrepreseDted. The Court,
as constituted, represents territory-not
men. We contend that it shall represent
not acres-but voters.
The slave States, whose population, BY
the census of 1850, embracing 1900, 900
slaves. is 100000 have FIVE judges, in
Guiding the Chef Justice, whilst the free
States, with population of 1880 900,
have only four Judges. At the dictation
of the slave power, this high tribunal, by
means of case collu,ively brought be-
fore it, travelling out of the record, has
extra judicially given the weight OF its
hitherto venerated authority to the most
dangerous and despotic of all the innoVa
tions of the slavery propagsndists. In
the Dred Scott decision, the Court invent
ed law expressly for the occasion, ignor-
ing principles of the common law, the
law of nations, the natural law, and the
Divine law, in order to invest with legal
ssuctity the dogma-that man as property
by the op,titution. Ip the midst of the
Dineteenth century, in order to elevate
and sustain barbarism in violent con-
fict with the age. the Supreme Court
have reversed legal principles which have
fundamental axioms from the days OF
JustiniaD to the days of Mansfield The
highest law officer of the Government Is
at this time defending this outrage on hu-
ID an rig hts, and preparing the national
mind for the practical enforcement OF the
abooination.
Pennsylvania Virtually Stare State.
The slave propsgandists already claim
that, by virtue OF tbi. decision, every foot
of the United States is as much slave ter
ritory as South Carolina. They are just
upon the point OF making the final aud
growing demand, that, by virtue of the
same decision, they have a right to hold
their slaves 10 Massachusetts and Penn
sylsauia.
Under this construction Of the Consti-
tuition, wo. of Pennsylvania, know not
how soon the slave master may bring bis
chat,les within our borders, and hold them
among u by authority Of law The
question now is not how to keep slavery
out of the IsrritorieS, but how to keep II
out of the Free States; not how to coun-
teract its debasing effects at distance,
but how to avert its disolatiDg pollution
from our own hearth h-stones.
1t is evident, to every observing mind,
that the welfare Of our country Is bound
up in the slavery question. Its solution
cannot be evaded or postponed, aud par
ties must distinctively declare their posi-
tons on this vital issue. We make no
war on the institution of slavery In the
States of the Union. We regard it as the
patriots of the Revolution and the faith
ers OF the Constitutions regarded 1t, to be
giant evil in moral aud political econo.
my; but whilst deploring its existence
there, we recognize it to be under the
protection of State Sovereieuties, and not
to be interfered with in those States, ex'
cept BY their own citizens.
Congress the Arbiter o. the Slavery Question
But, beyond tie pale of State Sooere'g''-
ty, in whatever shape it may assume, the
question of slavery is 40 open question
Tor the whole people of the Union to de-
eide upon with the same rights and IN the
same manner as they decide upon any
other political question-through ms