Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-07-28
From The New Courier and Enquirer
The Supreme Court, VS.. The Fathers OF tla'
Republic.


Iur. Heppbhe' t ,l...f
Extract from Justice TaHey's Opinion Of a
Myority Of the Suprems Court Of The Uni-
ted States 3 lai Ial t.1
"For more than a century anterior to the
formation Of the Constitution, the African
race had been regarded as beings of amin
terior order, and altogether unfit TO asso.
ciate with the white race, either in social or
political relations and SO far inferior, that
THEY HAD NO RIGHTS WHICH THE WHITE MAN
WAS BOUND TO RESPECT and that the ne
gro might justly oud lawfully be reduce to
slavery for his benefit lie was bought
and sold and treated as an ordinary arti.
Gle Of merchandise and traffic, whenever q
profit could be made by it. This opinion
tods at that time .fzed and uairersat ~ the
cir'ltzed Portion Of Tie lohite race. IL ecas
regarded as an ariOm IN morals as 1ceH as
in poiltics, aohich no one thought Of disPut-
ing, or supposed to be open to dispute and
men 10 every grade aud position of society
daily and babitually acted upon it in their
private pursuits, as we'll as in matters Of
public concern, without doubtiug for . mo
ment the correctness of this opinion '
1Hey lrere asrer
thought Of or spoken of except as property,
and when the claims of the owner or the
profits of the trader was supposed to need
protection f..-.. ..,..... r..
Is the foregoing true, or was it "a deliberate
yfdfsehOoa, manufactured and published in obe-
dience to dictation of the Democratic party,
aud 10 behalf Of those who seek to extend the
Institution Of Slavery into the Free Territories
Of the Union 7 Is it true, or is it a base coin.
age for the baser purpose of making Slavery a
national instead Of LEGAL institution 2 We
appeal 10 the truth Of History to ansWer these
questions 3 .7or s1l ~tEs
Lord Mansfield in 1777 held 81. following
language .' tA '.
The state of slavery is Of such a nature
that it is incapable of being introduced on
any reasons, moral or political, but only by
positive law which preserves its force long
after the reasons occasion, and time itself,
whence it was created, are erased from the
memory II is so odiouS, that nothing can
support it but positive law. Whatever in
conyeniences therefore may follow from the
decision, cannot say this case, (Somer-
set's) is allowed or approved by the law OF
England, and therefore the black must be
discharged rtat- I'd.
John Locke wrote r0
Slavery is so vile, so miserable a state
of man, and so directly opposite to the gen
erous temper and courage of our nation
that it is hard to be convinced that an
Englshman, much less gent leman, should
plead for it, -
Charles James Fox said ~
With regard to a regulation of slavery
my deteStation Of IFS existence induces me
to know no such a thing as a regulation o
robbery and restriction of murder. Per
sonaI freedom is right, of which he who
depriveS his fellow creature is criminal in SC
depriving he who withholds is no less
criminal in Withholding rt..f-.
Edmund Burke declared :, .f.
That slavery is state so improper, SC
degrading, and so ruinous to the feelings
and capacities of human nature, that il
ought not to be suffered TO exist .t
Were Justice Taney and his associates igno
rant of language like the foregoing, everywhere
proclaimed by the statesman, philosophers ant
philanthropsts of the civilized world 1f
Were they ignorant that Thomas Jefferson,
original draft of the Declaration Of Indepen
deuce contains the following as one of the
grievances of the colonies which justified The
people 10 their rebellion against the mothel
country
He George III. has waged cruel wal
against human nature itself, uiOlatiag IL.
most sacred rights of life and liberty, IN TIN
persons of distant people, aoho nerer offend
ed shim capturing and carrying them int
sLarerv in another hemisphere, or to incul
miserable death in their transportation
thither. This pirattcaI 1oartare, the oppro
brium of infdel Powers, is the warfare o
the Christian King of Great Britain. De
termned to keep market where men shoulC
be bought and sold, be has at length pros
tituted his negative for suppressiug aul
legislative attempt to prohibit and restrain
this execrable commerce. t HD.aaa#
In 1880 the State of Pennsylvania abolished
| the l0StlJulOu VI oVifOIy huu iiOi TIC Deau
tirul and eloquent preamble to that act, we ex
tract the following .l 4s'T3 aa-
And whereas the condition of those per
sons who have heretofore been denominater
negro and mulatto slaves has been attende,
with circumstances 1ohich not only deprive,
them of the common blessings tOhich 6y ma
tnrs then are entitled to, but has cast then
into the deepest affections, by an unnataro
separation and sale of husband aud wifi
from each other, and from their child=a
injury the greatness OF which can only b
conceived by supposing that we were in ID
same unhappy case in justice, therefore
to persons so unhappily circumstanced, an,
who have no prospect before them whereo
they may rest their sorrows and their hope
have no reasonable indpeement TO rende
their ssrrics to sceiety l0hieh they otlerwi.
might and also in great commemorstio
Of our own happy deliVerance from tbs
state of unconditional submission to VIec
We we're doomed by the tyranny OF Britain
Therefore, BE IL enacted DC fae a,fre
z. NJ -