Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-07-26

that interneoine strife, which is now
drenching the plains of our country with
blood, is to be found IN the structure and
habits of Southern society. But amongst
the secondary and proximate causes, the
Dred Scott decision occupies q bad emf
nence That decision has given color to
an cold public functiOnary" to declare
the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska
to be slave territory as much as South
Carolina or Georgia. It has given pretext
to the prOpagandists of slavery to charge
the great Northern majority with seeking
illegal and unconstitutional objects. 1t
has added fuel to the flame Of pro-slavery
madness, which, before its announcement,
was raging with fearful intensity. Es
An Investigation of the subject will do
monstrate that the Missouri Compromise
was only one of a long series of enact
monts, commencing with the first session
of the first Congress and running through
a period of sixty four years, oil implying
the exercise of the same power. And that
the Dred Scott decision overruled and dis
regarded a great number of the former
judgments of the Court in which it was
pronounced. The subscriber can, and
probably will at some future time, give
ample evidence to sustain these PROPOSE
tions. At present propose to attend to a
branch of the reasoning of the Court
which may be reduced to the following
formula: At the time of the formation of
the Federal Constitution, no nation, no
community, no individual, believed that
African negroes had any rights superior
to those of brute animals or dead chattels
And, therefore, it is not reasonable to be-
lieve that the trainers of that instrument
intended to confer upon those negroes or
their descendants any rights to appear, as
suitors, in our national courts, OF to con-
fer upon Congress any power to forbid
such persons being taken as property into
the territories. I shall substantiate this
proposition by making much longer quo
tatiOn from the opinion of the Court, de-
livered by Judge Taney, than its merits
would otherwise warrant:
alt is difficult" says Mr.. Taney, aat
this day to realize the state Of public opin-
opinion in relation to that unfortunate race
which prevailed in the civilized and en-
lightened portions Of the world at the time
of the Declaration Of Independence, and
when the Constitution of the United States
was framed and adopted. But the public
history Of every European nation displays
it in manner too plain to be mistaken.
They had for more than century be-
fore been regarded as beings Of an inferior
order, and altogether unfit to associate
with the white race, either in social or DO
litical relations; and so far inferior that
they had no rights which the white man
was bound to respect; and that the negro
might justly and lawfully be reduced to
slavery for his benefit He was bought
and sold and treated as an ordinary article
of merchandise and traffic whenever
profit could be made by it. This opinion
was at that time fixed and universal in the
civilized portions of the white race. It
was regarded as an driom in morals as well
as in politics, which no one thought of
disputing, or supposed to be open to dis
pute, and men in every grade and position
in society daily and habitually acted upon
it in their private pursuits, as well as
doubling for moment the correctness
of this opinion. And in no nation
was this opinion more firmly fixed
or more uniformly acted upon than by the
English government and English people
They not only seized them on the coast of
Africa and sold them or held them in slay-
cry for their own use, but they took them
as ordinary articles of merchandise TO ev-
cry country where they could make a profit !
on them, and were far more extensively |
engaged in this commerce than any other
nation in the world.
The opinion thus entertained and acted |
upon in England, was naturally impressed
upon the Colonies they founded on this |
side of the Atlantic. And accordingly a |
negro, of the African race, was regarded |
by them as an article Of property, and held |
and bought and sold as such in every one /
of the thirteen Colonies which united in |
the Declaration of independence. and Af- |
forwards formed the Constitution Of the |
United States. The slaves were more or
less numerous in the different colonies as
slave labor was found more or less profit
able. But no one seems to have doubted |
the correctness of the prevailing opinion
of the time"
Read it; mark the broad and unqualified
nature of these assertions. Mr.. Taney was
but the organ and mouthpiece of the Court.
If these assertions are the very reverse of
the truth; if before the time Of which he
speaks the literature of Europe was teem-
ing with denunciations of slavery and the
slave trade, then it will irresistibly follow
that these judges were destitute either of
that candor which adorns the character of
the man, or Of that liberal knowledge
which adorns the character of the gentle
man. And in either case their premises
being false, what value can be attached to
their conclusions? l shall proceed, there
fore, to lay before the reader some speci-
mems Of the literature of the civilized world
originating at or before the period appeal
ed to by Judge fancy, in order that the
public may see how we'll the assertions of
the Court are supported by the fact.
The "Memoirs Of the Year Two Thous-
and Five Hundred" by John James Ros-
seau, were published in seventeen hundred
and sixty. It is philosophical romance
after the style of that time. He sets upin
the distant city of Paris the colossal statue
of negro, whom he extOls as dauntless
hero, and who had been the deliverer of
his race and the conqueror of their liberties
throughout the American continent. This
book is now scarce, and in the technical
phrase, is out Of print but copies enough
of it must no doubt remain to verify Eheth-
er my memory is correct or not Croker's
edition of BosweIps johnson is not a rare
or scarce book. On the twenty-third of
seventeen hundred and seven
ty-seven, Boswell makes the following en-
try: "After supper 1 accompanied him