Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1863-04-08

the reader must pardon Us. 1t is a
threadbare subject, and light treatment
may be a relief. To return The North
ern people began to wonder, like Sambo
in the song, why they must be always
kept out in the cold, and denied any par
ticipation in shelter or pelf. Like Sam
bo, they instituted an investigation
Presently they suspected the cause of the
difficulty, though they yet hardly dared
to speak. The South would give no sat
iSfactory reason for their behavior. but
Rugged and hid the instigation of their
enmity 90 the North. At last the rogue
was detected in the gentleman from Af-
| rica-
Whv dat Niger in de corner dat I spy"
and the North began to think that the
South might love the Union more if it
loved the darkey less. Yet, up TO this
time. the South had been let alone. =
| 1t had ali things its own way. No
Northern - Personal Liberty laws" exist
! ed. or if they did, were far behind the
| Virginia just and excellent law on the
same subject. But Southern slavery
laws did interfere with men free by the
laws OF the North and such laws exist
still. Black seamen are liable to impris-
onment. and. in default of their payment
of the charges, TO sale as slaves, in the
Southern ports. After the Dred Scott
mudQle, facetiously termed decision, it
may be disputed whether Section 2, Arti-
Gle iv, of the Constitution. covers such
cases - The citizens of each State shall
be entitled to all the privileges and inn
munities of citizens in the several
States"
But certainly the section may be sup
posed to give respectable Northern law
yer right TO the privili ges of his profes-
sion, and the immunities of freeman
and a gentleman in a Southern State
Samuel IIOar. Esq, of Massachusetts,, was
sent South, peaceably and by constitu
tional means to test the legality of the
personal slavery laws as applied to free
men of Northern States Sound in coun-
sci, courteous in manner, temperate and
mild, digniied and honorable, he would
have conducted the business in Il judi
cious. and 10 reasonable men, an inoffen-
sive manner. But he was driven away
with threats of personal violence and in
dignity. He was not of the stuff of
which martyrs are made, or, with less
discretion and more courage, he would
have precipitated the controversy be-
tween the North and South then, and we
might have gone through some more adj
vanced passages of it by this time. Per-
haps it may be answered that this was
not State Act, but mob violence. But |
' mob violence" is common law in some |
Southern sections, and formal legislation |
is only supplementary to it. The ''mob |
violence in this case was approved and |
-
the farce of pretended disapproval, which |
has followed the recent taIring and feath-
ering of an English skipper. The South |
understand very well who will let
them alone" and who will not. The
- Personal Liberty Law
was retaliation for outrages of this de-
scription. Very harmless it has been,
and so have all the others.
But the South need not have had such
a terror of Mr.. Hoar and the constitution.
The value of decision of the Supreme
Court, in contravention of Southern de-
cisions, had already been tested. 1t may
be we'll to remind some of our sticklers
for the binding force of the decision of
the Supreme Court (so miscalled1 in the
bred Scott case, of another decision of
the same Court. Certain missionaries to
the Indians had been imprisoned in
Georgia. They were entitled to release
under law of Congress protecting them,
and regulating the intercourse with Indi-
ans. They applied to President Jackson,
who answered them that the State of
Georgia, having extended her laws over
the Indian territory, the laws of Congress
had thereby been superseded! The Su-
Dreme Court of the United States decid-
I'd that the law of Georgia was unconsti-
but both Georgia and the Presi-
lent were conveniently oblivious alike of
he law of the Union and the decision of
he United States Supreme Court, when
such decision confiicted with the sover-
eign DEGREES of Georgia. The whole mat
er was soon settled in a way that affirm
ID the right of Georgia to nullify the
avs of Congress. More of this matter in
mother paper.
Meanwhile we will only add that Mr..
Ioar need not have been driven out
he might have remained and pleaded
The '' sovereign State might have rest
ID safe in the decision of the President,
hat the extending of State Laws over
negroes and Indians supercedes the laws
,f the United States, and of course nulli-
les the Constitution.
-@s4SC