Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-02-22
DRIED scuTT DECISION.

mistaken WhatI have next to sa Wis spo.
ken with no emotion, but regret. Our
meeting to day is, as it were, at the grave,
in the presence Of Eternity, and the truth
must be uttered 10 s1borness and sincerity
10 great republic, as was observed more
than two thousand years ago, any attempt
to Oyerturn the state owes its strength to aid
from some branch Of the Government The
ChiefJust Of the United States, without
any necessity or occasion, volunteered to
come to the rescue Of the theory of Slavery
And from his court there lay no appealbut to
the bar of humanity and history. Against
the Constitution, against the memory of
the nation. against a previous decision,
against series Of enact ments, he decided
that the slave is property, that slave pro-
perty is entitled to no less protection than
any other property, that the Constitution
upholds it in every territory against any act
of local legislature, and even against Con
gress ITSELF or, as the President tersey pro-
mulgated the saying: kansas is as much
Slave State as South Carolina or Georgia;
Slavery, by virtue of the Constitution exists
in every Territory" The municipal charac.
ter of Slavery being thus taken away, and
slave property decreed to be sacred" the
authority Of the courts was invoked to intro.
duce ii by the comfy of law into States
where Slavery had been abolished; and in
one Of the courts of the United States a
Judge pronounced the African slave trade
legitimate, and numerous and powerful ad-
vocates demanded its restoration.
TANEY AND SLAVE RACES.
Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his Ella
borate opinion, announced what had never
been heard from any magistrate of Greece
or RomeLwhat was unknown to civil law,
and canon law, and feudal law, and com
mon law, and constitutional law; unknown
to Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth, and Mar
shaIl-that there are slave races The
spirit of evil is intensely logical. Having
the authority of this decision, five. States
swiftly followed the earlier example of a
sixth, and opened the way for reducing the
free negro to bondage; the migrating free
negro became slave if he but touched the
soil of seventh; and an eighth, from its
extent and soil and mineral resources, des.
tined to incalculablo greatness, closed its
eyes On its coming prosperity, and enacted
las by Taney's decision it had the right to
de-that every free black man who would
live within its limits must accept the con-
dition Of Slavery for himself and his pos
terity. ...' .
=. oECBSSlON RESOLVED ON.
Only one step more remained to be taken
Jefferson and the leading statesmen of his
day held fast to the idea that the enslave-
ment OF the African was socially, morally
and politically wrong. The new school was
founded exactly upon the opposite idea ;
and they resolved first to district the Demo
cratic party, for which the Supreme Court
had now furnished the means, and then to
te establish new government with Negro
Slavery for its corner stone, as socially,
morally and politically right.
.at. EHE ELECTION.
AS the Presidential election drew on, one
Of the old parties did not make its appear.
ance the other reeled as it sought to pre-
serve its old position; and the candidate
who most nearly represented its best opinion,
driven by patriotic zeal, roamed the coun.
try from end to end to speak for union,
eager at least to confront its enemies,
yet not having hope that it would find its
deliverance through him. The storm rose
to whirlwind: who should allay its wrath?
The most experienced statesmen of the
country had falled there WAS no hope for
those who were2great after the flesh could
relief come from one whose wisdom was
like the wisdom of little children?
EARLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The choice of America fell on man born
west of the Alleghanies, in the cabin of poor
people of Hardin County, Kentucky-Abra
ham Lincoln. '-i1 ..'i FIJI. 'aa ''i."..
His mother could read but not write hi:
father could do neither; but hi, parents sem
him, with an old spelling-book, to school
and he learned in his childhood to do both
When eight year old he foated down the
Ohio with his fatheron raft which bore the
family and all their possessions to the shores
OF Indiana; and. child as he was, he gave
help as they toied through dense forests t.
the interior of Spencer County. There II
the land of free labor he grew up in lol
cabin, with the solemn solitude for his teach
or in his ineditative hours OF ASiatic lit
erature he knew only the Bible; of Greek
Latin and medieval no more than the trans
lation of Hsop's Fables; Of English, Johr
Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress. The tradi
tions Of George Fox and William Penn passed
to him dimly along the lines of two centurie
through his ancestors, who were Quakers
..t ~. HIS EDUCATION.
otherwise bis education was altogethe
American. The Declaration of Indepen
dence was his compendium Of political wis
dom; the Life of Washington his constan
study, and something of Jefferson and Mad
ison reached him through Henry Clay, whom
he honored from boyhood For the rest
from day to day, he lived the life of tn
American people walked in its light; reason
ed with its reason thought with its powe
of thought; felt the beatings of its might
heart, and so was in everv way child Q
nature-a child Of the West-a child Q
America. az
L M HIS PROGRESS IN LIFE.
At 10, feeling impulses of ambition to ge
on in the world, he engaged himself to g
down the Mississippi in fiat boat, receiviu
$40 month for his wages, and afterwar
he made the trip once more. At 81 b
drove his fathers cattle as the family m
grated to Illinois, and split rails to fence i
the new homestead 10 the wild. At .
he was captain Of volunteers in the Blac
Hawk war He kept shop; he learne
something of surveying; but of English Ii
erature he added to Bunyan nothing bu
Shakspeare's plays. AT 25 he was electe
to the Legislature of Illinois, where he serve
eight years. At 27 he was admitted to tn
bar. In 1887 he chose his home at Sprin,
field, the beautiful centre of the richest Ian
in the State, In l847 he was member Z
the National Congress, where he voted absu
40 times in favor Of the principle Of th
: Jefferson proviso In 1854 he gavs his Ii
! huence TO elect from Illinois to the Amer