The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-12

benu Jnem 10 lduu Oi luOlboANS
and Incidence. which was the home OF their fore
fathers, but not theirs9 Slavery is blessing.
Were they not In their ancestral land naked,
scarcely lifted above brutes, ignorant of the
course of the sun, controlled by nature
And in their new abode have they not
been taught TO know the difference of the sea-
sons, to plough, and plant and reap, to drive
oxen, to tame the horse, to exchange their
scanty dialect for the richest of all the languages
among men, and the stupid alteration OF follies
for the purest religion? And since slavery is
good for the blacks, it is good for their masters,
bringing opulence and the opportunity OF edu,
eating a race. The slavery of the black is good
in itself; he shall serve the white man forever"
And Nature, which better understood the quality
of fleeting interest and passion, laughed, as 1t
caught the echo: "man" and "forever!"
SLAVERY AT HOME.
A regular development of pretensions followed
the new declaration with logical consistency
Under the old declaration every one OF the STATES
had retained, each for itself, the right of manu-
hitting all slaves by an ordinary act of legisla-
ton; now, the power, OF the people over seryi-
tude through their legislatures was curtailed
and the privileged class was swift in imposing
legal and col stitutlonal distractions on the
people themselves. The power of emancipation
was narrowed or taken away. The slave might
not be disquieted by education. There remained
an unConiessed consciousness tnat the system of
bondage was wrong and a restless memory that
it was at variance with the true American tradi-
tion; its safety was therefore to be secured by
polticalA organization. The generation that
made the Constitution took care for the predomi-
nance OF freedom in Congress, by the ordinance
of Jetierson; the new school aspired to secure
for slavery an equality of votes in the Senate;
and while il hinted at an organic act that should
concede to the collective South veto power on
national legislation, it assumed that each State
separately had the right to revise and nullity
laws of the United States, according to the dis
cretion of its judgment.
SLAVERY AND FOREIGN RELATIONS.
The new theory hung as bias on the foreign
relations of the country; there could be no re-
coenition OF Hayti, nor even of the American
colony of Liberia; and the world was given to
understand that the establishment of free labor
in Cuba would be a reason for wrestling that
island from Spain. Territories were annexed:
Louisiana, Florida, Texas, half of MeXico sla.
very must have its share in them all, and it
accepted Tor a time dividing line between the
unquestoned domain of free labor and that in
which involuntary labor was to be tolerated A
few years passed away, and the new school,
strong and arrogant, demanded and received an
apology Tor applying the Jefferson provlso to
Oregon.
soUATTER SOVEREIGNTY.
The application of that proviso was interrupted
for three administrations; but Justice moved
steadily onward. In the news that the men of
California had chosen freedom, Calhoun heard
the knell of parting slavery; and on his death
bed he counseed secession. Washington and
Jefferson, and Madison had died despairing of
the abolition of slavery; Calhoun died in despair
irresistibly to its natural development The
death struggle for California was followed by
short truce; but the new school of politicians
who said slavery was not evil, but good, soon
sought to recover the ground they had lost; and
confident OF securing Texas, they demanded
that the established line in the Territories be-
tween freedom and slavery should be olotted
out. The country believing in the strength
and enterprise and expansive energy of freedom
made answer, though reluctantly:-"B it so; /;
let there be no strife between brethren; let free
dom and slavery compete for the Territories on
equal terms in far field, under an impartial
administrations" and on this theory, If on any,
the contest might have been lett to the decision
OF time.
DRED SCOTT DECISION.
The South started back in appallment from its
victory; for il knew that fair competition fore
boded its defeat. But where could it now find
an ally to save it from its own mistake? What l
have next to say is spoken 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 in soberness and sincerity. In a
great republic, as was observed more than two
thousand years ago, any attempt to Overturn the
State owes its strength to aid from some branch
of the Government The Chief Justice 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 ap.
peal but TO the bar of humanity and history.
Against the Constitution against the memory ol
the nation, against previous decision, against
series of enactments, he decided that the slave
Is property that slave property is entitled to NO
less protection than any other property. that
| the Constitution upholds it in every Territory
| against any act of a local legislature, and even
| against Congress itself: or, as the President
| tersely PROMULGATED 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 character oil
slavery being thus taken away, and slave pro-
| perty decreed to be sacred" the authority ol
| the courts was invoked to introduce ii by the
comfy of law into States where slavery had
been abolished; and in one of the courts of the
| United States judge pronounced the African
| slavc-trade legitimate, and numerous and power
| full advocates demanded its restoration.
TANEY AND SLAVE RACES.
Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elaborate
| opinion, announced what had never been heard
| from any magistrate of Greece or Rome-what
was unknown to civil law, and canon law, and
| teudal law, and common law, and constitutional
| law; unknown to Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth
| and Marshall-that there are slave races" The
| spirit of evil is intensely logical. Having the
| authority of this decision, i've States swiftly
| followed the earlier example OF a sixth, anC
| opened the way for reducing the free negro tC
| bondage; the migrating free negro became
slave il he but touched the soil of seventh; anC
| an eighth, from ITS extent and soil and minera
| resources, destined to incaculable greatness
| closed its eyes on its coming prosperity, and en-
| acted-as by Taney's decision it had the right tC
| do-that every free black man who would live
| within its limits must accept the condition o.
| slavery for himself and his posterIty.
SECESSION 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 enslavement of the
African was socially, morally. and politically
| wrong. The new school was founded exactly
| upon the opposite idea; and they resolved frs
| to distract the Democratic party, for which the
| Supreme Court had now furnished the means
and then to establish new Government, witt