The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-01-11

lCl0l1OuSs anu 81 1lllOl1OI luCy
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 civil
lied portion Of the white race"
The men who were opposed to slay-
cry pretended to think, and repeatedly
asserted on the hastings and in the
newspapers, magazines and books,
that Chief Justice fancy meant to ex-
press his own opinion in saying that
the negroes were so far inferior that
they had no rights which the white
man was bound to respect; and yet he
plainly did not mean to say anything
of the sort. He merely meant to say
that most of our people, more than
half a century before, when the con-
stitution was adopted, had held such
views that slavery had been tolerated
and approved, not only in the South,
but in some parts of the North, only
n short time before. The wrong done
Judge fancy, for partisan purposes,
by this distortion of his words, can
never be excused. This is brought
out clearly by the following language
of Mr.. Hampton L. Carson in his his
tory of the supreme court of the
United States:
1.-The injustice which has been done
to Chief Justice fancy consists in the
partisan use which was made of the
single phrase, That they had no
rights which the white man was
bound to respect The words were
violently torn from the context of the
opinion, and quoted as though the
chief justice had intended to express
his own individual views upon the
question, naturally arousing Il storm
Of Indignation at their inhumanity
and barbarity. That such were not
the personal views of the chief JUS
tice, no careful or conscientious stu
dent Of his life can for moment
suppose. He had long before manu-
mitted all his own slaves, had never
refused his professional aid to negroes
seeking the rights OF freedom; had
even defended Il person indicted for
time when the community were vo-
lently excited against the offender and
against fancy himself for his de-
fence, and when pressed with the
gravest business, he had been known
to stop in the streets of Washington
to help a negro child home with Il
pail Of water. lie was, moreover,
man of the greatest kindness, char
ity and sympathy The real wrong
doing of which the chief Justice was
guilty was in attempting by extra
judicial uttcrances to enter upon the
settlement Of questions purely pOliti-
cal. which We're beyond the pale of
judicial authority, and which no pres
ent judge would have undertaken to
discuss"
At the very time fancy wrote his
opinion, he knew that his church, to
which he was always loyal, had negro
priests in it's service at the altar; that
it had used its influence to free the
scrfs of Europe and the negroes in
tropic lands, and he himself, now and
then. must have gone to the commun-
ion rail side by side with an humble
slave. In his day. in every southern
state. the laws and public opinion pro-
tectcd the negro from cruelty in many
ways; and he, gentle and large
minded as he was. could not have en-.
tertained the cruel and selfish IDEAS
which had once prevailed as we'll in
New England as in the South, but
which happily were then being cher
ished only by few slave holders of
''"iio" i''ii''". liz. us JuuSe, WuS
thinking and speaking mainly of the
legal and political status of the negro,
whether free or in bondage
At this hour of federation it is an
rropratc to call attention to the in
justice which has been done to one of
the greatest lawyers the South has
produced one Of the strongest defend
ers of the rights of the states, one of
the ablest champions OF strict con-
struction of the constitution. We may
dislike the support he gave to slavery
though 1T was protected by the consti-
tuition, but every fair-minded man
nllght to recognize the purity of his
character, the greatness Of his talents,
and the exalted fame to which he Is
entitled by reason Of brilliant and nat
riotic services.
Laterly, two of the justices of the
supreme court. White and McKenna,
have been Catholics; but fancy is the
only Catholic chief justice we have
ever had. 1t was unfortunate for his
fame rs lawyer that his services
were rendered ut n time when par
tisan feelings ran SO high as to make
fair estimate of his merits almost
impossible to great numbers of his
countrymen; and by reason Of his en-
l.,