The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-26

pie of Alabama having solemnly decreed the secession of Alabama from the Fed eral Union, 1t became the imperative duty as we'll as the patriotic privilege of every good citizen, forgetting past differences, to stand by such action and to the main tenance of the independent position thus assumed, to which the members pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. This joint resolution was most artistically enrolled upon parchment by our esteemed fellow citizen. Joseph Bryan Goode, officially tested and signed by Ill Senators and members, handsomely framed in Alabama oak and ordered to be suspended behind the Speakers chair. It was hung behind the Speakers chair where 1t remained until Wilson's raiders came this way in 1865. when 1t silently stole away.
 Dred Scott Case.
 Perhaps no other case was ever in this country the cause of so much bitter con | troversy and misrepresentation as the celebrated Dred-Scott case. which was decided by the United States Supreme Court, in 1857. The matter before the court In that case was whether the de- :, scendants of negroes of the African race, who were imported into this country and 1 sold and held as slaves, when they shall be emancipated, or who were born of par ents who had become free before their birth, were citizens of State in the same | sense in which the word citizens was then 1 used in the Constitution of the United l States.
 1 Chief Justice Fancy. in delivering the | opinion of the Court said:
 ! "It Is difficult at this day to realize a state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race which prevailed In the l civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence and when tho Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displayed 1t fin man. | ner too plain to be mistaken.
 They had for more than a century be- fore been regarded as beings of an infe- l rior order: and altogether unfit to lsso- l ciate with the white man. either in social 1 or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white l man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be re- duced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordi- rary article of merchandise and trafic | whenever a profit could be made by 1t. This opinion was at that time fixed and | universal in the civilized portion of the human race. It was regarded as an ax- iom in morals as we'll as in politics. which no one thought of dispuung. or supposed | to be open to dispute, and men in every position and grade in society daily and habitually acted upon 1t in their private pursuits. as well as in matters of public concern, without doubting for a momen. the correctness of this opinion"
 And in no nation was this opinion more firmly fixed or more uniformly act | loA tbon E and English people. They not only seized them on the coast of Africa and sold them or held them in slavery for their own use but they took them as ordinary arti- cles of merchandise to every country where they could make a profit on them, and are far more extensively engaged in this commerce than any other nation in the world
 "The opinion entertained and acted up- on in England was naturally impressed upon the Colonies they founded on this negro of the African race was regarded by them as an article of property and held and bought and sold as such in ev- cry one of the thirteen colonies which united in the Declaration of Indepen- dence and afterwards formed the Consti- tuition of the United States. The slaves were more or less numerous in the diff ferent colonies. as slave labor was found more or less profitable. But no one seems to have doubted the correctness ot the prevailing opinion of the time.
 'The legislation of tho different colonies provides positive and indisputable proof of this fact.
 'In discussing this question we must not confound the rights of citizenship which a State may confer within its own limits, and the rights of citizenship as a member of the Union. It does not by any means follow because he has all the rights and privilege of a State. that he must be a citizen of the United States He may have all of the rights and priv ilege of the citizen of State, and yet not be entitled to the rights and privileges in any other State"
 It will be seen later on that the Su- preme Court of the United States said in the Slaughter House cases that the de- cision in this case while it met the con- demnation of some of the ablest states men and constitutional lawyers of the country had never been overruled; and If 1t was to be accepted as constitutional limitation of the right of citizenship then all the negro race who had recently been made freemen, were still not only not cit izens. but were incapable of becoming sc by anything short of an amendment to the constitution" and that to remove this difficulty primarily the first clause of the first section of the 14th amendment was framed.
 In addition to this President Grant sent a special message to the Congress, March 90. 1870, in which he notified the two houses of the promulgation by proclama ton of the ratification of tho fifteenth amendment, in which he said:
 Tt is unusual to notify the two Houses of Congress by message of the promul- gation, by proclamation of the Secretary of State, of the ratification of consti- tutional amendment. In view, however of the vast importance of the hfteenth amendment to the Constitution. this day declared a part of that revered instru- ment. I deem a departure from the usual custom justihable. A measure which makes at once 100000 people voters who were heretofore declared by the highest . tribunal in the land not citizens of the United States. nor eligible to become SC | with the assertion that "at the time Of the Declaration of Independence the opin- ion was fixed and universal in the civil fixed portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in poll tics that black men had no rights which the white man was bound to respect is indeed a measure of grander import ance than any other act of the Kind from inc foundation of our free government to the present day"
 How Slavery Perished.
 The United States Supreme court, IT the Slaughter House cases. say: The institution of slavery, as it existed IT l Sl.A TAfA Q Hf