The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-09-11
AN OLD CoLLUsIoN PROVED.

group OF statesmen and jurists were
especially free from faint of corrup
tion, and altogether above collusion
especially above that sort of collusion
which would minglc the functions of
one department Of tho government with
another. Accordingly IL has generally
been held that. when the Hon. Will
liza II Seward made his fervent de-
nunciation of the Supreme Court on
/ March 3, 1858, AS being in collusion
with President Buchanan with respect
20 the Dred Scott case. that he was
wrong. But, il turns out from the re.
cent publication of the "Life' of
President Buchanan that Seward was
right.
In the inaugural address Of President
Buchanan on March 4, 1857, when the
Dred Scott case was pending. was m
appeal to the country to be patient, to
wait the issue Of that decision, and
10 accept it as a final settlement of
the slavery question. President Bu"
chauau announced that he would cheer
fully submit to that decision whatever
it might be, and he added, ''May we
not then hope that the long agitation
on this subject is approaching its
end?' In this he referred to the
slavery agitation. and in announcing
beforehand his readiness to submit to
that decision there was hint which
was enough for Mr.. Seward then a
u. 5. Senator from New York, to found
a suspicion upon. Accordingly, in his
speech of March >, 1888. he denounced
the Supreme Court OF the United
States. and directly charged that the
President OF the United States and the
Supreme Court had deliberately entered
into n conspiracy to fastcn slavery
always been held that Senator Seward,
in so denouucing the court and claiming
that conspiracy between the court and
the President, was wrong; and II
has taken a good many years TO bring
out he truth that he was right. We
find a succinct statement of the whole
matter in recent number of The In.
dependent.
It seems that on February 10, 1857.
Associate Justice Catron wrote TO
President Buchanan suggesting what he
might safely say in his inaugural
address about the Drcd Scott case. and
asked him TO write 10 Associate Jus
ticc Grier of Pennsylvania and en-
deavor to bring him into accord with
the majority of the court. The reason
FOR bringing Justice Grier into accord
with the Southern Justices was so
that thc.case would not seem to he de-
cided from the sectional view of the
South by the Southern members of the
court alone.
1t Is shown that Buchanan wrote TO
Justice Grier accordingly, who ac-
knowlcdged the letter, showed il TO
Chief Justice Tanev and Justice
Wayne, and with their concurrence I"
he gave Buchanan, in confidence, "thc
history Of the case before us with the
probable result. - Having this in his
ii was easy for President
elect Buchanan TO give in his adherence
TO the decision, which he knew before
hand would he iii accord with his own
political views Justice Grier, in this
letter, agreed 10 concur with Chief
Justice Tancy in the decision, and in
formed Buchanan that it would not be
delivered before Friday, the 9Th of
March then next ensuing Justice
Grier added that they would not let
any other justices know anything about
the cause of our anxiety to pro-
duce this result; and, "though CON
trary 10 our usual practice, we have
thought due 10 YOU TO state TO YOU in
candor and confidence the real state of
the matter
The Independent agrees with the lust
of Professor Moore, who
'dits the Buchanan "Life,' that these
letters "arc obviously inconsistent
with and tacitly refute the charge tha
The Dred Scott case was the result
Of conspiracy in which the Kansas
Nebraska bill was the first step"
quite true. But the Independent com.
nent Is also true where it saws that
they do prove that President Bu-
'banan. Chief Justice Taney, and
other Justices of the Supreme Court
were not above entering into corre-
'pondeuce for the purpose of rcac hing
some adjustment Of the slavery issue
hat would he wholly acceptable to the
slave power 1t is true, further. that
hey prove 'that the charges made
Dy Seward, and afterwsrd repeated by
Lincoln in mildcr form, were true, al.
though these men apparently had no
direct evidence warrantiug their state.
nents"
It appears. further, that Chief JUS
ticc Taney was so incenscd al the
speech Of Seward that he told TYLER.
who was afterward his biographer, that
If Seward had been nominated and
elected President in 1861 instead of
Lincoln. he "would have refused TO
administer to him the oath of Office
1t Is surprising indeed TO find that