The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-09-07
ADDRESS Of HON. !. A. BASS
AN HISTORIC GEM FOR VETERANS

! Ihere was q man by the name or
Dred Scott. He was born of parents
whose ancestors had peen sold into
slavery, and he himself was born in
slavery. and was a slave. He wa,
owned by an army officer, Dr Emer-
son, who was stationed in Missouri.
slave state He was ordered with
his regiment to northwest Illinois.
and later to Wisconsin. both OF them
free states, and took his slave with
him to both states Afterwards Dr.
ing his slave with him and sold him
TO one sanford. Scott then sued
for his freedom on the ground that
having been taken to tree state.
where slavery was prohibited, he
became free and it made no differ.
ence to what place he Was carried
whether it be slave state or a free
state, that he VAS free and entitled
to all the rights benefits and i'm
muni;ics of a citizen. The case reach
ed the supreme court OF the United
States, and that court answered
NO to its own question, Does a
person of African descent, whose an
cestors have been sold into slavery
and is himself a slave, become pos
seSsed of the benefits and lmmunl-
ties OF citizen, by being carried
from one political community to an.
other, both OF which communities
were created by virtue OF the con-
stitution. And the result Of the de-
cision WAS that slave owner could
take his slave anywhere in the Unit
ed States and he was still, slave.
This decision oyerruled Lord Mans
fields decision in the Sommerser
case, where a slave owner had
brought from the Bahama Islands
slave to London. Sommerset sued for
his freedom, and the Lord High Chan.
celor decided that he lost his iden-
tity as slave the moment he Sc,
foot on the British Island.
Slavery was not a Southern insti-
tuition. Neither was it an American
institution. 1t was British institu
tion and was lorcer on all British
colonies by the Crown. While no,
tolerating it in lEngland, the British
African Company OF which Queen
Anne was owner OF one-tourth oi
the stock, furnished African slaves
to the colonies. South Carolina and
Georgia by their charters prohibited
the importation of slaves, while the |
Virginia house of burgesses at va. /
rlous times sought TO do away with .
in this colony Thomas Jefter-
son of Virginia while a member OF
the Colonial Congress in 1884 intro
luced an ordinance to prohibit slay-
cry in any state chat should be
'reatcd south of the Ohio River,
while Virginia, when the federal gov
was organized, cedeG to the
lew government all her territory
iorth of the Ohio out OF which were
'arved the states of Illinois. Indiana,
ohio, Wisconsin and part OF Michigan,
With the express proviso that slavery
should ever exist in those state or
erIi, ories. and when in 1878 the terri
orial legislature OF Indiana memo
ialized congress to allow slavery in
hat territory it was the Southern
'o:es in congress that stood true to
he compact and refused the request,
lthOugh it was presented by the
governor, William Henry Harrison.
When the Constitution of the Unit
ID States was written. it provided
hat the importation of slaves should
ease after 1908, and President ,Jeffer-
on in 1906 in a message to Congress
Congratulated the nation that in two
ears no slave could he imported into