Year: 1872

From the New York Herald of April
24th we copy the following:


Upon an appeal from the Supreme
Court It Georgia, in case of contract
involving the price of negro slave, q
very important decision was rendered in
the Supreme Court of the United
States on Monday last, touching the
rights and powers OF the States and of
the United States, under the National
Constitution, as it was and as it il. Be-
fore the Georgia Court the defendant
(against whom the note for the price OF
the slave was heidi pleaded that under
the new State Constitution TIE Court
had no jurisdiction over the subject,
and the judgment of the Court was for
the defendant and upon three PROPOSE
tiDns which rise To the wisdom of Dog
berry.


Thus the Supreme Court of Georgia
afirmed-frst. that when the State
Constitution of 1868 was adopted Geor.
gla was not State of the Union, but a
conquered Territory, completely at the
mercy of the conqneror, and that ac-
cording to the Constitution Of the Uni
ted States in reference to the obligation
ofcontracts, as to all other things, would
not apply to Georgia second, that her
new Constitution does not affect this
contract (the note given for the pur-
chase of the slavel, but only denies
jurisdiction to her Courts to enforce it ;
third, that this Constitution was forced
upon the State by Congress and is the
act Of Congress, and not of the State,
and that though State cannot pass 9
law impairing the validity of contracts,
Congress can and has passed such law
in this State Constitution, and therefore
the contract upon this negro slave is i'm
paired, and the note for the money due
on this purchase goes for nothing, being
reduced to ,hes same value as the prom
| ises to pay ofthe Confederate States, !"
which il the value Of waste paper.


The Supreme Court of the United
States re.erses this Dogberry decision





that the National Constitution created
not confsderacy of States but a
government of ludividuals--in other
words government Of the people Of
the United States ms nation; that their
object was an indestructiblc govern
| ment; that the doctrine of secession Is
the doctrine of treason; that the States
IN rebellion were never out of the
| Inion, and never absoved from the
| duties, liabilities aud restrictions al.
ways incumbent uTon them, that the
present State Constitution of Georgia
| was the act of Georgia, and was accept
ed by Congress, aud that the action of
Congress on the subject cannot be in
quired into, the authority of Congress
in such matters being conclusive.


This decision is now part of the Sn>
premc law Of tho land, and in sweep
ing away all these fnllacics that the
Union is a confcderacy of States, that
each State has reserved to Itself the
sovereign right of secession, and that
the rebel States were out of the Union
during the war Of their Confederate re-
beIlion, it will, we hope, convince even
Alexander II. Stephens that his State
Right dogmas are really dead and done
for--dead and buried beyond redemp-
tion. In the single pungent declaration
IS that the doctrine of secession is
the doctrine of treason" the Supreme
Court covers Ahe whole ground, and
makes all that has been done in the
work of putting down the rebellion and
in the work of Southern reconstruction
consistent, cohesive, good and strong.