SUPREME COURT vs. THE ABOLITIONISTS.
Abolitionism, from its earliest inception to this passing hour, in all
its efforts and alms, has ever been based upon assumptions of an authority
paramount to the the Constitution, advocated with arguments teeming
with treason, and enforced by means regardless of recognized rights and
the laws of the land. -- It has, however, always clamored loudly for liberty
and equality, and justice among men. Uplifting their hand in holy horror,
its designing demagogues have been wont to shriek and wail, rave and
storm, and impiously appeal to Heaven by turns, as they impose upon
the popular mind of the North with their perverted portraitures of Southern
slavery, contemptible caricatures of Southern society, and harrowing
calumnies upon Southern character. But with all their trickery and treason,
their Tyrian-tongued professions of fidelity to freedom, and their indignation
and sorrow over the enormities of negro slavery, it has heretofore been
the peculiar policy -- at least of those of the schools more moderate
than the maligners of Washington and repudiators
of the Bible -- to claim for the federal government the right of prescribing
the bounds of slavery, prohibiting its extension, and all other
latitudinarian legislation on the subject, not in conflict with the most
liberal construction of the Constitution.
And, now, that the Supreme Court of the United States --
the accredited interpreter of the Constitution
and arbiter of disagreements between the several States --
after the most profound research, thorough investigation of facts and
analysis of principle, after deep deliberation, impartially and without
prejudice; now, that this august tribunal has declared a calm conviction,
sustained with irrefragable reasoning, which not only annihilates the
superstructure but also destroys the foundation
of the theory upon which their warfare has been waged against the
institutions of the South, they are completely taken aback, nonplused
and bewildered, confounded and confused. Even the federal government,
the favorite upon which they have fawned, refuses to abet them. But
though they have been brought to a stand-still as suddenly as the laborers
on the tower of Babel, they will not long remain inactive, paralyzed by
the unexpected blow in the hey day of hope, and gazing vacantly upon
the wreck before them and behind them. Effectually foiled in an effort
they had been making for years, defeated in the field of their own choice,
driven from the ground they have so often and so defiantly disputed, their
centre has been broken and the army put to rout. -- But they will rally
again with renovated vigor and with the determination of despair; reckless
of wrong or right, regardless of the laws of God or man, they will rush to
the [illegible], determined
to "rule or ruin," to arrest the extension of slavery or to destroy the
Constitution and the Union. Obliged to abandon their principle point of
operations they will re-organize on another.
Sebastopol is taken but the war is not
ended.
For the future, we predict the Abolition party will not be divided into wings
and factions, and schools of different measures, but with the same primary
principles.
The moderate man of the North, who admits the right of the slave States
to exclusive control over their own institutions, but who is opposed to
the extension of slavery into the territories, and in favor of the exercise
of Federal power to prevent it, will hereafter be found marching shoulder
to shoulder in the ranks, with the furious, foolish fanatic, who would
burn the Bible for a bonfire in honor of an emute
in Virginia or South Carolina,
and boast of having hung Washington in effigy because
he was an owner of slaves. Every class and character, and type of
abolitionism will be merged into an indistinguishable army
of implacable assailants of the South. The
fanatic will not be brought to sense and reason, and therefore to the level
of the moderate man, who agrees with him in principle, but differs as to
means and measures; but the moderate man, with the single stone upon
which he stood, knocked from under him by the Supreme Court, will
readily become a fanatic. They have both been educated in the same
sectional school, and are both imbued with the same ideas on the subject
of slavery -- except -- as the Irishman would say -- that one is a little more
so than the other.
They both hate the South, but the one has so far
confined his emnity to an opposition to the extension of slavery, with the
belief that it would thus soon stifle itself in the narrowness of the compass,
while the other has always rallied against its existence anywhere. and
everywhere, as a curse, a scourge and abomination upon mankind, to
be overthrown and eradicated at any cost, and by any means.
The moderate man has always counseled caution and prudence with
perserverance; holding that Congress had arbitrary authority over the
territories in relation to slavery, and that the obnoxious institution
would be obliterated ere long from the face of the earth, if it could be
kept out of the territories and confined to its existent limits. But now,
that it is decided that Congress has not the authority to impose restrictions
upon it -- to interpose obstacles in its pathway, and forbid a full and free
exercise of the elective franchise of the sovereign people in regard to
its adoption or rejection -- it is not reasonable to suppose that the inbred
hatred will be quietly quelled into indifference or calmed down into
acquiescence by a judicial decision in opposition to the instinct, and in
contradistinction to the education of him whose forbearance and
moderation of animosity towards the South, are attributable to his
belief in the authority of the Federal government
to say to the Southern people, that their institutions may go so far, but
that they shall go no further. The man who can concede such rights to
Congress, is already prepared to become the most unscrupulous,
unreasoning, insane fanatic on the subject of slavery -- to denounce the
Constitution as a counterfeit of freedom, and to look upon the Union
as an experiment exploded.
To contend now that the General Government has jurisdiction over the
domestic affairs of the States, that Congress has the right to mark out the
limits or to interfere with its expansion into the territories, North or South,
East or West, is to defy the Constitution, to repudiate the decrees of the
highest judicial tribunal of the nation, to inculcate treason, to defame the
guardian genius of liberty, to despoil our household gods with unholy
hands, and to strike with parricidal poniard at the heart of the country. --
That all these outrages upon patriotism, liberty and law, will be perpetrated,
we have indubitable evidence, in the defiance, the indignant denunciations,
the anathemas and opprobrium hurled at and heaped upon the Supreme
Court of the United States, by the anti-slavery press. Since its decision
in the Dred Scott case, with the exception of the two dissenting Judges,
that body has been assailed with the venom of vipers, and abused with all
the balderdash of Billingsgate. In the insanity of
their anger and agony, the Abolitionists are uttering
curses deep and loud, tearing their hair, indulging in all sorts
of grimaces and throwing themselves into every imaginable attitude
of contortion.
We are really apprehensive that there will be an epidemic of apoplexy
amongst them, unless they find in a few days, some safety-valve for their
pent-up mortification and rage. The decision of the Dred Scott case
has alarmingly aggravated the effects of "negrophobia." Some means must
be devised to cool the [illegible]
of those who are affected with it, or there will either be a tremendous
bursting of blood vessels, or all the insane asylums in Yankeedom will
be inadequate for the accommodation of its victims. For our contemporary,
the New York Evening Post, we feel an especial,
a painful, solicitude. It seems to be sadly afflicted with this sudden sort
of St. Vitus' dance, under the influence
of which the abolitionists are leaping and weeping, kneeling and swearing,
foaming and and fuming, yelling and gesticulating, like so many
bedlamites. The Post, however, is "working off its
steam" at the rate of forty knots an hour, which we trust will soon reduce
it within the limit allowed by the law, according to the capacity of the
boiler, and thus relieve us of all anxiety in regard to the danger of
explosion. One puff from its pipe as it passed, containing at least twenty
pounds, may be found in another column, not rarefied, but in its
original condensed condition. Keep the valves open, and let the steam
escape.
The decision in the Dred Scott case must be a finality,
so far as the federal legislation on the institution of slavery is
concerned. The fact has gone forth, the Constitution has been construed,
and Congress must conform. Abolitionism must now unmask,
and wage its warfare openly and above board against the government
per se or bow to its behests and pass off
the stage. Which alternative it will adopt, it needs no seer to say.
Transcribed and reverse-order proofed by T. Lloyd Benson,
Department of History, Furman University, from the
Richmond, Virginia, Enquirer, 13 March 1857.