Disunion Feed

"First, it subdued the Executive Government; second, the Legislative; and now it grasps the Judiciary. The grand object of the oligarchs has been perfected. They have made Slavery National, Freedom Sectional. [...] The Territories have become one great slave pen."

"Slavery National, Freedom Sectional" became the Republican formula of the next three years — the exact inversion of the party's own charge that it was the sectional one. Lincoln built the House Divided speech on this claim in June 1858.

Read it in the original — Ohio State Journal, Mar 11, 1857 ↗

"Men may, conscientiously we dare say, entertain opinions in opposition to those declared by this Bench, but, so far as legislative action is concerned, every man is in honor bound to respect the supreme law of the land. No man is justifiable in advocating a "higher law" -- it is treason against the cornerstone of republican institutions."

A Northern Democratic paper answering William Seward's "higher law than the Constitution" of 1850. Note the Plain Dealer's own account of the vote is garbled — it lists Curtis with the majority and Nelson as a dissenter, the reverse of the fact. Early reports of the lineup varied for days.

Read it in the original — Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mar 11, 1857 ↗