Disunion Feed

"The late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Dred Scott case, will bring the enemies of the South face to face with the Constitution of their country. They cannot escape the issue presented -- the observance of the laws of the land, or disunion."

The Democratic paper of Georgia's capital, stating the choice in one line four years before it was taken. The Federal Union expects the North to submit; it is confident the fury of the storm has passed.

Read it in the original — Federal Union (Milledgeville), Mar 31, 1857 ↗

"The continued aggressions of the Federal Government in behalf of Negro Slavery must be met by the States in which the principles of Liberty yet survive. Ohio took the lead in 1855 in opposition to the Kansas Nebraska act, and it is very proper that she should again lead the column of Freedom in opposition to the doctrines recently promulgated by a Federal Slaveholding Court."

Four weeks after the ruling, the response stops being editorial and becomes legislative: an Ohio committee reports resolutions against the decision. Northern states answering a federal ruling with state resistance is the shape of the next four years — and the exact argument the South had been making since 1832.

Read it in the original — Ohio State Journal, Apr 3, 1857 ↗