Disunion Feed

"As far as the South is concerned, it is much like having the gap closed after the wolves have devoured all the sheep; it is but little satisfaction to her to know that she had a right to what has been stolen from her [...] "Agitation is not good for the South," says her self-appointed physicians; "she needs repose." Nay, answer we, not when repose is death."

The Delta quotes the New York Times and the Herald at length and draws the conclusion neither did: the decision hands the anti-slavery side the only solid foundation it has ever had for a national party. It also names the year the reckoning will come — 1860.

Read it in the original — New Orleans Daily Delta, Mar 19, 1857 ↗

"Five of its nine silk gowns are worn by Slaveholders. More than half its long Bench is filled with Slaveholders. Its Chief Justice is a Slaveholder. [...] The majority represent a minority of 350,000. The minority represent a majority of twenty Millions! [...] The advocate who pleads there against Slavery, wastes his voice in its vaulted roof, and upon ears stuffed sixty years with cotton. His case is judged before it is argued, and his client condemned before he is heard."

Two weeks after the ruling, the argument has shifted from the decision to the institution: the Journal counts the Court's whole history and finds slave states held the majority for fifty-seven of its sixty-eight years. The turn from "this ruling is wrong" to "this Court is captured" is the shift that made the Republican party a national one.

Read it in the original — Albany Evening Journal, Mar 19, 1857 ↗