It must
have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a
large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of
an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of
self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for
his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience
and many of his countrymen.
It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery
that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of
republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the
model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good
government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station,
quality, and character of the active offender.
And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land,
and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary
between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce,
and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is
tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political
_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America.
Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the
humblest comprehension.
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