and must, act with parties, both in Church and state; but every party that deserves to exist must have a clear and well-defined sphere of activity, and definite principles of action within that sphere. If these principles are ours, we forfeit nothing of manliness or virtue in acting with the party; if they are not, to serve the party is to serve the devil. As Judge M'Lean had long abandoned the devil's service, he determined, in 1828, to accept no public post that would make a sacrifice of his personal independence in any way probable. After he had refused to retain the Post-office, General Jackson pressed him to accept first the War Department, and then the Navy; but M'Lean was inflexible. It is said that the old hero declared to one of his friends, after three repeated refusals from M'Lean, that it was strange "the most honest man in the Democratic party should be the one least willing to serve him." If the story is not true, it is at least well invented. But it was not the intention of Divine Providence that the services of this "honest man" should be lost to the American government and people. The very place for which he was best fitted, and in which his peculiar virtues and talents could find the most conspicuous field, happened then to be open. There was a vacancy on the Supreme Bench, and Judge M'Lean was nominated to fill it by General Jackson three days after his inauguration in 1829. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate, we believe, unanimously. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial tribunal in the land; and its powers are, perhaps, more extensive than those of any other court in the world. Besides the ordinary questions of law, whether commercial, marine, or international, that occupy the attention of the highest courts in other lands, this tribunal has the great and perilous function of deciding upon the constitutionality of the laws of the several states of the Union and of Congress itself, in any case of conflict between such enactments and the Federal Constitution. At the time of Judge M'Lean's elevation to the Supreme Bench, the court was composed of Chief Justice Marshall and of Justices Story, Washington, Johnson, and Duval; and of all these he alone survives. In point of experience, therefore, and of nearer acquaintance with the spirit and views of the framers of the Constitution, there is no man upon the present bench to be compared with M'Lean. He is the sage of the Supreme Court. Of his decisions on mere law questions we are not competent to speak; but so far as we have learned the opinions of the legal fraternity, the reports contain no decisions, especially in commercial law, that are regarded as superior to his in point of clearness, method, and thorough knowledge of the principles of law. On questions involving political relations, especially those in which slavery is concerned, his opinions have commanded the public confidence, so far as their harmony with the Constitution and laws of the country are concerned, even when the public mind has been unsettled and agitated upon the questions themselves. Judge M'Lean has always been known as an anti-slavery man; but his private views have never interfered with his sense of constitutional obligation in any case where the legal rights of slaveholders were involved. In several cases occurring under the Fugitive Slave Law his course upon the bench has been very unsatisfactory to the stronger class of abolitionists in the Northern States; but we have never heard, even from that quarter, the slightest hint or charge against the uprightness and integrity of the judge himself. It is not too much to say that he has contributed, more than any of his present associates on the bench, to preserve in the public mind of the American people that strong sense of respect for the Supreme Court, and of confidence in the justice and purity of its judges, which has been almost universally cherished, throughout the land, up to the recent decision in the Dred Scott case. If the people have lost that reverence and confidence, it is not the fault of John M'Lean. On the relation of slavery, in the states and territories, to the Constitution, Judge M'Lean retains the opinions of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and the members generally of the Convention that framed the Constitution. They are embodied in the following extract from his recent opinion in the "Dred Scott" case: claimed; but if he accompany his master into "Now if a slave absconds, he may be rea state or territory where slavery is prohibited, such slave cannot be said to have left the serv ice of his master, where his services were legalized. And if slavery be limited to the range of the territorial laws, how can the slave be coerced to serve in a state or territory, not only without the authority of law, but against its express provisions? What gives the master the power to control the will of his slave? The local law, which exists in some form. But where there is no such law, can the master control the will of the slave by force? Where no slavery exists, the presumption, without regard to color, is in favor of freedom. Under such a jurisdiction may the colored man be levied on as the property of his master by a creditor? On the decease of the master, does the slave descend to his heirs as property? Can the master sell him? Any one or all of these acts may be done to the slave where he is legally held to service. But where the law does not confer this power it cannot be exercised. "Lord Mansfield held that a slave brought into England was free. Lord Stowell agreed with Lord Mansfield in this respect, and that the slave could not be coerced in England; but on her voluntary return to Antigua, the place of her slave domicil, her former status attached. The law of England did not prohibit slavery, but did not authorize it. The jurisdiction which prohibits slavery is much stronger in behalf of the slave within it than where it only does not authorize it. By virtue of what law is it that a master may take his slave into free territory and exact from him the duties of a slave? The law of the territory does not sanction it. No authority can be claimed under the Constitution of the United States or any law of Congress. Will it be said that the slave is taken as property the same as other property which the master may own? To this I answer, that colored persons are made property by the law of the state, and no such power has been given to Congress. Does the master carry with him the law of the state from which he removes into the territory? and does that enable him to coerce his slave in tion in express terms recognizes the status of slavery as founded on the municipal law: No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall,' etc. Now, unless the fugitive escape from a place where, by the municipal law, he is held to labor, this provision affords no remedy to the master. What can be more conclusive than this? Suppose a slave escape from a territory where slavery is not authorized by law, can he be reclaimed? "In this case a majority of the court have said that a slave may be taken by his master into a territory of the United States, the same as a horse or any other kind of property. It is true this was said by the court, as also many other things, which are of no authority. Nothing that has been said by them, which has not a direct bearing on the jurisdiction of the court, against which they decided, can be considered as authority. I shall certainly not regard it as such. The question of jurisdiction being before the court, was decided by them, authoritatively, but nothing beyond that question." These principles are consistent with the whole tenor of the decisions and opinions of the Supreme Court from its foundation up to this year of grace 1857. The new doctrines broached by Judge Taney in the Dred Scott case may well cause alarm, though they are not yet law, even in the Thus the sense of judge-made law. chief justice remarks that "slaves are property according to the Constitution," but his remark is not law; on this point, as on all others except the question of jurisdiction, the pro-slavery statements of the court are mere obiter dicta, and, therefore, as Judge M'Lean expressly says, "of no authority." That the court, under the territory? Let us test this theory. If this its present inspiration, is likely at some may be done by a master from one slave state, it future day to take a step further, and to may be done by a master from every other slave nationalize slavery entirely, is, perhaps, state. This right is supposed to be connected with the person of the master by virtue of the probable; but the step has not yet been local law. Is it transferable? May it be negotitaken. Should it ever be, the Supreme ated as a promissory note or bill of exchange? Court may learn, and we trust it will, If it be assigned to a man from a free state, that there is still a court of appeals bemay he coerce the slave by virtue of it? What shall this thing be denominated? Is it per- yond its august decisions, the court of the sonal or real property? Or is it an indefinable people of the United States. It may be fragment of sovereignty which every person that the conservative portion of the Amercarries with him from his late domicil? One ican nation, North, South, East, and thing is certain, that its origin has been very West, spurning the party demagogues recent, and it is unknown to the laws of any who have thrust sectional issues upon them, and following the guidance of men, like Judge M'Lean, clear, honest, unpurchasable, and yet conservative, may decide, before many years, that the government shall not be subverted; that the Union shall not be destroyed; that America shall not be made a mockery among the nations, as pretending to freedom, and yet nursing slavery. civilized country. "It is said the territories are common property of the states, and that every man has a right to go there with his property. This is not controverted. But the court says a slave is not property beyond the operation of the local law which makes him such. Never was a truth more authoritatively and justly uttered by man. Suppose a master of a slave in a British island owned a million of property in England, would that authorize him to take his slaves with him to England? The Constitu RECOLLECTIONS OF SWITZERLAND. GENEVA, the city of clocks, capital- be seated on deck, they hasten to appropri ists, and speculators, where life goes by rule, squared off like the accounts of a ledger, where the character is affectedly grave and habits are monotonous, even this city affords, twice a day in the warm season, a spectacle which excites some animation and appears to scatter a little confusion. This spectacle is the arrival and departure of the steamboats. A crowd of the curious range themselves on that part of the Grand Quay alongside of which the boat is moored; while from the Place du Rhône or the Pont du Bergues, travelers arrive at a step somewhat accelerated by the strokes of the last bell. They spring across the little bridge of planks which connects the boat with the quay; they place their baggage in the center near the pipe; then if they wish to ate one of the vacancies on the benches, for soon they will be very scarce. If they are young, and have come to Switzerland for the first time, if they are curious to see, they stand about or go and place themselves upon the prow of the boat, to inhale the pure breezes of the lake, and to enjoy the pleasure of seeing themselves glide over the blue and limpid waters, like a bird in powerful and rapid flight. But already the moorings are loosed, a few turns of the wheel and the Aigle or the Leman distances the shore, it leaps the barricade, and anon is launched for the full sweep of this vast inland sea,* We would like to know what appellation this writer would give to the great lakes of North America, if he calls Lake Geneva a vast inland sea. which here separates the Jura from the modities, but he knows nothing about his Alps. The most eager gaze is not able fully to take in the beauty of the scene. It is toward the side of Savoy, of the large gap in the mountains of the valley of Bonneville, that you are mostly attracted. There, immediately before you, rises the beautiful isolated pyramid of the Môle, and beyond, Mont Blanc itself, glittering with all the immaculate splendor of its eternal snows. Do not address yourself to a Genevan if you wish to learn the names of the principal peaks, for example the situation of Buet, which is so very prominent seen from here, and which, perchance, you intend to climb in a few days. The Genevan will tell you the latest aspects of the Bourse at Paris, the price of the public funds, and the value of industrial com SWISS MAID AND MATRON. mountains. Beyond the Saleve everything to him is confounded under the general name of the Alps, and everything in the horizon that is covered with snow is Mont Blanc. He is indifferent to a spectacle which he has continually before his eyes. Perhaps he will show in the range of the Jura the rounded summit of the Dole, the ascent of which he may have made once in his life. But at least he will tell you the names of the proprietors of those charming country-seats which dot both banks of this enchanting lake. While observing and discussing all, the boat advances. There already is Coppet, where lived a woman of genius who held a pen, exiled by a man who held a scepter and a sword. But the ideas have not time to fix themselves upon Madame de Staël and the political coterie which she inspired with her views. We will not pause to dwell upon her once commanding position, but, en passant, remark that her works are fast disappearing from the mind, just as this shore disappears from the gaze of the passer-by. Besides, at each moment some new object comes to attract the attention. Here is a passing boat laden with wood and surmounted by two white sails disposed in a picturesque style; there is the bell which sounds to warn the next post of the approach of the steamer; now the boat stops, the small craft approach, a cord is thrown to the boatmen; all is agitation, hurry, and apprehension. Then comes the tumult of debarkation, and the curiosity shown toward the newly arrived, especially if any among them are young or good-looking. Then the wheels recommence their movement, and the waves which they create rock for some distance the little boats which have not yet had time to retire. But we have passed Nyon, we are as gestures and language and unceremonious far as the point Yvoire, which projects into bearing contrast strongly with the pleasant the lake at the right. Here we leave the manners of those young Italian noblemen, small part of the lake, all that is visible exiled from their country by a jealous desfrom the environs of Geneva, and enter thepotism. There goes a Frenchman, mak broader expanse. The shores of Savoy retire, and the eye, reaching to a distance over an immense liquid plain, is no more attracted by the objects which the distance renders less conspicuous. Then, such is human consistency, that indifference commences gaining upon you, and the steamboatthis most charming mode of transportation through space, without jar, without fatigue, without being discommoded as in a carriage, free in your movements, at liberty to walk or to sit, this ideal of locomotion, of which humanity has not been put in possession until our day-appears, by the regularity of its movements, to deeply depress the spirits, and induce apathy and ennui. It is then that dull ennui turns from the sky and the landscape toward your fellowtravelers, and endeavors to amuse itself by studying their nationalities in their general appear- ing conversation with everybody, while ance, and their character in their physiognomy. All Europe frequently has representatives on the steamboat of Lake Geneva. Here are grouped some German students, uncomfortable neighbors, whose rude the Englishman, snugly trimmed for the voyage, holds himself as stiff and upright upon the deck as a ship mast, or marches back and forth like an officer on the watch. He does not address a word to any one, SCENE ON BOARD A GENEVA STEAMBOAT. |