The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-10-18

The Jurisdiction of the u. s. Suprem,
Court, and the heresies of the apostat,
Democracy on the subject.
/ ;. No. s.
We, week before last, demonstrate
the utter and utterly baseless falsehooi
of the pretense set up by fancy in hi.
bred Scott "opinion," and repeated
by Douglas in his speeches and essays
that slaves are "property" by virtue o.
the Federal Constitution.
We propose in this number, to dem
onstrate that the pretense that the Fed
eral Supreme Court, or any other Fed
eral Court, has, By the Consultation,
exclusive" or any other Jurisdiction Of
any question of title to a slave in q
territory, or of any question, whether
slavery does or does not exist in ter.
ritory, is equally false and unfounded.
That Stephen Il. Douglas we'll knows
this pretehse to be thus false and un.
founded, is sufficiently proved by the
facts that he inserted in each of the
several acts organizing the territories
OF New Mexico, Utah, Kansas and
Nebraska, drawn by him as Chairman
of the Territorial Committee of the
Senate, provisions comforting the juris-
diction in question upon the Federal
Territorial Courts, and upon the Su-
preme Court itself. [Sce Brightly's
Digest of the U. S. Laws, or the u. S.
Statutes at large, in either of which
those acts will be readily found by the
indexes.
Of course, the insertion in those acts
of those provisions comforting the ju-
risdiction in question, admits the fact
that without such provisions, the juris-
diction could not be possessed. But, as
every lawyer at all versed in Constitu-
tional and Congressional Law and the
long course of decisions by the FEEDER
al Courts, very well knows, no such adj
mission was necessary, for the reason
that the Constitution itself confers no
practical jurisdiction whatever upon
the Supreme or any other Federal
Court; none whatever that can be ex-
ercised, or made in any degree effec-
tual except by the aid of an act or
acts of Congress.
Indeed, every such lawyer knows, rs
will herein be shown, that the Supreme
ard every other Federal Court is
Court of only limited and special ju-
risdiction; can exercise no powers, en-
cept such as it is authorized by Con-
gress to exercise; has no existence, in
fact, except by virtue Of COMPRESSION
al enactment; and is, in short, bit the
mere creature Of Congress.
The heretical pretense we are refu-
ting, is sought to be based upon the
provisions of the Constitution, relating
to the Federal Judiciary. These are
embraced in Article Sd of that instru-
ment. The LIST section of that article
is as follows:
"The judicial power of the United
foto hn
Court, and such Inferior Courts as the
Congress may, from time to time, or
daia and establish. The judges, both
of the Supreme and Inferior Courts,
shall hold their offices during good be-
havior; and shall, at stated times, re-
ceive for their services compensation,
which shall not be diminished during
their continuance in Office
This merely designates the kind of
tribunals in which the judicial power
shall be vested, and provides for their
creation by Congress, and the tenure
of Office, and payment of the judges !;
and no more confers judicial power
upon them, than the declaration in Sec
ton 1, of Article I'd, that "the
Executive power shall be vested in a
President of the United States of
America" confers executive power !;
for if that declaration confers exccu-
tive power, then it confers all execu
tive power; and this would make
President as absolute in the possession
of such power as the Emperor of Rus
STA; which nobody pretends.
, The I'd Section of Article 8, is as
follows:
"The judicial power shall extend to
all cases in law and equity arising un-
der this Constitution, the laws of the
U. States, and treaties made or which
shall be made, under their authority
to all cases affecting ambassadors, 9TH
er public ministers, and consuls; to all
eases of admiralty and maratime juris-
diction; to controversies to which the
United States shall be party; to con-
troversies between two or more States;
between State and citizen of another
State; between citizens Of different
States; between citizens of the same
State, claiming lands under grants of
c. o.