Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1860-04-27
The Constitutional Power and Authority
Of the Supreme Court.

we give an extract from speech delivered
in the House of Representatives, by the Hon.
RoscoE CoNxLINa, of N. Y, on the l 18th inst.
on the constitutional power and authority Of
the Supreme Court We wish we had the
space to spare necessary to publish it in full,
for it is document that should be extensively
circulated and carefully read. To our mind
the arguments and conclusions of Mr.. G.. arc
logical, truthful and convincing, and how any
one can give it candid perusal and then say
that he believes that the trainers Of the Con-
stitution intended that the greatest and most
vital interests of our country should be dele
gated to this body, shd that Congress, the
States, the Territories, aye, the Constitution
itself, should be subservient to a few anti
qnated old fogies occupying the Supreme
Bench, is more than we can see:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN:-I propose to remark upon
that part Of the message wherein the Presi-
dent informs us that the fate Of all the Terri
tories of the Republic has been irrevocably
sealed by the action of Court of law This
announcement is very extraordinary one !;
it could never have been made had our insti-
tutions been purely elective. Objectionable
as such a system may have appeared to our
fathers, it would have preserved the American
Congress forever from such greeting as the
present Executive has sent u.s. With no pow
ers or agencies, save those conferred directly
by the people, and these deprived of the ele-
ments Of growth BY provisions uprooting them
at frequent intervals, an age of the Govern
ment would not have come when judicial
tribunal would attempt, in the sense implied
by the President, final settlement y Of
great political questions. Certainly no such
attempt would have been based upon theories
falslfying the history of the country, and cal
culatcd to enthrone barbarism in every terri
torial possession, if not in the States them
selves. But, Sir, the checks and balances
adjusted by our fathers have proved made
quate to avert so strange contingency. The
Government had not reached the allotted age
Of man, when its judicial department attempt
cd all that have stated. In a case present
ing the simple question of one poor plaintiff
right to maintain his action, the Supreme
Court has undertaken to fix forever the most
sacred rights of millions. The step to be
sure, was premature. Ample in jurisdiction,
and impatient to exercise it, that august tri-
bunal was unwilling to turn black man from
its doors without excessive reasonings. The
citizenship of the plaintiff was the only point
in judgment, and that being determined adj
versely to him, the case was at an end. New
ertheless, the opinions swell into museum
of discussions, which, however distinguished
the debaters, deserves no reverence as law
But the formal want of knowledge in these
dispositions, is practically important only in
so far as it gives pause to events, and affords
time calmly to determine constitutional rights
and limitations. That this interval will be
long, cannot be expected An occasion must
soon arise for imparting the forms of law to
those prOmonOtory manifestoes. Should it
arise during the existence of the present
bench, it will no doubt be eagerly embraced,
and then will be presented question, per-
haps the gravest of the kind the present gen.
Grafton will be called upon to solve. In its
first approach it will seem a,question of Sla-
very or Freedom, but it viii turn out to be a
conflict of prcrogatives and powers, coils
ion Of forces in the Government affecting
more or less the fate of every popular right.
A powerful party will be found in the coun-
try maintaining that the Supreme Court OF
this country is clothed with the authority to
say what laws Congress may and what laws
Congress shall not pass and that whenever
this authority has been exercised neither the
Executive, nor Congress, may overstep the
limits it has prescribed. On the other hand,
organizations, policies, and eternal principles,
will cry out against imperial assumptions, and
the issue will stretch far beyond even the I'M
discoverable confines of the one pcrvadiug
question of human Slavery Should the
Court party prevail, and the Constitution be
held to endow the Judiciary with censorship
of Congress, the immediate result must be to
turn into bold usurpation the leading states
manship of half century, to ostracise the
most numerous and liberal political party in
the country, and to set up dogmas repugnant
to the material interests of the nation, and alb
horrent to the convictions of the Christian
world. Such an epoch could not occur in the
history of the present generation, unaccom.
panied by untoward results. Violent reyul-
| sions would end in restoration of the phi
losophy OF the past, and constitutional major
tiles, at whatever cost, would sternly resume
their sway. The relationships and pretensions
of Slavery were determined in this country
long ago. Inspired by the great conceptions
in which the foundations of the Government
were laid, conscious of the exalted purposes
it was intended to subserye, profoundly in
structed in its philosophy and scope, the men
who inaugurated the Constitution pursued no
ambiguous, or deyiating course on the subject
of Slavery. The early Houses of Congress
were devoted to curling the career Of this
then universally admitted evil. Statesmen Of
all parties united in treating involuntary SER
vitude as stationary and not progressive
institution, and the Federal Legislature was
the sovereign power invoked to prevent its
territorial encroachment.
The warrant for this policy was found in
the Constitution, the free sentiment of the
country demanded and vitalized it. That
sentiment has been goaded to rapid and con-
tinual increase. Deploring Slavery as sad
national misfortune, revolving at it as bar
barous and detestable crime, the inhabitants
of the Frea States have ever sought by moral
and political forces to dissuadc and discour.
age it. For long. years this was moderate
and forbearing effort, often abated by spirit
of kindness and concession, still oftener by
an aversion to angry agitation. But now,
changes have passed over us. Violated COW
enants, iawless and nefarious proceedings,
bloodshed upon distant fields, usurpations
and brutalities in this Capitol, brayado in
this hall, fresh assumptions everywhere, have
dashed the public mind into intense ACTIVITY.
From this time forth, we are to have results
and not arrangements, issues and not COM
,,ro,,,scoo III, E,,.o C<o<eS Alcx CT.