Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1861-01-12

made in my third lumber, namely, to prove that
If the U. S. Supreme Court is, in the last resort,
the exclusive and final judge of what powers the
States have delegated, and what they have reserv.
ed, it makes the Federal Government a govern
ment of unlimited powers.
In discussing this question, vital to the very ex-
istence of the reserved rights of the States" and
at the head Of which stands State sovereignty, !
have tho first man to find who docs not grant that
the Federal Government is limited BY tho Consti-
tuition which created it, and defined its powers,
and yet, practically, it is a government Of unlimi-
ted powers, provided it DO true that the U. s..
Court is, in the last resort, the exclusive and final
judge of what power both i. and its coordinate de-
p%artments can r~ightfully exercise, in defiance Of
the sovereign will of the States. In using the
term States, l mean that political body or organi-
cation, the people Of a State, in whom sovereignty
inherently resides.
The bold and manly author of "Junius" said
"The power Of kings, lords, aud commons, is not
an arbitrary power. They are the trustees, not the
oicnerS Of the estate. The fee simple is in US.
They cannot ALLEVIATE, they cannot master. When
we say that the legislature is supreme, we mean
that il is the highest power known to the constitu-
ton; that it is The highest in comparison with the
other subordinate powers established by the laws"
If "Junius" could claim for the British people
an authority above "kings, lords, and commons"
is it not humiliating to see statesmen, in "Repub-
licAn America" claiming for the Federal Govern
ment, sovereignty over the States who created it.
and delegated to it as a trustee, every power it can
constitutionally exercised
The thirteen sovereign States, for such they
were beyond oil question, under the ARTICLES of
Confederation" in adopting the Federal Consiitu-
tion, became the sole and only parties to the Fed
eral Compact. Each State" says Mr.. Jefferson,
"formed one party, and it's co-States formed as to
itself the other party" The constitution thus
formed by the States, as States, and not by the
people as one State or Nation, was made the
measure, or power of attorney, by which the
agents therein named were empowered to act for
their principals--the States. That the States are
the parties to the Constitution is already proven
by another fact-a constitutional fact; namely,
that any mine States shall be sufficient for the es-
tablishment of this Constitution" and consequent
~, to secede from, and annihilate the Pc RPETUAL
UNION then existing under the Articles of Confcd-
Grafton. With al! these facts, and the sel[evident
truths promulgated in the Declaration of I~ndepen-
IoOhSO N"hAiu u AZ boiu SAiOi hA ~ 1CNSiot
agents, the mere creatures Of the sovereign States,
whose fat spoke them into being, to pretend to be
endowed with Sovereignty" to claim "aUegiance,"
aud to be exclusive and final judge in the last re-
cort of their powers under the Federal Constitu-
ton )" is beyond all question. not only the mos!
ridiculous absurdity, but the most ~cousummste
i pudence imaginable; and yet this arrogant claim
is admitted, necessarily admitted, by every politi.
clan who comedies that the U. S. Supreme CourI
possesses this despotic power.
This highly important question respecting The
powers Of the U. s. Supreme Court, grew out o.
the enactment of the Alien and Sedition laws O.
1898. The States Of Virginia and Kentucky, tool
the position that these enactments were "unconsti
t%u.ional, null end void" and that "the States al
sovereign parties to the Federal Compact, had thu
right to judge of infractions of the Federal Con
; s%titution, as we'll as of the mode and measure o
redress"
The States of Delaware, Rhode Island, Massa
chusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire
and Vermont, (seven of the then fourteen States,
: took exceptions to the doctrines laid down by Vir
0 ginia and Kentucky. The replies of these States
: upon which General jackson based his Proclama
e ton of 1882 were laid before the Virginia Legis
o lature in 1893, and drew from the General Assem-
q bly, what is we'll known to old men as Madison
Q Report on the Virginia Resolutions Of 1893"
d In this "Report," Mr.. Madison re-asserts an,
re-argues at great length, their former positions
namely; 'that the States are absolute sovereign
a ties; that they are the parties to the Federal Con
pact, and that as parties thereto they have tn
right, and are in duty bound, to i~nterpose fS
% 81 ,bo of tho au;l Tho Al;an nm
Sodilion laws; and for maintaining within the
II respective limits the rights and liberties appertail
of ing to them"
Mr.. Madison thus notices the subject of Il
ar alarming and dangerous power then claimed
at one half of the States, for the Federal Judiciar
,e and triumphantly refutes the claim. He says:
be- "But it is objected, that the Judicial authori
'e. is to be regarded as the sole ~expositor of the CO.
of stitution, in the last resort"
IL "On this objection it might be observed, frs
he that there may be instances of usurped powe
mt which the forms Of the Constitution would new
at draw within the control of the judicial depal
IN meut: that if the decision Cf the Judiciary
raised above the authority os the sovereign, part
w. to the Constitution, the decisions Of the other d
ut partment, not carried by the forms of the Cons
nd tuition before the Judiciary, must be equally u
is thoritive and final with the decisions of that {
sts partmeu.."
of But the proper answer to the objection, is, ii
tu- the resolution of the Genera Assembly relates
those great and extraordinary cases, in which
OF forms of the Constitution may prove %inefectr
no against infractions dangerous to the essent
ted rights Of the parties to il. The resolution supp
Irt- es that dangerous powers, not delegated, may
,rt, only be usurped and executed by the other dept
hat ments, but that the Judicial department also II
zen exercise or sanction dangerous powers, beg ond
ing grant Of the Constitution; and consequently, t
her the ultimate right of the parties to the Constitul
will to judge 1Ohether the Compact has been dangero'
ties rioiated, must ertend to V~ioIations BY one detsgC
on. authority as weIl as by another; by the Judicia
by as we'll as by the Executive or the Legislati'
nv Uoweye true, therefore, it may be that