Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-08-06

pressly used, they are substantially. The
object wns TO eSta6iiSh justice, TnSAre do
mestic tranquility, and to secure the bless
| ings of liberty to Posterity, Every person
who, in the long line of ages, swears to-
abide by it, sweafs to secure it to postertty
1t was therefore intended that the govern
ment should last forever. il
The new government likewise took
new name. AS England and Scotland be-
came "Greas Britain" so the thirteen
States became ''The people of the United.
States" So
The unity of the government is repre-
seuted by single executive, and its law
making power by a Congress, to be called
| by new name, the Congress of the United
States. a'9
The powers of the government appear
| almost copied from the act of union. The
citizens of each State are entitled to all
the privileges and immunities of citizens
in the several States. Freedom of trade
and navigation are fully secured. 4
Customs, duties, imports and excises are
10 be uniform throughout the United States,
! The uregulation" of trade isswith Congress,
! and is also to be uniform. The land tax.
is imposed upon an arbitrary scheme, ns.
| in England. The provisions as to the
standard of coin, and weights and meas.
ures, are similar.
No law imposing religious establish
ment eau be passed by Congress-
1t will be necessary to notice more fully
the provisions for local legislation. The
State legislatures continued to exist for
this purpose. 1t was iorseen that, if Eng
land and Scotland needed separate local
laws, much more would country like
our own, so vast in extent, and with pro-
| ductiOns and interests so varied. The To-
cal legislatures were to become centers for
the origination of private law: Not as in
Scotland, where the judges alone could
advance jurisprudence, the legislatures of
the States could pass statutes changing
the rules of mere municipal law. Within
these limits their nCtionis final. But their
functions are subordinate and inferior.
Every topic of public law is withdrawn
| from them, Severe restrictions. too, are
laid upon their. power of municipal legis-
lation. They cannot repeal their own
laws, when they assume thefQrm of con-
tract; they cannot, by retrospective legis-
lation, increase in any respect the punish
ment of their criminals: they cannot, by
any prospective legislation, provide for the
discharge of an insolvent debtor from his
pecuninry obligations to the citizens of
another State, and they can give no COM
pulsory jurisdiction to their courts when
their own citizens are plaintiffs and the
citizens of another State is defendant.
Every act of the State legislatures in
consistent with the normal working of the
general government is void, andsthe courts
of the Union are the final acbiters of all
legal questions involving the action of the
national government.
Traces Of the act of union are also OBJ
servable in the organization of the gov
ernmeut. Members of Congress must be
inhabitants of their States, as Scotch rep
resentatives are of Scotland; and Scna-
tors from the respective States are elected
by separate body, as the representative
peers are chosen by the peers of Scotland
from their own number under the statute
of Anne.
The trainers of the Constitution further
secured their government by requiring
oaths similar. to the feudal oath of al
lcgiance, and by adopting definition OF
treason from the English law; a definition
only applicable to a compact government
to which subject owes allegiance. 1t is
strange that the sovereignty of the United
States could have been denied, while the
only rule of political or true State treason
found in English legislation is inserted in
the Constitution itself Every other pro-
vision in the statute of Edward the Third
from which our constitutional provision is
drawn, is either adopted for the protection
of the king and the royal family or in
cludes offences more properly ranked un-
der other branches of criminal jurisprll-
dence This definition is again derived
from the Roman law, which permitted no
divided allegiance.
The result may be briefly stated: Eng
land and Scotland were originally indie
Of int
1 formed perpetual union. This union
was a mere compact. The great powers OF
government were conferred upon a new
4 Parliament called that of Great Britain.
The public law is left unreservedly to this
Parliament, while the private law of Scot
land remains in full force.
There is no method for protecting this
private law from invasion by the impe-
rial Parliament, nor any local means
provided for tho continuance of private
law.
The several States of the American IN
ion were in like manner independent
From motives of similar interest, they also
formed q perpetual union. The great
powers of government were conferred upon
legislature, executive, and judiciary. To
this central government all public law was
intrusted. Private law was left to the
states, with provisions securing it from in
vasion, and allowing its continued i'm
provement by local means. Behold the
difference Both are governments; but
the one can, and the other cannot trench
upon local law. Iu the beautiful language
of Burke, the United States Government
holds ian imperial character, in which, a:
from the throne of heaven, she superin.
tends all the inferior legislatures, and con
trolls them all without annihilatiug any.
s's Ena THEoDoRE W. DWIGHT.
C.5IIaa-5TT., ,.,, 49,, m,.S.S,T-c o.