Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1862-09-24
A Supreme Court.

menu government of the Confederate States has been
=" operation some six months, we have no Supreme
oour'' ana no movement in the Congress to estab-
i'sh one. The Constitution expressly provides
that
vesed one Supreme Court and in such Inferior Courts
G ne congress may from time to time ordn and estab
sha aS both ofhe Supreme and Inferior Courts,
stated times receive for their services a Compensation
snail not be diminished during their continuance
The judicial power shall extend to all cases arising under
ns the laws of the Confederate States and
made or which shall be made under their author.
70 an cases affecting ambassadors other public minis
anu consuis to all cases of admiralty and maritime
Grsaction to controversies to which the Confederate
saai be party to controversies between two or
more between State and citizen of another State
where the State is plaintiff between citizens CLAIMING
ianos Under grants of different States; and between
State or the citizens thereof and foreign States citizens or
OF any foreign State
III all cases affecting ambassadors other public minister's
anu Sonsuis and those in which State shall be party
lne supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In
AL he other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court
snail have appellate Jurisdiction both as to law and fact
Congress shall make"
Mark the language of the Constitution" the
judicial pouer Of tho Confederate States shall be
sested IN one Supreme Court, and in such inferior
Courts as the Congress may from time to time or
dam and establish" 1t was evidently the intention
OF the trainers of the instrument that the Supreme
court should be first established, and that the in.
ierlor Courts should be provided for from time to
time, thereafter: But we have the inferior Courts,
and no Supreme Court The Constitution expressly
provides for three departments of the government;
but, in realty, we have but two, for the inferior
courts possess no appellate jurisdiction, and their
power is not final either in cases arising under
the Constitution" or in other respects We have
therefore, the executive and legislative departments
but no judicial department as contemplated and
expressly provided for in the Constitution. The
gravest ard most important questions of Consttu-
onal exposition and construction, affecting the lib
erty and the life of the citizen as we'll as the rights
OF property, are therefore not even raised in Su
preme tribunal much less argued and determined
Inc legislative and executive branches of the gov.
ernment may violate the Constitution ITSELF and
take the most dangerous strides towards consolida.
tion-may set at naught the rights of the States
and the personal freedom of the citizen, and there
is no tribunal provided before which such evils NAV
oe brought for examination and remedy. In this
State, for example, the writ of Aa6eas corpus is sus
pended, IN at least one locality, and citizens sus-
peced OF crime are confined so as not to be reached
by this great writ of right This has been done BY
the inferior Court; and the decision of that Court
even if these suspected citizens should be able to
obtain trial, would be final as to them, for the
plain reason that there is higher Court in e1is-
tence to whom they could appeal The decision of
an inferior Judge, sitting alone and probably po-
tcal partizan and appointed because of his political
sentiments is final in all cases affecting property
and life And what is more than this there arc no
inferior Courts under the permanent government,
, the Judges who are now acting having been ap-
pointed under the provisional government
We earnestly appeal to the Congress to put the
whole Constitution in this respect in operation, by
establishing Supreme Court The people of the
Confederate States entitled to- and expect to see
established, government of checks and balances
government with three branches one to enact laws
| another to expound them, and another to enforce
them. And there is good reason why this should
not be done at once The government is certainly
permanent. Its existence is fixed fact and it will
continue to exist, trust for all time. An act of
Congress establishing such Court and putting it
in operation, would not only complete the machine
ry Of the government but it would give assurance
to our own people and to Europe that the President
and Congress regard the government of the Confed.
crate States as no longer merely provisional ex-
perimental, but as durable and permanent