The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-12-22
sndse poi.iey on corporations


Judse Poisley on Corporations
In the remarkable opinion, which We
have under review, the striking doctrine
is laid down that no allegiance is due
from citizen to the Srate in which he
resides; that the States are not States,
hut only "so-called;" that they are in
TACT and in truth only political and mu-
nucipal corporations" We quote from
the Opinion, page a, Allegiance iG that
perpetual duty which each citizen owes
to his country To his country-not to
his township, 20 his county, or to his
State" Allegiance is not Invisible. 1t
cannot be partitioned, and one portion
set apart and assigned to one power and
another to different power" 1t is an
obligation, siHgly, absolute aud uncondi-
tioual" Page S: THE several States are
political corporations within and subor-
diuate to the United States, possessing
extensive political and municipal rights
and powers "
Judge Polsley, when he was qualified
as Judge, took the oath of allegiance to
the State of West Virginia; he daily
causes the oath of allegiance to the State
of West Virginia to. be administered to
his clerks, sheriffs, attorneys and jurors,
who assist him in the administration of
Justice in his circuit Yet he gravely de-
cides that there is no such thing as allie
glance to State What solemn
mockery is here A Circuit Judge who
has himself taken the oath of allegiance
to the State of West Virginia, and daily
administers that oath to others, judicial
ly announces that there is no allegiance
due to the State. Divided allegiance"
says the Opinion, page Sd, lis term in
vented by Southern politicians and
statesmen, upon which they erected their
doctrine of secession" Ii may be true
that allegiance to State was invented
by Southern politicians, but it aust have
been invented very early in the history
Of the country, for every State in the
Union has adopted the idea Each State
requires all its ofac srs to take al oath of
allegiance to the laws Each State has
laws defining and furnishing treason to
law And more than one State has ex-
al Tha Can{lar-, ,NnI.f.
clans referred to in the Opinion, as the
inventors Of the idea, may have been
George Washington, James Madison and
George Mason, for the idea is fully as old
as either of them. and they sat in more
than one convention in which it was pro.
mulgated
If State be not State, as the name
would appear to indicate, but merely, a
municipal and political corporation, as
Judge Polsley asserts, it is = corporation
the like of which cannot elsewhere be
found in the history of the world Re.
sistanee to its authority is treason, pun
ishable with death. 1t has over its citi-
zens, or, as the Judge would probably
term them, its eorporators, the power of
life and death. 1t has sole control over
the subjects of murder, arson, rape, adul
terry, larceny, deeds, wills, descents, dis
tributions, marriages and divorces. 1t
has also the right of eminent domain.
It's as remarkable for the restriction
OF its powers as for its possession of pow
En- To what other corporation has it
been deemed necessary to deny the pow
er to coin money, to raise armies. or TO
maintain navies ?
And yet Judge Polsley judicially de-
eides that State-is not State, but
corporation, and publishes his opinion TO
the world, in a pamphlet. "Oh, that
mine adversary would write a book
says Job. If Judge Polsley has an adj
vsrsary he must be intensely gratifed,
for the Judge has written book.
The Circuit Judiciary of West Virginia
bids fair to attract considerable atten-
tion in legal circles. One of its Judges
has decided that the rebellion was gi-
ganticr conspiracy; that all the sympa-.
thisers were co-conspirators, and that ifa
rebel in Texas committed murder, you
could hang any Virginia rebel upon