Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-09

TIE OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES OF
TEsT.OATHs-AE IMPORTANT DE
CEsION.
We are Informed by telegraph that the
Supreme Court Of the United States, on
Friday last, rendered decision in the
cases deferred from It's last session in
volVing the constitutionality of political
test-Oaths. At that term the question
was exhaustiyely argued, snd the mem
bers Of that high tribunal have taken am-
pie time to deliberate. The result is, that
majority Of the Court pr6l0nnced them
unconstitutional, and thus falls to the
ground the chiefest prop Of the Con-
gressional despOtism. In this decision,
the Supreme Court have illustrated the
truth, that in times Of civil commotion
pure and enlightened Judiciary is the
safest bulwark for private rights and
public liberty. 1t is not fitting that the
country should, in words, thank the Court
for this act, for, in our conception, it did
but its duty; but il is entitled to honor,
high honor, in that it has upheld the Con
stitution against vile political combine
tons which everywhere else in the whole
range Of the Government seem to be too
powerful for successful resistance. Ii is
stated that four Of the Judges (the Court
now being composed Of nine) dissentsd,
and that each member of the Bench
viii deliver separate opinion We
shallawait their publication with interest.
Test oaths are choice engines of tyran-
ny. Under theis cover, it is possible for
the party holding power to commit any
enormity. The principIe admitted, it can
be made universally applicable. If, in
forming our free government the fathers
meant any one thing more than another
in the list ofinestimable franchises which
make up civil liberty, it was security from
prescription for opinions sake They re-
yolted from a government where the people
had suffered under testoatbs They had
no thought that the scheme of govern
ment which their toll andesacrifces had
won, should contain a vestige of the
odious principle which sanctioned
them. They were careful to exclude
it from the Constitution, and never
intended that fair Interpretation should
find it there. Not until within the
last Eve years in this country did any
man pretending to craftsmanship think
10 seek for il, and no man who had
even dared to speak was thought to wish
to use it The frightful thing that has
been thrOttled by the Supreme Court was
an outgroWth Of the civil war--an appli,
anee ofthe mad ambition which provoked
the contest, prolonged the struggle, and
now prevents the return of peace. 1t il
antagonistie to free institutions If i
prevails they cannot stand FIVE are t.
have liberty it must be expunged from
the statute book If it is not thii
once admirable Government is to be ruled
in future by succession of factions, eacl
one in turn increasing the sweep and tht
force Of the oaths Of exclusion it will pro
pound, until freedom is destroyed During
hostilities there was some pretext for al
oath of allegiance as a measure Of Mill
tary precaution but it became broad
farce, useless for any good purpose, an(
demoralizing in its tendency. But pc
litical test.oath, such as that which nov
debars a large mass Of the people Of thi
country from civil affairs, is monste
that can never be tolerated by fret
people
What action Congress and other legis.
lative bodies viii take under this decision
remains to be seen. II has been charged
that the President in his message advO
Gated the application Of the test oath t.
members Of Congress, but we do not per
eeive that fair reading authorizes sucl
a construction. We are certain that h
did not mean it in the sense that thu
Radicals in that body do. 1t is now
perhaps, his duty to officially inform
Congress Of the ruling of the Supreme
Court on this grave and vital question
and recommend its repeal Atany rate
tits the duty Of the conservative men il
Congress and everywhere in the nation
through every avenue Of public opinion
to demand that the verdict Of the cour