The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1866-11-16

/ ODJCOt anu pun pOoc IL tldIiAN't' II 10
to subordinate the State judiciaries, in
all things, to Federal supervision and
control-to totally annihilate the indie
pendence and sovereignty of State ju-
diciaries, in the administration of State
laws, and the authority and control Of
the States over matters of purely do
mestic and local concern. If the State
| judiciaries are subordinated, all the de-
! partments Of the State Governments
will be equally subordinated, for all
State laws, let them relate to what de-
partment of government they may, or
to what domestic or local interest, will
be equally open to criticism, interpret
alton and adjudication by the Federal
tribunals, whose judgments and de-
crees will be supreme, and will over
ride the decisions of the State courts,
and leave them utterly powerless.
I The Federal Judiciary has jurisdic-
ton of all questions arising under the
Constitution and laws of the United
States; and by virtue of this new pro-
vision, if adopted, every matter of ju-
dicial investigation, civil or criminal,
| however insignificant, may be drawn
into the vortex Of the Federal Judicial
ry. In Il controversy between two
| neighbors about the ownership Of a
| pig, the unsuccessful party may allege
that the State tribunals have deprived
him Of his property without due pro-
cess Of law, and take the case before
the Federal tribunals for revision. So
/ If man be indicted for larceny, or
! other crime, convicted and sentenced,
upon allegation of deprivation of lib
! eyty without due process of law, he
may bring the case before the Federal
! tribunals for revision and reversal
| So, too, if a murderer be arrested, tri-
| ed, convicted andsentencedt to be hung,
! he may claim the protection of the new
constitutional prOvision-allege that a
| State is about to deprive him Of life
| without due process Of law, and arrest
all further proceedings until the Fed
/ eral Government shall have inquired
! whether a State has a right to punish
| its own citizens for an infractiOn Of its
! own laws, and have granted permiS-
| sion to the State tribunals to proceed.
| Under such a system the liberties of
the people could not long be maintain
| ed. As already remarked, free gov
ernments can be preserved only by
| keeping the power near the people, to
be exercised through local agencies.
| Under this new system, State and local
authority would not at once disappear.
| For some time they would contest ju-
| risdiction with the Federal Govern
ment; but the inevitable and constant
| ly increasing tendency would be for
| the control of domestic affairs to steal
away from the people, the States, and
! local municipal bodies, and centralize
! and concentrate in the hands of the Fed
| eral Government; and as party con-
| fiicts intensified, and party victories al
ternated, thepoWerWould be more and
| more ineXorably used by the dominant
| party to punish its enemies, reward its
| friends, and strengthen and perpetuate
its hold upon the power and patronage
| of the Government.
| Be assured, if this new provision is
engrafted in the Constitution, it will
in time change the entire structure and
| texture Of our Government, and sweep
away all the guarantees of safety devi-
sed and provided by our patriotic sires
of the Revolution. 1t is impossible to
maintain our wise and happy form Of
| government without preserving the
independence and sovereignty Of the
States within their appropriate and
constitutional spheres. They are of
primary and vital importance. The
States may exist and perform all their
functions without the Union or FEEDER
| al Government; the Union and the
| Federal Government cannot exist with
| out the States. And they must be
States Of equality-equal in dignity
equal in rights equal in power-equal
! in the control, absolute and uncondi-
tional, of all things pertaining to their
internal and local policy and interests.
Another blow which the proposed a.
mendment aims at the Government
which our fathers founded is in the
| change Of the basis of representation.
This would be of very pernicious eff
feet Aggregate population is the true
| basis Of representation. No matter
| how the elective franchise be disposed
of, whether exercised by few or many,
| all classes Of the community are repre-
| sented. The interests of all classes of
people in the same community are so
interviewer and commingled that they
cannot be separated, and whoever
wields the representative power must
do it for the good or i'll of aIl-perhaps
not precisely in the same degree, but
he cannot use it so as largely to benefit
one class without to some extent ben
citing all, or to injure and oppress one
class without, to q greater less extent,
injuring and expressing all.
There are always, even in this coun-
try, where the right of suffrage is most