Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-05-10

parallel was within the limits of the State
of Georgia, and that the United States had
no title to it until Georgia coded it in 1902.
AS regards the three lower counties of
Mississippi, the court has decided that that
portion of Alabama and Mississippi below
the 31st parallel was embraced within the
Louisiana treaty, and that its inhabitants
were entitled to all the rights and privile-
ges secured by that treaty, many of which
rights were clearly infringed by this legis-
lation. It embraced not only that portion
OF Mississippi north of the 31st parallel,
acquired from Georgia and protected by
the compacts of 1887 and 1902, but also
embraced the three lower counties upon
the Gulf of Mexico, acquired by the treaty
from France.
The Attorney General placed much reli-
ance upon the decision in the case OF the
Cherokee Nation VS.. the State of Georgia.
18th Peters) The court there held that the
Cherokee Nation was not foreign State
in the sense Of the Constitution was not
State that could sue in the courts of the
United States, and therefore that the court
had no jurisdiction for the want of pro-
per party to the bill. All beyond this was
06He1' dictun1, but what was that case It
was a bill, not against the agents of the
State of Georgia, but a bill to restrain the
State as State in It's corporate capacity
from the execution of its laws, and at a
time when the State was actually executing
them by force. If the present bill was filed
against the Government of the United
States to restrain 1T as a government from
executing by force the laws in question,
there might be some analogy; but it is not
a bill against the Gocernment it is bill
to restrain subordinate officials. A careful
perusal of the decision in Marbury VS.. Mad
ison would show that such bill was sus-
tainable.
A word in conclusion, as to the irrepa-
rable in jury that will be done if this court
does not interfere. No one rises here, and
he believed no one could rise and defend
in his soul and conscience the consti-
nationality of these laws but although
their unconstitutionality is substantially
conceded, the question is to be evaded he
used the word i'll the same Pickwickian
sense in which the Attorney General spoke
of the first bill filed as 'scandalous." The
court is asked to shrink from the defence of
the Constitution to fly from the battle
ments which you are sworn to defend to
abandon the Constitution in It's last citadel;
to shutyour eyes when the fact that the Con-
stitution is violated. You are asked not to
see that ten States and ten millions of peo-
pie are deprived of all their rights under
the Constitution, and that it is repealed so
far as they are concerned. Four of these ten
States united i'll forming this government
after they had Joined in carrying the coun-
try successfully through the war of the rev
olution. One of them, Virginia, gave US
the great, the sublime man without whom,
under Providence, perhaps our independ-
ence would never have been achieved
They united in carrying us through the
second war of independence, and raising
the country to pinnacle of power and
glory unknown in the history of the
world What if some OF them did err re-
Gently d.? Did not Massachusetts, err in
Shays rebellion Did not Pennsylvania
err in the ''whiskey instruction" and the
more formidable Olmstead's rebellion p
Did not New England err when she assem-
bled a band of traitors at Hartford, who,
but for the glorious victory of New Orleans,
would have at least endeaYored to drag
those great States out of the Union Be-
cause these States have committed such
great errors, have they now no rights p
Have the loyal people among them, num-
bered by thousands and tens of thousands,
who risked their lives in the very heart of
the rebellion, no rights A:e those peo-
pie who, notwithstanding all their faults
and errors, are citizens of common coun-
try, destined to share the same fate rs our
selves, to have no protection from this
court, although those of them who went
out did it upon the ground of Mr.. Calhoun
and his followers, that the court had no
right to decide upon questions of this kind?
Now. when they have come back and assert
the true doctrine that secess sion is q mere
nullity, and appeal to this court as the
arbiter created by the Constitution, are
they to be told that they have no constitu-
tional rights, or at least none which will be
protected by this court that perhaps you
might redress the grievance of an individual
who would bring suit for all unlawful ar
rest, but when this military law has gone
into effect, and each and every one of these
State constitutions and governments
shall be overthrown and their people re-
duced to military bondage, you will say to
the States, eve cannot help you; there is
no remedy for you; these are great evils; we
see plainly that you are deprived of your
rights but the Constitution.
to which you now appeal, gives us, the final
arbiter, no Jurisdiction to maintain your
rights ?" If, instead of the
friends of the Constitution and the Union,
as the country knows you all to be, some
of its worst enemies, representing its des-
potic foes, were sitting here to decide upon
the destiny of this country, and to pro-
nonnce upon the perpetulty OF the Constr
tuition and the Union, what more fatal
edict could be pronounced by this court
than to declare that there is no peaceful
remedy for ten States and ten millions of
people within the limits of this great Re-
public ?
AS Mr.. Walkers argument consumed
three hours and a half, reaching till near
The close of the session, the Court decided
to hear the Attorney Generals concluding
on Monday next.
War Anecdote.
While in winter-quarters at Centreville,
It came to pass that one of the Confederate
RUNNERS (who was, on account of his con-
duct, not particular favorite with the
Colonel of the Sixth Louisiana,) beat the
wrong call. The Colonel rushed out of his
tent, and meeting what he supposed to be
5he rascally drummer, at once went to work
to punish him, and having done so, he re-
turned to his tent, where he found his Or
lerly, Fred, German youth, of quite gen
EEL manners, sitting before the fire with a
broad smile upon his countenance, evident