Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-05-02
THE STATES IN THE SUPREME
COTRT,

We print below the concluding portion
Of IN argument of great power delivered
before the United States Supreme Court
by Chas OCOnnor, Of counsel for the
State of Georgia, in an application for q
writ Of injunction from that tribunal
| against the execution of the recent mill
tary reconstruction act OF Congress. 1t
was made in reply to Attorney General
Stanberry, who appeared for the govern
ment The argument Of the latter was
TO the effect that the court had no iuris
diction; that the case was not within the
reason or spirit Of the constitution that
the reconstruction act rs executed by the
President works no hardships to the peo-
pie Of the South, az they can do as they
please under it, and that it was a politi-
cal case and could only be reached by
political remedies.
Mr. OConnor s argument is pronounced
one of the ahlest ever presented on q
great constitutional theme, and the posi-
tions he assumes meet with the concur
renee of some, of the foremost legal
minds in the nation Curtis and Com
stock, Of New York, have written papers
yindicating, against Chief Justice Chase =
decision in the Mississippi case, made a
few weeks since, the Jurisdiction Of the
court over the case as offered in the bills
filed
John G Calhoun, who had given the
intense study Of his great intellect to the
science of governments, and especially
to the theory and practical workings of
our own, and who was perhapsthe acutest
dialectician the country has ever had,
though not one of its greatest lawyers,
thought that such questions lay without
the province of the judicial tribunals,
and repeatedly warned the States against
submitting their rights as such to the
abitrament of the Supreme Court We
do not know If Chief Justice Chase and
Attorney General Stanberry reach their
conclusions in the cases now under dis
cussion by the same train of reasoning
hut they clearly maintain that the court
has no jurisdiction. In combating this
view, aud urging the court to issue the
writ Mr. O'Conner said
Now, under orr system, there is, as has
been iniimated from the bench of this
court upon former occasion, a danger that
one department may Of itself alone, and by
its own power, usurp all the powers of gov
eminent and execute its will, thus defeat
ing the whole scheme Of this division Of
powers, without the calamity occurring Of
a President being found reads to acquiesee
in their mandate. They have but 10 pass
an unlawful act, and threaten the President
with the impeachment Of one of their
bodies and the condemnation of another if
he does not execute il, and perhaps nine
men out Of ten in that office would imme-
diately Weld 10 their power particularly
as il IA not his especial function TO decide
what is or what Is not constitutional. Tins
in that given case, by the action OF one
single department-tha as il may be
called. small minority of one ont OF three
the constitution may be set at naught and
public liberty destroyed, unless there be
some mode Of invoking the aid of the third
Judiciary.
In this very case, perhaps the only case
worthy Of notice in which there has been
an attempt TO trample upon Che constitution
since il was founded, we have precisely
that predicament Of things, n Congress
alone, OF its osn authority, putting its heel,
through the fundamentally of President
threatened with Impeachment, upon ten
States OF this Union and crushing out their
existence, without, as ] say, the aid of the
President. Looking into the constitution,
Won find the remedy. Looking into the
YOU find il there declared that
il allows such course Of proceeding that a
third department can step in and can save
the President from being thus contrary 10
his INDICTMENT and 10 his will, made the in- |
strument of this single, usurping. domineer-
ing, lawless department The great and
striking case in which any such thing a.
This might have been anticipated is precise |
" the case where the power OF great ma |
iority was called upon to crush some minor |
force an the republic - some state OF |
States in feeble condition. Those States, |
BEING forbidden by the constitution to have |
any other allies or friends, are allowed to
come into the Supreme Court of the United |
States. and before the life il crushed out Of |
hem, through the fundamentally Of the |
equity process, which the court is entitled
10 by lie nature and foundation, and By the
law Of the parent country, which We have
Inherited. protect themselves to this eX-
lent. give 70 the President perfect immu- I
nifty, perfect defense, in case he choose TO
act virtnously, according 30 the belief OF
his mind and Judgment, according TO his
views OF the right OF the case;
him a complete protection against
any action OF this Congressional body
against him through its court Of impeach-
ment, unless they should adopt measures so
monstrous and revolutionary that, as
matter Of course, they would in some man
ner be deprived Of the powers which they
would claim for purpose SO unjust.
Now, ii yonr Honors please, il Is from
these views Of the subject that we contend
hat the State Of Georgia properly comes
here for this remedy by which TO perpetu-
lte her own existence as 4 State; that if