Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-09-20
WHO ARE TRAITORS WHAT Is
TREASON?
From the National Intelligence


There are three great members of the
government of the Union-the President,
the Congress, and the Supreme Court. To
each of these the constitution assigns GER
tain duties. 1t fixes, with mathematical
certainty, their spheres of action. 1t makes
it lawful for the President to do, for Con-
gress to do, and for the Supreme Court to
do; and it follows these grants of power
by express limitations put upon each of
these coordinate and coequal members of
the government. This is all very explicit,
but it is not enough 1t does not fully ex-
hibit the exact structure of the political
system-at least, it fails to point out one of
the safeguards which careful reflection and
after-thought embodied in that system.
The powers delegated to the three great
members referred to are clearly defined,
and it is then added, by amendment, that
"the powers not delegated to the United
States by the constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserued TO the States
respectively, or to the people"
Chief Justice Marshall explains the the
DRY of the system thus:
"The original and supreme will organ
ize the government, and assigns to different
departments their respective powers. 1t
may be either stopped here, or establish
certain limits not to be transcribed by
those departments.
"The government of the United States
is of the latter description. The powers of
the Legislature are defined and limited;
and that those limits may not be mistaken
or forgotten, the constitution is written. To
what purpose are powers limited, and to
what purpose is that limitation committed
to writing, if these limits may at any time
be passed by those intended to be restrained?
It's proposition too plain to
be contested, that the constitution controls
any legislative act repugnant to it, or the
Legislature may alter the constitution by
an ordinary act"
We have now to look into the constitr-
tion to find the authority which it creates,
to determine the extent and limitations of
the powers conferred upon those great
members of the government.
Again we invoke Chief Justice Marshall,
not only because his patriotism is I'M
questioned and his great abilities admitted,
but because his exposition Of the matter is
alike simple, explicit, and wholly un-
answerable. He says:
1T is emphatically the progiacc of the
judicial department to say what the law
is. Those who apply the rule to particular
cases must Of necessity expound and interpret
that rule.
So, if law be in opposition to the con-
stitution, If both the law and the constitu-
ton apply TO particular case, so that the
court must either decide that case conform
ably to the law, disregarding the constitu-
ton, or conformably TO the constitution,
disregsrding the law, the court must deter
mine which of these conflicting rules gov
ern the case. This is the very essence Of ju-
dicidl duty. If, then, the courts are to re-
gard the constitution, and the constitution
is superior to any ordinary act of the De-
gislature, the constitution, and not such or
binary act, must govern the case to which
they both apply. Those, then, who con-
troyert the principle that the constitution
is to be considered in court as a paramount
law, are reduced to the necessity of main
tanning that courts must close their eyes on
the constitution, and see only the law.
This doctrine igolld sUBvERT the Uery toltRa
ddfions Of all lUrittea constitutions"
We quote from the constitution:
The President shall be COMMANDMENTS
Chief of the army and navy of the United
States"
Congress shall make no law abridging
the freedom of speech or the press"
THE trial of all crimes. except in cases
of Impeachment, shall be by jury"
"No person shall be held TO answer for a
capital or otherwise infamous crime, IN
less on presentment Of indictment Of a
grand jury"
an all criminal prosecutions the accused
shall enjoy the right of speedy and public
trial By an impartial jury of the STATE and
district wherein the crime shall have been
committed"
In the array Of causes which we assigned
in l776 for a separation from Great Britain
are these:
"He" the King, "has INSTRUCTED the adj
ministration of justice by refusing his assent
to laws for establishing judiciary pOlOer.
Gle has effected to render the military
independent Of and superior to, the ciyil
power.
"He has combined with others to subject
as to jurisdiction foreign to oar constitution.
"For quartering large bodies of armed
troops among us.
"For protecting them, by mock trial, from
punishment.
"For imposing taxes upon us without our
consent.
"For depriving US, in many cases, Of the
benefits of trial BY jury"