Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-01-16
The Decision of the Supreme
Court in the Indiana Con-
splracy Case.

~ NV AnG NOAANlA. W. NGhAbI 10
bear repeating that so much of the opin-
ion as seems to have been concurrod in by
the whole Court runs counter TO grave
and welLconsidered preeedents. 1t infer
e~ntiaIly condemns the proceedings OF those
tribunals which punished Kennedy for at
tempting to fire the city of New York,
and Harold, Payne, and their associates
for conspiring to assassinate Lincoln and
Seward, and virtually declares that these
men suffered juridicio-mIlitary murder
While respecting the motives OF the four
iudges who ~concurred with the majority
on the main question involved, we still
think they erred in not standing firmly
upon these presidents, and that, by aban-
doning them, they opened the door tor the
extra-iudieial assault of which they com
plain.
But, waving this point, and turning to
the o5iteT dieta of the five judges, we IN
common with the great body OF the peapls
who carried the country through Its years
of peril. regard il as the most dangerous
@oninion ever pronounced by that tribunal.
This opinion has been pioneered oyou'
readers. We shall not attempt 10 olsen,
tangle, thread by thread, the net-WorK OF
mere t~echnicalitics in which the hVeJuoges
strive &c enmesh the national cause
Nor shall we waste criticism on the YER
bose sophistries with which they labor 70
conceal the ubiquitous doctrines propouhd'
ed. Bnt we will briefly point out the re-
suits to which this political PTonune'Grie''
to, if accepted as sound law, will LEAD.
theoretically, the opinion IS q
nation an outlawry, ofall such legislation
and all such executive and military acts;
as were resorted TO, to preserve the lie OF
I the nation, but which lay outside OF the
beaten track traversed OF old BY congress
es. presidents, and executive departments,
ere the gun simed st Sumter "hreo tne
shot heard round the world" For II, al
the majority of the Court say IN substance
neither Congress, nor the President, nor
the subordinate administrative depart
ments. had power to adopt n enforce,
outside ofstates where the clash OF arm
was then actually resembling, q eoerclVt
military policy, which should levy troops
seize ~delinquents, punish resistance 70 tne
CONSUMPTION, suspend the ha6eas corpus
and organize tribunals adapted to the eA'
igency, then all laws, proclsmations, OF
orders. tending to these ends, Wnethei
seeming to raise men or money Tor carry
ing on the war, or to punish those VINO
cave aid and comfort to the enemy, were
null and void. Carried to its Logical con
illusions, it not merely unsettles, but 1t up,
heaves, the foundations of large snSre o.
the war legislation of three congresses
1t renders nugatory a long series y
proclamations emanatiug from the eAecu
tive departments. Il utilities lnnuI
| Bile military orders. 1t shakes the Ossi'
four finances. 1t exposes, to arrest. M
dictment, imprisonment, and amereemeni
in damages every official, from the res
dent down to the mos petty tsx-gatneISi'
from the commanding general down 70 'ne
obscure provost-marshal, who devised Vi
executed any portion of this illegal poilcy'
It hullihes, also, and lays opento Tx con,
demnation, much of the legislation, ano
of the executive and military acts, OF the
loval states during the same period, and
in furtherance of the same ends,
Nav, more: We have only 70 press the
reason1ngs of the five judges into the re-
gions of analogy line Of argument al
ways pursued BY lawyers when exploring
new fields, and to which courts ever resort
in deciding novel cases-to prove that all
acts of the Government, and especially
those of Congress, which have been adoP-
ted while ten or eleven states were unrep-
resented, are unconstitutional and void
We have been surfeited with arguments
some of them from the person now hold
ing the Office of Attorney General, to show
that all legislation by Congress while GER
tain states, without their consent, are de
prived of ''equal suffragein the Senate.
is nugatory. The President has repeated
ly denounced Congress as q body hanging
on the verge of the Governments thu
sso-caIed Congress. he has recently
declared that the Supreme Court will, /
need be, decide that the pending Consti'
~tutional Amendment, though ratified BY
three-fourths of the thirty-six states
would be void, because not submitted by
Congress legally constituted. And, If tht
pending Amendment is TO be- pronounced
mo part Of the Constitution, for the reason
assigned, why shall not the glorious pro
vision which declared the final extinction
of slavery be, for the like reason, subject
ed to the same ordeal, and share the sam'
fate? We know hat the President proph
esied correctly when, some time ago, n
declared in advance that the Court would
pronounce the test oath unconstitutional
May he not be speaking by the card" IL
his other recent vaticinationsf
1t does not sYall t. say that the five
Judges do not desire u IT expect that theil
dictum shall be carried to these extremes
1t is a familiar legal maxim, from who's
force q court, AZ all events, cannot shield
itself, that men must be held to meal
what they say, TO tntend what they do
and be responsible for the legitimate anC
logical consequences If their words ant
acts. We have not Ut 2 specious CLOS
upon the text of the majority Of the Court
Their partisan frlminStions have been In
terpreted in quarters apt at detecting IN
certain sounds, and quick to discern tn
true ring. Speaking in behalf of tn
whole ~Johnsonian pros, The World say
that the opinion 'Econyicts the EXecutiv
Administration Of u%surpation during tn
war, and justi6es the opposition madet to
by the Democratic paIty"-that Is to say
the Democratic party both North an
South, as constituted nov, and as it exist
ed during the conflict Of arms. But IN
short answer to this Is, that the opinion G
the five jndges is not law, and will not b
so regarded. So far Is it bears upon tn
actual points in issue, and is q determina
ton of the case under review, 1t will b
yielded to. Beyondthis, 1t will be treateI
as 6 mers partisan harangue, unseeml
because of the source whence it emInated
Of no force beyond tbs intrinsic weight {
the arguments adduced; q sorry attempt
five not very distinguished persons to e1
hibit themselves as profound iurists, where
as they have only succeeded in provin
themselves to be very poor politicians.
We regret this decision on man
grounds. The Supreme Court had begu
to recover the prestige furnished by tn
bred Scott decision. That untoward pro
ceeding impaired a keener edge to tn
criticism of Jefferson, jackson, and Ben
ton, who pronounced the Court an anon
alyin u republican system, and declare
that its extraordinary power to nullify tn
1aua of CODurpss and razfraip fha Evaor