Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-04-13
cn.nCrRn

We have now carefully c the oil
proposed to be fled in the name Of thu
State OF Mississippi, by Judge SHARKEl
and ROBERTJ. WALKER, praying the Su
sreme Court to annul the Reconstructed
! Act and Supplement, and the argumen'
/ Of the former jurisconsult upon the ques
/ ton attempted to be raised by the bill.
Our opinion Of the bill itself is con
/ frmed. In a somewhat long course 0
practice in Courts of Equity, we havt
never CHANGED to see exactly such
'critter' and it will be readily supposed
that we have seen some very queer pro
auctions Of ambitious lawyerlings. Tb'
facts are in the bill but so is the argu
ment Of counsel, i~nterjected here anC
there, in a fashion that must be move
to the Supreme Court Of the United
| States,-the State sometimes addressing
itself to that Court, and then subsiding
into the distance to enable the counse
to argue and expostUlste with, anC
admonish and instruct the Court, in re
spect to sundry principles Of law.
The argument of Judge SHARKEY il
dextrOus and ble,-dextrous, chiefly, il
evading the strong points against him,
and arguing those that needed no argu-
ment at all,-able, because it is strictly
a legal argument, making the very ut,
most Of the case. OF course, if Missis-
sippi is a State in the Union, her rights
cannot be abridged, nor can her repub-
licau government be destroyed, as it is,
and a military government established
over her. That the reconstruction bills
are null, follows as a matter Of course,
from the fact that the State Of Missis-
sippi is a State. Establish that the peo-
pie Of Mississippi have any rignls under
the Constitution, and it is impossible to
deny the iilegality and enormity Of the
acts Of Congress. II Mississippi is a
State, not in the Union, but having q
perfect and complete present right to be
received into it, Congress has the discre-
tioHEry power TO permit OF delay its adj
mission, and the Judicial power cannot
hasten it. But if it is a State ia the
Union il il never was out Of the Union,
it is enough to state the legislation of
Congress, or silently point the Court to
it, without argument. One might as well
labour to demonstrate that a man has no
right to murder or rob, as that the United
cannot establish an absolute milf
tary desPotism over a State actually in
the Union.
By the bin, the State of Mississippi is
made to claim that she never separated
from the other States; that it was i'm
possible for her to do so and that her
Of secession was null and
void. The whole is, for the State, a hu.
initiating record. No one, who is Of a
generous spirit, will upbraid her in her
calamity but there are many who hon
CURED her for the gallantry Of her legions,
who will deeply regret that she has been
made 20 say that her people were all
but she remained all the time in
the Union for, if she did so, her sons
against her also, as one Of the
States, and were undeniablv
Of treason.
The Northern journals al predict that
he Supreme Court win decide that it
las no jurisdiction Of the case made by
he bil. That is our opinion also. 4
State never had any remedy, by judicial
proceeding, for a violation of the Constf-
utionsl Compact by other States, or
or any aggression on its rights bv
he General Government But do
hese journals see, that to say this is TO
make it necessary to admit the right of
withdrawal by a State from a Union in
which its rights had no protection, and
when it could not appeal to the judicial
over Of the nation, even if a military
.espotism were established over il. Not
.eing bound to submit to such a des.
otism,-nsy, being bound by the most
olemn obligations Of duty to resist il. If
necessarily judge for itself. and
y separation OF otherwise right itself
The legislation Of the last two wears
as completely justified the Southern
for their ~endeavor to attain poliH-
Independence. If the popular ma {
rity, the populaee Of the Northern {
tstes, can, by their representatives in :
ongress, change the Constitution at q
easure, and concentrate in their hands [
/ the powers Of Government, it was 8
Use and right in the South to strive to :
ae itself from what was servitude in i
eguise. =