The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-12

Judgment would unhesitatingly prefer the /
latter. Even if the advocates of repeal could |
carry every election, in every State, from this |
time forward, this full measure of political
success could not effect the repeal of the law
short of four or five years, owing to the long
terms of the Senator'S. One-third of the pre-
sent Senators 60 out at the end of two years,
another third at end of two more years; and
supposing the forty-second Congress to meet
at the regular time in December, 1871 we
could hardly expect the repeal before 1872.
But long before that time (uness the Supreme
Court interpose), the States will have been
reorganized and admitted, and the law have
expired by its own limitation. Political agta-
tion for repeal would therefore be nugatory.
No reasonable choice remains but between
frank submission and an application to the
Supreme Court. 1t is creditable to the South
that opposition to so abominable and oppres-
sive a law takes this mild, orderly and peace
able form.
The Supreme Court will probably decide
that the question is political, and that it has
therefore no jurisdiction. For any practical
result, the Court might as well affirm the
constitutionality of the law as to discaim
jurisdiction. The law will continue to be
enforced all the same whether the Supreme
Court refuse to set it aside on one OF these
grounds as on the other. If, as it seems to be
generally supposed, the prayer for injunction
prove fruitless, there are circumstances in the
political situation which may partially recon
cile the applicants to their ill-success after
they have discharged their consciences. The
Supreme Court cannot put an injunction on
Congress, and forbid it to exercise acts of
legislation until it first admitted the Southern
members. Matters could not, therefore,
be much mended, and might, in some re-
spects be made worse, by judicial decision
setting aside the law. Congress would be
nop6 md md al bn
most offensive use of such of their powers as
the Supreme Court cannot reach. Each of the
two Houses is as much court of last resort
in deciding on the qualifications and admissi-
bility of its members, as the Supreme Court is
in deciding questions purely legal. AS there
is no constitutional authority to review their
action in excluding members they would shut
out the Southern States indefinitely, and could
not be called to account. 1t is well known that
all the recently-appointe judges are Repub
lican, the retirement of most OF the Southern
members of the Court at the beginning of
the war having created vacancies for Mr..
Lincoln to fill. Some of the conservative
judges are far advanced, and in the ordinary
course of nature cannot remain long on the
bench, and there is a law fOrbidding any new
appointments till the number is reduced to
seven. If the present law should be set
aside, matters would revert to the same
state they were in before it's passage, and
Congress would hold on awaiting a change in
the character of the Court. As soon as this
should take place they would revenge them
selves by the passage of worse law, if worse
he possible. With the prospect, the almost
certainty that things would take this turn,
the Southern people will have no great
cause to grieve if the Supreme Court dis
allow Judge Sharkey's application, as it pro-
badly will. They long ago had ample oppor-
tunities to know, in the Dred Scott case and
the fugitive slave decisions, how little the
Republican party care for the judgments of
the Supreme Court. There is no real remedy
for the existing evils but in putting the party
out of power; which can be soonest done by
prompt reorganization and bringing the South
ern vote into the Presidential elections.