The Louisiana Democrat., 1867-05-22
The Great Injunction Gases -Argu-
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We find an elaborate report of this great
argument in the National Intelligencet.-
The opening and concluding sections are
reported as follows:
Mr.. Walker said that he never rose to
address any tribunal with 80 deep a,sense
<6fthe solemnity Of the occasion and Of the
momentous issues involved in, the contro-
yersy. The cause of the Constitution of
the American Government, and selfgovern-
ment throughout the world, was now on
trial he believed upon its first trial. and it
was now to be decided for this country, for
posterity and for all the world whether
written constitutions are mere parchment
scrolls-whether they are words written
upon the sands, to be swept away by the
first angry surge OF popular passions which
may roll over them whether they can be
evaded by technical issues on pleas of
want Of Jurisdiction, or whether they fur
pish that remedial process which will ena-
BILE the judicial tribunals to carry them in
to effect. 1T is q question whether it is
practicable to divide the Government into
three separate departments, to be omnipo-
tent, and whether by some,power, claimed
to be political, or some absence Of authori-
-ity on the part of the judicial tribunels, to
inquire into the controversy, the Gonstitu-
tion may be maintained and vindicated.A -
1t was for himself a source of profound re-
gret that his learned colleague, ME .Shar-
key, so long the hotored Chief Justice of
Mississippi, and who had devoted his life
to the defence Of the Union and Constitu-
Sion, who in the heart of the rebellion risk
ed his life day by day in defence Of these
great principles, had !, insisted upon his
(Mr. Walker addressing the Court.
A word, in conclusion, as to the irrepar-
able injury that will be done if this Court
does not interfere. NoSone rises here, and
he believed no one could rise and defend in
his soul and conscience the constitutional
ty of these laws but although their con.
stitutionality is substantially conceded, the
question is to be evaded-be used in the
same Pickwicklan sense, in which the At
torney General spoke Of the first bill filed
as scandalous. The Court is asked tc
shrink from the, defence of the Cohstitu
ton; to fly from the battlements which
you are sworn To defend to abandon tht
Constitution in its last, citadel; to shli
your eyes upon the fact that the ,Constitu
ton is violated. GU are asked not to ses
that the States and ten millions of people
are deprived of all their rights under th'
Constitution, and that 1t is. repealed 80 fa
as they are concerned. -Four Of these ter
States unite in forming the government af
ter they had Joined in carrying the courtr.
successfully through the war of the RerO
luton. One of them, Virginia, gave u
the great, the sublime man, without whom
under Providence, perhaps, our indepen
dence would never have been achieved
They united in carrying us through tn
second war of Independence and raising
the country TO o pinnacle OF power and glo
ry unknown in the history of the world
What if some Of them did err recently
Did not Massachusetts err in Shay's rebe
lion Did not Pennsylvania err in tn
whisky insurrection and the more formids
bic Olmstead rebellion2 Did not Me-
England err when she assembled band c
traitors at Hartford, who, but for the ,gll
rious victory of New Orleans, would hav
at least endeavored to drag those, grea
States out of the Union? Because thes
States have committed such great error
have they now no rights? Have the Ioys
people among them, numbered by thor
sands and tens of thousands who riske
their lives in the very heart of the rebe
lion, no rights? Are those people who
Notwithstanding all their faults and errors
are citizens ofa common country, destipe
to share the same fate as ourselves, to hav
no protection from the Gourt-althoug
those OF them who went out did it'upo
the ground of Mr.. Calhoun and his follow
ers, that this Court had no right to decid
upon questions of the kind-when the
have come back and, assert The true doc
trine, that secession is q mere nulity, an
appeal to this Court as the arbiter create,
by the Constitution Are they to be toll
they have no constitutional rights, or a
least none which will be protected by thi
Court? that perhaps you might redress tn
grievance of an individual who would brin
suit for unlawful arrest, but when this nail
tary law has gone into effect, and every on
ofthese State Constitutions and Govern
ments shall be. everthrown and this peepl
reduced to military bondage, you will sd
to the State, we cannot help you; there)i
no remedy for you these are great evils
we see plainly you are deprived of you
constitutions rights, butIthe gonstitutio
to which you now appeal gives as, the fna
.arbiter, no jurisdiction to maintain you
constitutional rights. If instead of th
friends of the Constitution and the Unior
as the country knows you all TO be, som
of its worst enemies, representing its de'
potic foes, were sitting here to decide upo
The destiny of their country and to prt
ifounce upon the perpetuity Of the Const
1. tuition and the Union, what more fatal edit
could be pronounced by the Court than t
declare that. there is no peaceful remedy ft
the States, and ten millions of people witt
in the limits Of this great Republic?
Letter from Mr.oBowie to the Pres
II Iga ~ gi..iliulidnnt. J.oE Ob tiir ba
omos2s b,t. sfdsiIAl.1S '.5a adl 40 ,H9o
The National Ihtelligenees contains
lengthy letter to the President from Hol
Thomas F. Bowie, Of Maryland, in whic
he says ~
ii insist that the Supreme Court bf u
United States, under the power confde
TO it by the Constitution, has the jurisdiI
ton, and in the precise form ih which th
question are now pending before it. I
adjudge and pronounce those acts to !
mill and void, not only as respects II
States of Georgia and Mississippi alon
but as respects oil the other States Of th