The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1867-09-27

profit, except that they should adv ocale
measures to advance the State credit
Taking the advantage of this, the parties
combining would buy State Indebtedness
at low figures aad bull it up so as to real
! ize millions on the operation. We could
! give dozens Of similar illustrations, but we
have, perhaps, exhausted the patience of
our readers and said enough about this
singular fellow Buckley, who was for some
years military pioneer and has lived in
Obscurity since.
Who are Traitors What is Treason 2
From the Washingto Inte1Ii goneer Of 1Tondy.l IS
There are three great members of the
! Union-the President, the Congress, and
the Supreme Court. To each of these the
/ Constitution assigns certain duties. 1t
fixes, with mathematical certainty, their
! spheres of action. 1t makes 1t lawful for the
! President to do, for Congress to do, and
for the Supreme Court to do; and it fol-
lows these grants of power, by express
limitations put upon each of these three
coordinate and co-equal members of the
/ Government. This is all very explicit,
/ but it is not enough. It does not fully
/ exhibit 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 Stetes,
respectively, or to the people,"
Chief Justice Marshall explains the theO-
ry of the system thus
"The original and supreme will organi-
zes the Government, and assigns to differ
ent departments their respective powers
1t may be either stopped here, or establish
certain limits not to be transcended by
| those departments.
"The Government of the United States
/ is of the latter description. The powers
Of the Legislature are defined and LIMITED /;
and 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 be at any
time passed by those intended to be re-
strained ? x 1t is a proposition
too plain to be contested, that the COnsti
tuition controls any Legislative act rePug-
nant to it, or the Legislature may alter the
Constitution by an ordinary act"
We have now to look into the Constitu
ton to find the authority which it creates,
to determine the extent and limitations of
the powers conferred upon these great
members of the Government.
Again we invoke Chief Justice Marshall,
not only because his patriotism is unques-
toned and his great abilities admitted, but
because his exposition of the matter is
alike simple, explicit, and wholly unan-
swerabe. He says:
''It is emphatically the province of the
Judicial department TO say what the law
is. Those who apply the rule to Particu-
lar cases must of necessity expound and in
terpret that rule.
$50, if law be in opposition to the
Constitution, if both 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 Consti-
tuition, or conformably to the Constitution,
disregarding the law, the court must de-
termine which of these conflicting rules
governs the case. THIS IS the veyy essence
of judicial duty. If, then, the courts are
to be regarded the Constitution, and the
Constitution is supreme to any ordinary
act Of the Legislature, the Constitution, and
not the ordinary act, must govern the case
to hich they both apply. Those, then,
who controvert the principle that the Con-
stitution is to be considered IN court as a
paramount law, are reduced to the necessi-
ty OF maintaing that courts must close its
eyes on the Constitution, and see only the
law Z his doctrine a0ouzd sUBvERT tie verg
Foundation Of all a0riten Constitutions"
We quote from the Constitution
'The President shall be Commander-in.
Chief of the army and navy of the United
} States"
Congress shall make no law abridging
t the freedom of speech or the press.
The uial of all crimes, except n cases O
) impeachment, shall be by jury.
No person shall be held to answer for Z
capital or otherwise Infamous crime un.
less on presentment or indictment of Z
grand jury"
? In all criminal prosecutions the accused
shall enjoy the right of speedy and pub
lie trial by an impartial jury of the Stat
and district wherein the crime shall have
been committed
In the array of causes which were assign