Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-02-17

volving constitutional questions. This Is n
3 alrect blow by one branch of our govern
ment at coordinate branch-an effort on
the part of the legislative department to
nsurp and control the judicial department.
q Inc vital Importance to the liberties of the
people OF an Independent judiciary was a
matter OF anxious solicitude to the trainers
and expounders of the Constitution. 1t
was guarded by them with jealous care,
o and tor the, first time in our history we
have presented the spectacle of any at
tempt to abridge its powers or impair its
efhcleLcy. On the Importance of preserv-
ing the dignity and independence of this
% branch of the Governments, Chief Justice
story, in his work on the Constitution,
Vol. 2, PIP. 1893 and 399, says:
"ln the next place, the independence of
the Judiciary is indispensable to secure the
people against the Intentional, as we'll as
unintentional usurpations of the eXecu-
tive and legislative departments. 1t has
o been observed with great sagacity, that
power is perpetually stealing from the
many to the few; and the tendency of the
legislative department to absorb all the
other powers of the Governmet has al
ways been dwelt upon by statesman aud
patriots as general truth, confirmed by all
human experience. -
The favOrites of the day will overawe
by their power or seduce by their influence;
and thus the fundamental maxim of a re-
public that it is government of lars and not
of men, will be silently disproved or openly
+ abandOned?' as .a ffaa a-.rn hl,
.l And again he says, in regard to the rela-
tion of the different departments of the
Government to the constitution: 1.-THE in
dependence of the Judiciary is absolutely
indispensable to preserve the balance of
such constitution"
To declare that more than majority of
the judges should be necessary to a decision
iS fn I'M of hot ri
bunal-to place its decisions in the control
of the minority, who may be 'over-awed
by power, or seduced by influence"
But, sir, there is no use OF .theOrizing g
upon this subject. The uninterrupted
usage of ages" in the language of an able
article in a late number OF the Ohio State
Journal, on this subject. has establis ed
the construction ''that the opinion of a
majority OF the Court is the opinion of
the Court, and that judgment of ma
jority of the Court is the judgment of the
Court; and that majority OF the Court is the
Court" The same idea is most forcibly eX-
pressed in the decision of the Supreme
Court of the State of Ohio, in the case of
Werk VS.. the State. That was case where
the question arose as to what number
of men constituted a jury, the Con-
stitu.ion being silent on that subject.
And the court in deciding that jury in
contemplation of the Constitution must
consist of twelve men, and that less than
that number was not d jury, says: III
ages of uninterrupted use can give signiti-
canoe TO language, the right OF Jury trial
and the hdbeds corpus stand as representa-
tives of IDEAS as certain aud definite as any
other in the whole range of legal learning"
So, too, if ayes OF uninterrupted use can
give Significance to Ian suage, the rights of
maj ,rity of court to announce its de-
cisions is as definiJely settled as any prop
osition can be in the whole range OF Con-
stltutional law depending upon usage for
its construction. Any other construction
would destroy the efficiency of the court,
and render iJ utterly useless to perform the
objects of its organization, which W the
protection OF the Constitutional rights OF
the States and the people thereof.
But, Mr.. Speaker, have already occu-
pied more time than 1 INTENDED to, and
shall leave the further elucidation of the
subjects l have but touched upon, and the
many other objections that might be urg-
cd, to others that may follow me. be-
lieve, sir, that the course of the Congress
at Washington is utterly subversive OF our
republican form of gOvernment-that it
cannot but result in an entire overthrow
of our institutions as a free people. We
cannot preserve our own liberties while
we deprive the people of ten States of this
Union OF theirs. The doctrine of dead
States there must be fatal in the end to the
life of the States here. The living cannot
long survive the weight of the dead one.
We shall be but re-enacting the eastern
fable, where the victim of the destroyer
was lashed to his back and he compelled to
bear the loathsome burden until the pOis-
onous eXhalation from the decaying body
entering his every pore finally dried up the
sources OF life, and he staggered and fell,
the despoiler ana his victim filling one
common grave. -f
Better, far better, return to the ways of
the fathers of the Republic-to an Obe-
dience to that Constitution under whose
achings, when strictly followed, we had
peace and prosperity uneXampled among
the nations of the wOrld-when the rights
of the States were spected-and they in
turn afforded that protection to the people
which can never be done under our Con-
stitution except by the States in their SOW
eroign capacity.
The resolutions eloquently declare this,
and, sir, we are but doing the will of the
people OF the State of Ohio, as expressed
through the ballot-bOX last fail. When
we thus enter our protest against the de-
structive acts of usurping iragmcntary
Congress.