Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-03-04
NO. 1863

used in the sense in which the term had
been previously understood, with the pow
er vesting in the majority to pronounce it.
decisions, and this power was never called
in question until now by this Radical Con-
gress, acting upon the belief that three
members of that court may be found will
ling t. tie the hands of the court In any
attempt to check the enforcement OF
their unconstitutional enactments. Soon
after the war began. the num-
Der of the Judges or the Court was in
creased. in the belief that thereby partisai
purposes would be best subserved. After
wards, some OF the old Judges havin:
died, and believing that others must soor
follow, and thereby d majority of thos,
believed to be Radical would be left. tn.
number OF Judges was diminished. Judge
Field is reported by a newspaper to have
said what every Judge of the Court who
has any respect for himself must say, If he
says anything upon the subject. that the
reconstruction acts are unconstitutional,
and Immediately Congress appointsa COM
mittee of investigation with view of inn
peaching him. In Heavens name, when
will Congress have done with playing foot
ball with the Constitution and the rights
OF the coordinate branches of the Govern
ment, OF the States, and of the people
Mr.. LEE--Has the Supreme Court the
right. by its decisions, to nullify the acts
of Congress? 81.
Mr.. FOLLETT-Most certainly It has
That Is one OF the powers conferred upof
that court by the Constitution, and it iss
power which no other department of the
Government has right to take away or
impede.
Mr.. SCOTT, of Warren-If the Supreme
Court can nullify acts of Congress by de-
claring them unconstitutional, suppose
that at the beginning of the war the Court
had decided all the laws of Congress un-
constitutional, what would have been the
remedy? Would Congress have been
bound bv such decision?
Mr.. FOLLETT-rhe case put is not q
suppOsable, because it is not a possible case
The Supreme Court has no power to pass
upon the constitutionality Of any act O,
Congress except as it arises in case pro-
perly before 1t for decision, and no cas-,
could arise involving the constitutionalit,
OF all the acts of Congress. But if such
case could arise, and the Supreme Cour
should have decided whether at the begin
ming of the war or at any other tim,
that all the acts of Congress were uncon
stitutional, the only remedy would be fo
Congress TO pass liws in accordance witt
the Constitution. or by disregarding tn,
decisions of the Court inaugurate revolu
tions. Thus it is written in the great char
ter of our liberties, and it behooves ever,
lover OF freedom and of his country, t.
protest, not only with his voice and will
his vote, but with his own strong rig.
arm, If need be. against any attempt to tax.
away from the Supreme Court those pow
ers so sacrediy conferred upon it. Th,
last hope for the peaceable preservation OF
constitutional rights and freedom in thi.
country Is in that Court, and if we suffer il
to De stricken down, anarchy, night ant
chaos will sit where once was the beauti.
ful shrine of the Goddess of Liberty.
But the crowning act of isdark dram,
is the attempt to transfer the government
of ten'S 5 ates of this Uaion into the hand.
OF military dictator, vested with powers
more absolute than those now exercised by
the Car of Russia, responsible to no one
for his acts, and the armies of the United
States placed under his control to enforce
his imperious behests. 1t Is an attempt TO
establish military despotism in the heart of
free country. Freedom and despotism
cannot exist together. One or the other
must 60 down. But if you suffer the heel
OF the tyrant to be once placed upon the
necks OF the people you will struggle in,
vain to escape his power. If we suffer these
ten States to be subjected now to military
despotism the day is not far distant when
Ohio, too, will be compelled to bend her
neck to the yoke. This is not question
affecting simply the rights of those ten
States, but of the rights of all the States
of your rights and my rights. Such a
measure one short year ago could not have
found an advocate on this floor. and to me
it is a matter of profound surprise and re-
gret that the Radical hosts can be made by
their leaders the weak instruments of their
own destruction, to press the knife aimed
at their own hearts, and to kiss the hand
that throttles their own liberties
1t is sought to justify these usurpations
OF Congress as the means of protecting the
rights of the Southern States and of the
Nf Nh@e
Congress offers is certainly '.such protec-
tion as vultures give to lamb--covering
and devouring them." Give to those States
the rights guaranteed to them by the Con-
stilution, and they will ask at your hands
no further protection. Give 10 them those
rights, and misery. want and starvation,
whose grim visages are seen throughout
all their borders, will soon be banishei
thence, and peace, happiness and abundant
prosperity will soon smile not only upon
those States, but our entire country.
But the gentleman boasts of the mag
nanimity of The Government in not hang
ing all tue rebels. Will he refer to sim /
gle instance in which the Government has |
spared the lite OF any one convicted of
treason in accordance with the provisions /
of the Constitution But if tlis were true. I
the magnanimity of the Government. as it |
has been exhibited, is of the same charac-
ter with that exhibited by a heather mon
arch, who spares the lives of his captives
that he may glut his appetite for savage [
ferocity upon their living tortures. To u |
native, free born American, whose love off
liberty has been nourished and fostered by
our free institutions, death Is far prefera-
BILE to humiliation, degradation, and the
loss of that sacred heritage of freemen lefc !
him by the fathers: and the a. tempt to sub
iect him to the domi Lion of his formtr-
slaves. degraded and brutal as we all know
them to be, is the very essence of cruelt,
which could have been extracted only
from the heart of modern Radical
Would that the acts of the Government
in relation to those States at the
close of the war had been characterized by
that magnanimity and generosity which /
ought ever to characterize a free, en-
ligbtened christian neople, for then the
Union of thes States would have been in-i
separable. "Tl ey to whom much is forgive
EN-, love much," Is the declaration of Him
who spake as never man spoke." Few
men could be found in this country to adj 4
vOcate the policy of giving to the Negro3
in the South just released from slavery, |
with all his ignorance and degradation, 4
the elective franchise, were it not for the |
indulgence of the hope that they can be |
used by designing men as instruments for |
the perpetuation of party power. Congress,
in violation of the Constitution, seeks to |
invest them with the only peaceable weap- !
on left to the people, expecting them to |
use it i'm aiding them in further violations. /
But let Congress beware lest the gal
lows it prepares for others, become
the instrument of its own destruc-
tion, lest its disregard of the plain provis-i
ions of the Constitution become precedent
for Others to follow. trust there is still /
vitality, energy, power enough left in that
old Instrument to carry us peaceably and |
safely through this fiery ordeal. Let us
unroll that great charter of our libertie,
and, planting our feet firmly upon it, swear
to uphold, maintain and defend it IRON al
assaults; come they whence they may. lie
us irst try the efficacy of proUstations aut
prayers; but ii these prove unavailing, i
all peaceable means fsil and the crisis mus
come, let US meet it like men, aver read,
TO vindicate our liberties with our lives,