Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-11-02
SUPREME COURT OPINION.
Important Decision of Judge Sneed.
I,onaa vs. The State

q white person and negro may lawfully inter-
marry, or cohabit as man and wife, IN TINS state;
and convicted of the ofense of cohablting as
man and wife with one Rebecca Tesster, whlte
woman, on and before the 10th OF January;
1871, in the county of Knox. He was adJudgeo
to suffer confinement in the penitentlsry for TWO
years and six months, and to reverse saio Juod lg
ment he has appealed in error. The Actor IoiO,
chapter 80, forbids the intermsrriage OF white
persons with negroes, mulattoes, or persons OF
mixed blood descended from negro to the tnlrd
generation inclusive, and their living togetner
az man and wife in this State The statute is IN
the identical words of the Constitution OF 1871,
art. IL, ga, the last clause of which imposes
upon the Legislature the duty of enforcing the
provision by appropriate legislation. The sec
ond section of the statute is in the words follow
ing: The persons knowingly violating the
provisions Of the first section of this act shall
be deemed guilty of felony and upon convlc-
ton thereof shall undergo punishment in the
penitentiAry not less than enc nor more than hve
years; and the Court may, in the event OF
conviction, on the recommendation of the jury,
substitute, in lieu of punishment In the penl-
Tertiary, fine and imprisonment in the county
Jail. Shank. Supp, 102. 1t is commended by
the counsel for the prisoner, in An argument OF
much force and ability, that this statute OF the
State for the regulation of its internal pollty
upon the subject of marriage and the provision
of our organic law upon which 1t Ia founded,
the United States, and, therefore, null and void.
It is certainly true that the supreme law of the
land in this country is the Constitution OF the
United States, and the laws made in pursuance
thereof and the treaties made OF which snail De
made under the authority of the United States (;
and the Judges in every State shall be bound
thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws OF
any State to the contrary notwithstanding
Con. u. s., art 6, o. And whether the State
law is organic in its Constitution or any ordl-
nance, or whether it be statute, II 1t violate
the Constitution, laws or treaty of the United
States, it is simply void and the courts OF every
State are bound by the supreme law and not by
the State law."-Marbury VS.. Madison, Or,
1877; Calder VI. Bull, Wall, 1856; Satterlee
vs. Mattison, 2 Peters, $50; ex parte Garland
4 WALL, 399 Pasch. Ammo. Cons, $50 But 1T is
the glory and the boast of our written Constltu-
tor that the powers of the lawmakers are re-
stricted and defined, and while it is the legltl-
mate and lawful province OF the supreme judi
cal tribunal of the Union to determine the
validity of a statute assumed to have been en-
acted under the authority of the organic law
it is no less the prerogatve of the State tribunal
to interpret its own State laws and to pronounce
upon their compatibility with the supreme Or
ganic law And to this end they may look be-
yond statute of the General Government when
seems to collide with the law and polity OF the
State. to ascertain whether such statute is made
in pursuance of an authority vested by the SUI
preme organic law For it is not every act OF
Congress that the Judges of every State" shall
be bound by, but only such as are passed In
pursuance of the authority granted by the Con-
stitution. And this power of State court to
pronounce upon the validity of an act OF Con
Qress which is made to operate upon the people,
subject to the jurisdiction of said court, mas
been exercised from the foundation OF the Gov
eminent and of which we have notable illus
tration in the action of half dozen State courts
within the last few years, in declaring the stamp
acts of Congress, so far as they changed or IN
terfered with the rules of evidence IN the State
courts TO be unconstitutional and void. Until
the supreme appellate tribunal OF the
Union shall declare otherwise, that question
is ut rest in the States whose courts have so
decided The Government of the United States,
being one of limited powers, is therefore, SUI
preme only to the extent of the granted powers,
and all laws upon the rights, duties aDd sub
jects specially enumerated and confded to its
jurisdiction are necessarily exclusive and SUI
preme.-Sims' case, Cush., 1@. Ii, there
fore, law be enacted not authorized by the emu
merated powers, it is not in the sense OF the
constitution, the supreme law of the land, and
the courts of the States are not bound to carry
it into execution. But the Supreme Court of the
United States is the tribunal of last resort on all
such questions, whose judgment Is conclusive
and final upon the question, whether an act OF
Congress be or be not the supreme law OF the
land.-Ableman vs. Brooks, q How, 6l9
When it is SO decided, it is as much the duty of
the State courts to accept and enforce 1t as 1t IS
their province in the first instance, to CUES
ton its validity and decline to enforce it. when
in their judgments it has been enacted without
authority.
Among the powers, said Judge Curtis be-
fore the late amendments, unquestionahly pos
sessed by the States, was that of determining
what persons should and what persons should
not be citizens. And each State must deter
mine, ssid he, what civil rights shall be enjoy
ed BY its citizens, and whether all shall enjoy
the same, or how they may be gained or lost
Scott vs. Sanford 19 How, $50.
In the evil days to which we have brought
ouselves by our late unhappy feuds, we are too
apt to forget the moorings of the law, where our
fathers left us. While it is our first duty to re-
| spect and obey every valid law that emanates
| from the law making power of the Federal Gov
| eminent, yet we are too prone to magnify the
! civic powers of government which has SO late
/ ~ crushed dozen great States by an exhibition
| of military power that might have dehed the
world and lawyer, law-giver, court and COM
monwealth, to bow without question to the CIVIC
4 will OF the victor. The Goths of ancient Ger
many, it is said, were accustomed to debate
| every important measure twice in their COM
| ellis once while drunk, that their debates
might not lack vigOr, and again while sober,
| that they might not lack discretion. Now that
| we have returned to the blessed path of sober
| ness and peace, where human rights and hui
man wrongs are to be vindicated and redressedby
the laws of the land and not by the logic of the
1880
| upon those landmarks which our fathers have
| set, and ascertain what rights the States have
not been bereft of as the result of the late I'M
happy civil war. And prominent and paramount
among these, is the provision, that 1.-THE pow
ers not delegated to the United States by the
constitution, nor prohibited by it to, the States,
are reserved to the States respectively and to the
people. Art 10 Cons, U. ;.
The powers delegated to the United States,
and those prohibited by it to the States are as
certained and defined by the terms of the constl-
tuition itself 'Those which are to remain In the
State Governments said Mr.. Madison, "are
numerous and indefinite The powers reserved
to the several States will extend to all objects,
which, IL the ordinary course of affairs concern
and the internal order Improvement and pros
perity Of the State. No. As. Per-
haps We will be unable to find embodied in a
ers reserved to the States as in this brief obser-
walton ofOne whowas, without disparagemeLt to
his renowned compeers, the best AUTHORITY. liy.