The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-07-21
The Judiciary and the Democracy.
From the Chicago Journal.

The issue which has been uppermost
in American politics ever since the war
closed is no longer directly Congression-
al. The amendments needed have all
been submitted to the several States,
and duly adopted. The legislation spe-
cially called for by those amendments
has been enacted. 1t needs no throwing
up of the Democratic sponge to end
the contest on that line. If anything
is to be done, it must be upon another
arena. The new departure is significant,
simply in the recognition of an accom-
plished fact.
The completion of the work, so far as
concerns amending the Constitution and
framing laws, amounts, virtually, to
transfer of jurisdiction. What was a
question before Congress and the seve-
raj State Legislatures, is henceforth q
question before the Judiciary of the
United States, the third estate of the
realm. The Democracy has oil the time
protested that these laws are unconsti-
tutional and that the amendments were
never legally adopted. The party adj
heres to that position still-the most
enthusiastic "departists" no less than
the hardshells Of the party.
If the Democracy could regain con-
troll Of the Executive and Legislative
branches of the Government, the Judi
cal would soon follow. The Democratic
minority would be reinforced by addi-
tional Judges, and the legislation to en-
force the amendments in question would
be pronounced unconstitutional. From
such decision there would be no es-
cape. The rigat to pronounce upon the
validity of law is denied the English
Judiciary, but is unquestionable in this
country.
The programme goes still farther.
There is way to test the vilidity of the
amendments themselves. 1t is more
roundabout and hedged up. but the
Democracy is evidently bent on walking
in it. A law of Congress designates the
Secretary of State as the proper official
to formally make known the ratification
of a constitutional amendment. His
duty is merely declaratory, not judicial.
As a matter of fact not one of the tif-
teen declarations thus far made by the
Secretary of State has ever been called
in question but such an issue could be
raised. The Constitution prescribes that
an amendment submitted to the State
Legislatures can only be adopted by the
Endorsement of three-fourths majority.
Should it be doubtful whether the
requisite Endorsement had been re-
ceived, the question would have to be
decided by the Supreme Court of the
United States. 1t follows, therefore,
that if the Democrats could control the
Judiciary, they could nullify the amend
ments, which they still insist were never
legally ratified. Those who profess to
accept these amendments are careful in
the method and extent of their accep-
lance. They are in force to-day, and
must remain so until set aside in the
way mentioned This is in contestable,
and the acceptance of the more pro-
gressive Democrat goes no farther. If
in position to act at all, the whole party
would join in judicial plot TO over
throw the entire reconstruction part of
our laws, organic and statutory. Not a
word can be found in all the platforms
and editorials of the new departure in
timating the contrary, while there are
continual outcroppings of the plot it.
self. Even the cautious New York
World can not keep the secret. In a
recent article it pronounced the Four
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments the
offspring of gross usurpation Of power,
passed by force, fraud and perfdy." If
majority of the Supreme Court took
the same position, the amendments
could be blotted out of existence.
There remains only one point to con-
slider in this connection: Has the peril
of constitutional notification limit in
time, or must perpetual guard be kept
over the two last amendments to pre-
vent their destruction Although no
attempt was ever made to .judicially
nullify any part of the Federal Consti-
tuition, and no exact precedent can be
pointed out, the principle involved is
well established. We can best state il
bv illustration. The Constitution OF
California. like our own. requires that
the title OF law shall correspond with
the nature of the law itself. This pro.
vision was habitually ignored 10y several
Legislatures before test case was
brought into court. The defense adj
mitted that the Constitution had not
been complied with, but showed that
the same was true in numberless Other
cases, and that if at that late day that
clause of the Constitution should be
enforced, the evil in the upsetting Of
the existing order of things would be
immense 1t was further shown that
this latter consideration had in many
cases deferred courts from doing what
they would otherwise have done. II is
defense was held valid. According tC
the rule shown to have found genera
acceptance in the best courts of this
country and England. it WILL in few
years, be too late to so much as entertain
the question of the validity of these
amendments. If the Democracy canno
carry the next Presidential and Con
gressional elections, it will be too late il
1876 to raise this political issue. Their,
Is, in other words, only one way left t,
set aside the new features of the Consti
tuition, and if the next attempt to opel
up that path should fail, that woul