The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1871-12-07

IHE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT
WRDaEsDAY, December 6, i1S71.-EThS
court convened nt 10 O'Clock A. Mss Hdt.
Hugh L. Bond aad Hon. GsoSg. IS.
Bryan presiding. g
The argament on the motion tn quash
| the indictment in the case OF the United
States rs. Allen Crosby ct al was re-
sumed. The District Attorney, Mr..
Oorbin, requested permission to make
few supplementary remarks to his argn.
ment of yesterday, and to offer some
additional authorities. He desired. he
said, to call the attention of the court to
the objection made by the defence. that
no election had been named in the in
dictment, at which Amzi Rainey had
been hindered in the free exercise of tho
right OF voting. The counsel for the
accused had argued that the right to
vote consisted merely in the exercise of
1t, and that some particular instance of
the deprivation Of the right should be
alleged; but in this State, the time of
general elections is fixed by law for iii.
third Wednesday in October. In cases
of vacancies. special elections are or
dered. The right to vote in such Go
vernment as ours is not limited to the
exercise OF it. but is continuing one,
to be exercised on oil proper occasions;
and it ia proper that it should be pro-
tected by Congress, under the power
conferred by the fifteenth amendment of
the Constitution. Mr.. Corbin read from
the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall, in
the case of McCulloch Ds. the State of
Maryland. deolarative of the power Of
Congress, by appropriate legislation, to
enforce the powers granted by the Con
stitution to the General Government.
r foll L.
verdy johnson, in the closing argument
of the defence.
SPEECH OF MR.. JOHNSON.
May it please the court, shall best
show my appreciation of the indulgence
OF yonr Honors. by proceeding directly to
discuss such points as I may dsem proper
in the present case. It is not my object to
argue each ground Of the motion in de-
tail, but I shalt direct my attention to
those general rules which relnte to crimi.
nal proceedings in general. Before I
proceed to the consideration of those
amendments to the Constitution under
cover of which the Acts of Congress
upon which this indictment was framed
were passed, desire to refer to some
OF the fundamental principles of our
Government, about which there has
never been dispute. at the close of
the Revolutionary war, the severnl colo.
MES wore separate, free and Independent
sovereignties. The extgencies of the
Revolution had demanded some kind Of
union or league, in order to resist, with
any hope of success, the gigantic power
of the British Government; but any
colony or State had the right to with
draw from such league at such time and
for such reason as it deemed fit. After
the Revolution, it was found that such O
constituted government was iuadequate
to tho accomplishment Of the ends de-
sired; and then it was that the delegates
from the different States met and de-
vised the present Constitution. They
were men as patriotic, as true, and Us
devoted to the cause Of freedom, as have
ever assembled together. They ut once
appreciated tho dangers that beset the
organization Of such n government as
was contemplated. They wished to
guard, on the one hand, from the weak
ness of centrifugal government. and,
on the other. from the despotism Of cen.
tripetal powor. They naturally were
most apprehensive nf tho latter evil, for
they had but recently experienced the
tyrannical exercise OF power by cen.
tralized government Each State de.
sired to preserve oil the powers not abso.
iutely necessary to be delegated to the
General Government, in order to effect
the objects of its creation. Their do
mestic sovereignty they retained intact,
comforting upon the Central Government
the power to regulate our relations with
foreign nations and the commercial in.
J tercourse between the States. Many oil
the States had dsregarded the obliga
tions of contracts and made legal tender
currency utterly worthless in point oi
fact. This evil WAS prevented by the
J provision of the Constitution, that no.
thing but coin should be made Iega
tender, and that no State should pas.
any law impairing the obligations of con
tracts.
TO curry out the provisions of the
Constitution, and to establish an arbiter
between the conflicting powers of the
State and Federal Governments, the
Judiciary, coordinate and independ
ent branch Of the General Government,
, was created. But there is one thing that
the illustriOus trainers of the Constitu
ton did not do; and if any man had
dared propose such a thing, he would
not have been listened to with respect
They did not attempt to place in the
bands of the Federal Government the
, power to regulate or control the elective
franchise. In the first article of the
Constitution. this power is expressly re-
served to the States, and the qnalitica
tion of electors for the General Govern.
} nent were fixed upon as the same Of
those required of electors for the lower
house Of the legislatures Of the respect.
i've States. These the States have
changed in variety of ways. In some,
! property qualification was required; in
others. different nge was fixed upon,
&C.; and it has never been dreamed thai