Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-05-10

to the manner of enacting law and
in the time and manner it shall take
effect. Having briefly. traced out the
history of our constitution, defined
its purpose, marked its powers and
pointed out some of the principal
rules of construction, we may now
venture upon the last question of i'll
quiry.
". What is the relation of the
Nate to the National Constitution?
Vhat is the exact line Of demarcatlon
atween these two institutions?
here does the jurisdiction Of one
'mmence and that Of the other end? !?
aese are questions the proper
e. er1's7 - -- Il, -.l-..,ands the glory
n perpetuity Of National Go7ersi-
tent, and~our civil and individual
liberty. 1t was Il wrong answer to
these questions that gave rise to our
long and bloody war; from wrong
ANSWER to these questions once, our
whole country was doluged with the
blood of thousands of its best and
bravest citizens and Threatened Il
total sabyersiou Of our free institu-
tons, and a severing of the bond over
which our. forrfathers struggled SO
strenuously to unite. All these diff
| ticulties having been trayersed and
the Union remains yet unbrOlW, we
may now look back upon history
and from the imperfect wanderings of
our fathers, mark out the path in
which We and our postcrity will jour
ncy in future. While these questions
are fraught with gigantic interest and
Importance they are no less difficult
and comprehensive. II seems to lie
Il prominent feautUre OF our rcpresen-
tative governments to haze its political
parties these parties are usually am
| bilious, and often advocate measures
+ that seem to please the popular
( mind when they know ii is inconsiSt-
cnt with the spirit Of the Constitution,
solely for party ends and self aggran-
disement, instead Of acting in the
| full spirit of the Constitution and for
the public interest. While these ele-
ments are the Interpreters of govern
mcnt, it will not be an unusual oc-
currence to see our Constitution vio-
lated, if not in the letter in the spirit.
We find the same characteristics
marking the character Of cur country
to-day. The one party striving to re-
tain power, by making the National
ersiSn fSf"'t1t power a. and to Laye , SOW
dates obeyed even though it be with
bavonet force; on the other hand We
find party jealous Of the National
Government Of lis strong centraiizing
tendencies, and ll;";::y . the party all
vocating the doctrine of - State S
rights, ,'-political heresies rs great
one us the other. 1t is evident that
the extreme views of parties are
wrong, and there must be right some
where; this we cannot discover unless
we rely upon the work of cool and
deliberate judgment, to mark out the
| line of distinction. But owing to the
intimate relation existing between the
State and National Government, the
nicely of discrimination required to dis
cover where the jurisdiction of the
one commences and. that of the other
ends, the desire for infringing OH the
one hand, the jealousy Of interference
on the other, and immediate interests
involved, renders the State and
National relations difficult to mark
out and peculiarly interesting and
important; this Importance will con
tinue to grow the longer our country
continues to grow i'll population and
wealth. z
The trainers of the Matt onal Govern
mcnt never intended that it should
have more power than was necessary
to hold the States together in one
Union, protect individual liberty and
tle power to raise revenue for its
own support. In its governing func-
ions it is separate and distinct from
.he States Government. A different
Eew has been held by an able jurist,
fudge jameson says, in his work on
Constitution, That the Constitution
the United States is part of the
IA -----~..,.o,vI uI eacn state whether re-
rrcd to in it or not, and the Constitu.
, ons of all the States form part ol
= 3,4e Constitution of the United States
h aggregation of allthe Constitutional
Instruments would be precisely the
samc in principle as single Constitu-
ton, which, framed by the. people OF
the Union, should define the powers
d the General GOVERNMENT, and then
ty specific provisions erect the scpar-
te governments of the States, with
al their existing attributations and
limitations. of power" Theoretically
tlis is trae but in actual practice it
is different. Both governments have
their respective spheres to operate in,
that of the one general, and of the
other local, and before We. can see
the exact relation we have to view
them as separate governments the
one as having enumerated powers and
the other possessing all powers OF
government except those granted
away to another power. We see that
it was the intention of the trainers OF
the Constitution to keep the two GOV