The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-07-21

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liens excluded from all share in the execution
of the laws as jurors, and the strange anoma.
| ly can daily be witnessed of marshals select
ing and summoning juries, of district attor-
neys addressing them, and judges instructing
them, when neither Judge, prosecutor or
marshal would be qualified to serve as n
juryman.
| We have had an Attorney General of the
| United States so disqualified, and other Cab
met officers and officials of various rank.
The complex aud delicate nature of the
machinery Of our Government, and the du
plex character of American citizenship under
| it, increase the need Of the USwRITTEN law.
We need it to create sentiment Of nation.
ality among all the people Of all the States,
which can never be the product of any body
OF statutes, nor alterations in the phraseology
Of the Constitution.
| As have said, written laws eau do little
more than restrain men, and for the force
which creates and compels action we must
look to the uuwritten law.
The government Of the Union makes us in
many and important respects one people
In war we are one people, in making peace
one people. In commercial regulations we
are one and the same people, and for all these
| and many other objects the government of
the United States is our only government,
and to it is committed the conttol of all eX-
ternal affairs of the Nation, and those inter
| nal affairs which affect the States generally
or in their relations to each other Chief
Justice Taney said, "For all the great pur.'
poses for which the Federal Government was
formed, we are one people with one common
country. We are all citizens of the United
States, with the rights which belong to citi'
zens of all the States as members of the
Union.h But as to those matters which are
completely within particular State, which
do not affect other States-sueh as the regu-
lation of its police, its domestic trade, civil
rights, the rights OF person and property, and
that immense mass of legislation which EN-.
braces everything within its territories eX-
cepting the enumerated powers delegated to
the General Government, the power of the
State is exclusive and supreme, is ackuowl.
edged and is essential to the perfect working
Of our complex system Of free government.
In this "diyided sovereignty as Daniel
Webster termed it, independence and har-
mony are required for the State government,
that they may the better subserve the pur.
pose Of cherishing and protecting the respec-
tive families of this great republic.
The State governments are the true pillars
upon which rest our national system, it is
upon their rectitude and strength that the
government of the Union must rely for its
support. Any construction of the cousttu.
ton or policy Of administration that invades
their independence in any of these matters,
not entrusted to the general Government, is
IA blow at the entire system, and can be dealt
only in blindness or treachery.
1t is not now my purpose TO enter the
debatable ground of State and Federal iuris
diction, but always so far as | may to aid in
Al. . al .s..N L.,
Cancellation between the two, which should
characterize the administration of public
power, and which after ALL is the one thing
needful for its maintenance.
A little reflection will serve to satisfy any
reasonable mind of impossibiity of conduct
ing a Government such as this based upon the
undertaking principle or voluntary support
by its citizens, in any other mode than local
self government in the several States.
We must rely upon the capacity of our
people to govern themselves, and to obtain
this capacity they must be exercised in the
faculties requisite for the end. Local self.
government is the true and only school of the
American citizen, in which he starts with the
essential equality-equality of opportunity,
and, retains ever, the greatest of opportuni.
ties-thc opportunity of amendment,
BY his very failures and mistakes he is
chasteued and instructed aud the virtues of
set.reliance, independence and sturdy per.
severance are all brought into action to aid
in the necessary education of his faculties.
The separation of the domain of the federal
and the State governments not only subserves
liberty by distributing power, and preventing
its dangerous and undue concentration, but
the spheres of official power being thus limi.
ted the places under either government may
be safely committed to men Of moderate ac-
quirement and capacity,
1t was an important object with the found
ers of our system by a separation of the
jurisdictions, and asubdivsion and limitation
OF powers, not only to curb ambition, bGt also
to enable men Of average ability and moder-
ate education, to engage usetully and credlta'
bly, in the public service.
Our system is to be maintained by keeping
these objects in view, and carefully restricting
State and Federal authority to their respec.
tive jurisdictions, and sustaining each in its
sphere-never overlooking the need of q
spirit Of harmony and cooperation between
the two.
A glance at the enormous area of our ter
ritory; the extreme difference in climate and
temperature; of soil; Of production; of occu.
cupation, habits, customs, creeds; and above
| all, Of the diversities of origin and races of
the people by whom it is inhabited, will suf,
flee to satisfy any one that the idea of provid.
ing a single code Of laws which should relate
to all the objects Of domestic government,
and under which such a nation could reason
ably expect to live in tranquility, is simply
preposterous.
The alleged exercise of Federal powers in
a spirit of local tavoritism, has already, in
our history, proved a serious ground of dis.
content and dissension among the States.
A resolute maintenance OF their rights, and
n disposition to resent injustice or encroach.
ment, is one of the characteristics of a free
people, and attests their sense of the value of
the privileges in question.
We should all foster strenuous and gener.
Gus rivalry in the paths of industry and
activity between the States of our Union !;
and to insure that the spirit Of jealousy and
animosity should not arise between them
we should adopt, as the safest rule of ad.
minlstration, a systematic limitation of the
exercise of Federal functions to sneh mipi.
mum as will be consistent with the unembar.
rassed performance Of all its necessary duties
and the thorough maintenance of its Just
powers and prerogatives, leaving to the sever
al States untettered control Of their own do.
mestic concerns.
| l care not how worthy or learned body of
men may be, they will never be able to frame
laws to control the daily lives of community
of whose tastes, habits, and occupations they
are ignorant.
The first object of law should be to bring
it into harmony with the people-for this a
study of their temper and habits; their tradi-
tons and associations; their virtues and in.
| firmities, are all requisite; and to this, one
who does not live among them and sympa.
thize with them, can never attain.
AT Madrid Spanish king prohibited the
| wearing of round hats, which being disguise
became a cover for assassination. The peo.
pie revoked, and the law could not be carried
out. He then ordered the public executioner
should wear them, and no one could be found
to do so.
Government is a moral and not mathe.
matical science, and one of its greatest forces
is sympathy and sympathy fixed by habit
becomes affection.
~ know very wise man" said Fletcher,
Of Saloun, ''that believed il a man were per.
mitted to make all the ballads, he need not
care who should make the laws of the na.
| ton.
| We need the force Of an uRoritten law TO
establish in the hearts and minds of the
American people sense of the dignity and
| impaftiality In the government of the Ttninn