New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-06-26
MR.. TBURMAYS DOCTRINE.

In tho course of debate in the Senate last
Friday, Mr.. Blaine asked Mr.. Thurman II he
believed he was justified in voting against
enforcing a law merely because he thought 1t
unconstitutional The leader OF the Demo
cratic side of the Chamber answered yes, and
said he would periure himself otherwise To
vote against the enforcement of "a law for the
purpose of preventing its execution is an act
resting on precisely the same moral plane as
open resistance to law. Mr.. Thurman's
course is less manly than to assail the officers
of justice with club, OF intimidate them
with a shotgun, but there is no other essen
tial difference. The fact that he Is law
maker only makes his attitude rs iaw-0reaker
the more reprehensible. He does not Ike
certain sections OF the Revised Statutes OF the
United States. Together with his party asso-
ciates he endeavored to repeal them, but
failed for want of enough votes TO overcome
a Presidential veto. Now he says he will pre-
vent the enforcement of these sections II he
can. and he seeks an excuse for his conduct
in belief in their uncOnstitutionallty. The
plea would be laughed at in County Court.
That lawyer of Mr.. Humans reputation
should seriously advance it in the Senate
Chamber is new proof of the power OF par
tisan bigotry To middle the clearest inteects.
What authority has Mr.. Thurman for set
ting up his own opinion of the constitution
atty of a law as the only rule by which he
will be governed He is Senator, it is true.
but he is none the less a citizen, and none the
less bound to obey all laws until they shall
have been repealed or set aside as Invalid by
the Supreme Court. As a Senator, his views
of the harmony of bill with the constitu-
ton rightly govern his vote on It's passage
and when the bill has become law and prop
ositiOn is subsequently made for its repeal, the
same views, if unchanged, are his proper
guide. But so long as the law stands unre-
pealed upon the statute book, his former OPP
position to IFS enactment and his effort TO Sc
cure its repeal furnish no justification for
placing obstacles in the way of Its enforce
ment or for tying the hands of the executive
branch of the Government, This ought to be
plain to everybody. One OF the first princl-
pies upon which our Government Is based Is
that all laws are binding upon all citizens, un-
less decided to be unconstitutional by the
proper tribunal. If this principle were to be
disregarded we should speedily have anarchy
in place of order. Every man who chose to
disobey any particular law would set up in
defence a doubt as to Its cOnstitutionality, and
according to the plain logic of Mr.. Thurman's
course would be justified in so doing.
Unfortunately for the peace OF the country
in the past, Mr.. Humans doctrine is not of
his own invention. 1t originated III South
Carolina many years ago, when the people OF
that State determined TO resist the enforce
ment of the tariff laws, and it received at
that time the name which exactly fits it now
nulliicatIon. Andrew jackson suppressed the
heresy at the time, but it broke out again in
1861, when the Slave States assumed that
they had a right to secede, and that it would
be unconstitutional to coerce them. They did
not ask for decision from the Supreme
Court, but took up arms, and for four years
tried to shoot the Union to death. Mr.. Thur
man has done no more than to revive in the
Senate the doctrine which the rebels failed to
establish in the field.