Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-03

ed from the juries. Against this they pro-
tested, but the courts, in the interests of JUS
tice, overruled the objection and only white
men were permitted to act. This the ma
jority of the supreme court hold to be an
error, and the cases are remanded to the
State courts for trial before mixed juries.
Justices Field and Clifford dissent en-
phatically from the conclusions of the major
ity of the bench. They hold that if Congress
can make exclusion of person from jury
services an account of race or color crimi-
nal offense, it can make their exclusion from
Office, ON that account, also criminal,
and by the adoption of the doctrine the fail
ure to appoint them to Office will be presump-
tive evidence of their exclusion on that
ground. 1t is very evident to see
that these distinguished jurists do not
regard jury duty as right
which the State owes the citizen, but rather
that it is duty which the citizen owes the
State. This is the common sense as we'll as
the legal view of the case, and will be upheld
by every citizen of honest impulses and Or
binary intelligence.
The question of the rights of States to
govern their own internal affairs is brought
prominently before the public in these
opinions Of course the majority of the JUS
tees held the advanced idea that the federal
government has right to dictate in all mat
tiers to the States, treating them simply as
depencies with no reserved powers. In his
dissenting opinion Justice Field makes use
of this vigorous and pointed language:
Those who regard the Independence of States
in all their reserved powers and this includes
the independence of their legislative, judicial
and executive departments, as essential to the
successful maintenance of our form of govern
ment, cannot fail to view with the gravest ap-
prehension for the future the Indictment In
the court of the United States of judicial officer
of STATE for the manner in which he has dis
charged his duties under her laws, and of which
she makes no complaint. The proceeding is a
gross insult to the State. 1t is an attack on
her sovereignty in matters over which she has
never surrendered her jurisdiction. The doc
trine which sustains it, if carried to its logical
results would degrade ana sink her to the level
of mere municipal corporation.
These are brave and true words-brave
because they attack one of the most power
full and aggressive political heresies in our
country, heresy promulgated and upheld
by the now dominant party, and true because
they are an enunciation of the very theory
upon which our republic is based. The pur-
pose of the Republican party to decrease the
authority of the States, and to centralize all
power in the hands of the federal govern
ment, has long been notorious. 1t is part
of the scheme to destroy the republic and
erect upon its ruins monarchy greater than
any other on the face of the eaath. To as
sist in carrying out this scheme the supreme
court was packed with bigoted partisans
ready to prostitute their high office
to the most unpatriotic purposes. With this
same object in view, the conspiracy of plac-
ing Grant once more in the Presidential
chair was conceived, and has almost been
successfully carried out. To prevent the
voice of the people from being heard, one
after another of their safeguards against
despotic encroachments have been swept
away, and the time is almost ripe for the
coup d etat that shall destroy popular gov
eminent forever on this continent. The
men who are engineering this matter are un-
scrupulous, fertile in resources, and capable
of committing any outrage upon the rights
of the people. They have the whole power
of the federal government at their back and
supreme court subservient to their every
wish. The danger to the republic is immi-
nent-far more so than many people imag-
ine-and these opinions of the supreme
court are suggestive of how far that tribunal
will 60 to aid the conspiracy.