The daily gazette., 1880-03-11
Federal Interference,

From the Baltimore Gazette.
The recent decisions of the Supreme
Court affirming The validity Of the Fed
eral election laws are of far reaching
significance and Importance. As Judge
Field, in his dissenting opinion, express
ed 1t, their effect is to confirm the asser-
tion by Congress of power which is
obstructive ofthe independence of the
States in matters over which their au-
thority has never been surrendered" !"
According to the law as interpreted, il
is now competent for the Federal author
iiy to degrade the States "to the level
of municipal corporatio ms existing at
the will of Congress-" This is the doc
,rin of Capitalization as advanced by
the radical wing of the Republican. party
in its most ultra form. That il should
have received the Endorsement of the
highest judicial tribunal in the land
must be a matter of profound regret for
every man who appreciates at its full
value the fundamental principle of cor
relation between the State and Federal
Governments, upon which our whole
political system is based. Hereafter, un-
less the election laws are repealed, it
will be within the power Of the General
Government to interfere in the most
arbitr rary manner In all the elections for
members of Congress and to punish yio-
lations by the election officers not only
of Eel eral but of State laws. The effect
of the decision does not stop even here,
for, as Judge Field remarks, "If the
Federal Government may punish a
violation of the laws of st ate il NAV
also punish obedience to them and exer-
else a supervision over the legislation Of
States, suoversiye of all their reserved
powers"
Judge Field, supported by Judge Cliff
ford, made strong protest against the
decision If the majority; and his dis.
senting opinion is a clear and able pre-.
sentatlon ofthe theory which has been
maintained by the Democratic party
from the beginning, that the enforcement
legislation is unconstitutional and void
1t is not encouraging TO reflect that the
Republican members of the court In.
dolsed UNANIMOUSLY the Stalwart view OF
the case and that a tribunal which should
be above all political considerations has
again divided on partisan issue accord
ing to the party predictions of its
members. The decision of the court
however, does not end the matter. Ar
appeal may Sill be taken to the people
and among the questions to be submit
ted at the Presidential election mex
fall will be the paramount issue whethe
the centrslization, which is procesdin,
so rapidly under the lead of the Repub
licau party backed up by partisan Su
| preme Court, shall be checked or not
For more than ninety years the Unite,
states have grown and prospered with
out the laws which are now TO be en-
forced and which the Republicans CLAIM
to be necessary TO the purity of our elec
tions. The federated States have sur
vived three wars ; they have grown fror
thirteen feeble colonies to thirty-eigh
States, covering larger cultivated terri
tory than any other power in the world
they are to-day more prosperous, hat
pier than any other people. Yet at thi
day-at the beginning of the last decad
Of the first century of their existence
their sovereignty is denied and it
sought in time of profound peace h
bind upon them the shackles of FEEDER
al authority, the exercise of which, evel
under the Interpretation of the doctrin,
ofState's rights enforced by the war, car
only be justified by armed revolt. |
this decision Of the Supreme Court b,
not nullihed by the repeal Of the en-
forcement laws, the autonomy Of the dif
ferent States is destroyed and the it'll
'United States" applied to this countrr
becomes an absurd misonmer, Undei
the ruling of the Court we are, in fact
no longer a federation of States, but /,
strongly centralized Republic divided
tor convenience into thirty-eight depen
dent provinces.