The daily gazette., 1883-06-27

| line peace, the prosperity, and the very ex.
istence Of the Union are invested In the
hands Of the seven judges. Without theil
active cooperation the Constitution would
be dead letter; the exc utive appeals to
TO them for assistance against the encroach-
ment OF the legislative powers; the legisla-
tnre demands their protection from the de-
signs Of the executive; they defend the
| Union from the dlsobedience Of the States,
the States from the exaggerated claims OF
the Union, the public interest against the
interests Of private citizens, and the couser-
vative spirit Of order against the neeting In
novations Of democracy. Their power is
| enormous, but it Is clothed 10 the authority
Of public opinion. er8
1.-THE federal judges must not only be
good citizens, and men possessed of that
informant and integrity which are indls,
pensable TO magistrates, but they must; be
statesm n--politicians, not Unread in the
signs of the times, not afraid to brave the
obstacles which can be subdued, nor SLOW
to turn aside such encroachlng elements nas
may threaten the supremacy Of the Union
and the obedience which is due TO the
laws" .l.t q '- 2
The Supreme Court of the United States,
speaking through Mr.. Justice Miller Ia the
late case of the United States vs.. Lee, have
made declaration worthy to be iemblazoned
above the Intel of every Law School and
Court House in America
"No man in this country is so high that
he is above the law. No officer Of the law
may set that law at defiance with
immunity. All the officers of the
government, from the highest to the lowest,
are creatures of the law, aud are bound to
obey it.
at 10 the only supreme power In our
system Of government, and every man who
~ aarffa n nn taa in IA FINN
tious, is only the moe strongly bound to
submit TO that supremacy, and TO observe
the limitations which 1t imposes upon the
exercise Of the authority which 1t gives.
n
Shall 1t be said In the face Of all this and OF
the acknowledged right OF the judiciary to
de -ide In proper cases statutes which had
been passed by both branches of Congress
and approved by the President, to be un-
constitutional, that the courts cannot give
a remedy when the citizen has been de
prived Of his property by force, his estate
seized and converted to the use of the
government without lawful authority, with
out process of law and without compensa-
tion, because the President has ordered 1t,
and his officers are In possession ~
As our country expands under the i'm
pulses OF free institutions, and its vast re-
sources are developed bJ the energies Of Its
population under the marvellous leverage
and enlightment Of modern invention, the
prizes Of society grow In number and value,
and the contests for their possession natur-
ally Intensity with ferceness born Of In
creased competition.
Social forces are developed and surge to
and fro with violence that calls for all the
strength Of our institutions to regulate and
subdue them into subordination to law
and order.
remember reaiing the felicitatiolp of
that distlngui. he'd orator, Rufus Choate, in
an address to the Law Glass of Cambridge
made nearly forty years ago, upon the com
pletIon, as he profesed to believe, by the
people of the United States, of certain essen
tial political reforms, and that the era Of
those reformations had for them been safely
passed. And when in his glowing periods
read, that "the stern claim of labor had
been provided for, and its long antagonism
with capital reconcled,0 that property
had been parcelled out in near conformity
TO q parental low of nature;" that
"small freeholds dot over and cut up i'm
perial parks, &c;'-yet, it had been many
weeks, perhaps months, siHce any news
paper tnat met my eye, had not contained
the announcement of some new form or in
stance of contention between capital and
labor. be +.
Organizations claiming to include hun
dreds of thousands of laborlng men perme-
| ate nearly every section of our country, and
strikes are ordered, or threatened, and take
place, accompanied sometimes by exhibit
| tions of lawlessn ess and force of an alarm
ing character. The claim is not to control
by organization their own labor only, but to
prevent all independent workers from con-
| tracting In competition with them. Women
banded and armed, forgettul of their sex
/ o.,d tie tt,ak inf aaa Uff
all who work in opposition to their wishes;
and thus all industry is paralyzed and pro-
| duction ceases In the localities referred to.
| Daily ACCOUNTS reach US from the Western
| States of armed militia In possession OF
mines and manufactures of hloodshed and
riot, of professions of workmen, bearing
banners with Inscriptions of dreadful note.
All this Is sad reply to the assertion that
''the stern claim of labor had been provided
for and its antagonism with capital recon
ciled."
And when remembered that vast por-
ton of the territory of this country, greater
In extent than half the kingdoms of europe,
once the public domain of our whole people
aad the natural home Of mighty popula-
ton of their descendants, is to-day held 10
the control of few artificial persons with
corporate names, less in number than the
fingers upon single hand-it was with a
sigh that closed the book, and with sad
smile reflected upon the rhapsodies of rhet-
oric, and the vanity of human prophecy.
The great problem of the civilized world,
how to adjust the claims of the twin giants
Capital and Labor, In the division of the
wealth they jointly, and only jointly, can
produce, stands before US to-day, demanding
settlement, and Is as fraught with danger
and difficulty in the United States as any
where in the world, needing the good
sense and natural good feeling of all classeI
for its proper solution; and the "Golder
Rule' will, am sure, be found the best II
this as in every other human contention.
In our day the pecunlary prizes, and con
seauent temptations, of our profession az
greater than ever before In our own history
and, as am disposed to believe, in that o.
any other people.
Our ancestors undoubtedly did intend ant
fondly hoped to arrange their institu
tions of government so as to preserve sim
: plieity In the manner of living among thei
! descendants, and an equality In the distri
} button of wealth, Ia approximate conformit.
to what Mr.. Choate styled "the parenta
, law Of nature; and the etor
to produce such results
observable In the careful separation AM
distribution of political powers, intendin
: that plain men OF moderate capacities, acl
ing strictly within the prescribed sphere o
| their official duties, should be competent TO
the work of government. They abolishe'
3 the rule of primogeniture and prescribed a
| equal and infinite division of estates anon
= children and their descendants, without dis
D tInction of sex, Entailment OF estates we
I either destroyed or plt tced subject 70 th
= | will of the first taker to convert 1t into fe