Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1884-10-29
"LlkE A sreNE WALL"

Stands Edgerton, Alone, Beside the Crumb.
ling Mortar ofthe Dakota Supreme Bench
Two Opinioas in the Capital Commis.
sion Case.
Special Correspondence of the Chicago Inter-
Ocean.
Huron, ID. T., October 22-The two
opinions in thu capital commission case,
in the supreme court of Dakota, appear
in the Law magazines of the current
month. First in order comes the major.
ity opinion delivered by Judge Church,
reversing the judgment of the district
court and upholding the legality of the
capital commission act of March 8, 1883,
removing the territorial capital from
Yankton, to location to be subsequent
" made by the commissioners appointed
in the act. Following is the dissenting
opinion Of Chief Justice Edgerton, hold.
ing that the act IN question was unwar.
ranted and invalid, and that the iudg.
ment of the district court should be
affirmed.
In this opinion Judge Edgerton stande
alone. as he had stood before in the
lower court, like stone wall, resisting
with adamantine force the assaults oi
those who never would have broken
down the constitutional barriers of the
organic act, but for the crumbling mortar
encountered next to the Edgertor
adamant.
The majority opinion, in which Asso-
ciate Justices Church, Palmer and Hud
son concur, covers sixty y-three pages Of
legal cap, and is as labored, from Q leea
standpoint. ae it is long. 1t is an in
genious production, viewed as an opinion
prepared not 80 much for the considera
/ ton OF the supreme court as for the com
prehension one way of the popular mind
Ingenious because Of its shrewd "com
binations of ideas" supported by an I'M
posing array of alleged authorities auc
calculated to bewilder where there is .
failure to instruct the honest citizen as t.
what are his sovereign powers outside o.
any mere constitutional limits.
Ordinarily We look to the courts K
check rather than encourage too libera
construction OF the law. The constitu
tlonal safeguards of popular liberty anG
the welfare OF society have ever been tn,
first care of the higher courts. It is gen
orally the demsgogue upon the benct
who finds.the letter of the Law irrecon
cilable with its true meaning and spirit
But Mr.. Justice Church, speaking fol
the majority Of the court, from his higt
place on.the bench, argues the contrar,
proposition. He says: "This erganil
act is, in all its essential generic features
similar to the constitutions of the sew
eral states, and there can be no doub
that il was designed to servo 'simila,
purpose; the power to amend, alter, o.
or repeal, however, remaining IN, con
Rress." Here, In the same sentence, tn,
learned iudge'would clothe' the ovRsni,
act, embracing the estricted powers dele
4 gated BY the United States to the terri
tory of Dakota, with the sovereignty o
q state constitution, and yet il forced {,
admit the absolute dependence Of th,
territorial condition. }'1'l
Here again: "It the provisions OF th,
organic act pertaining to legislation ar
to be regarded - q mere delegation {,
tho territorial Legislature of the Law
making power,
they might seem obnoxious to th
we'll settled rule that powers strictly au
exclusively Legislative can not be dele
gated.
4 "But, Gays Judge Church. .such
view OF the organic act 10 manifestly
too narrow one" The authorities Quote
In support Of this view arc Of the mos
. mea9er sort. The analogy sought to b
| established Ia Just about q clear - Mi
soari. river water before tilterinR-An
no olsarar.
Judss Church alrsady aAnits /
IsnHch hinseL Aftse goins 10 ''Cools
z