Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-06-11

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT, sUrFnE Cornr,


| lion Stephen J. FIC}d lFdSiiHq'0H-AIY pEAE
! JUDGE | have just returned here from Sacra-
| mcntO (Where we have been holding the No
| yember term of our Court and find yOur dis
| seuting opinion III the railroad eases. / have
not seen the prevailing opinion but cannot
| conceive how any position could possibly be
| found which would be an answer to the views
| you have so well expressed. We found your
! dissenting opinion at sacramento, and have
| heard from all who spoke of it unqualified up-
pTOval of your Judgment and the reasoning by
| which il is sustained.
| For myself think that the question cou,id-
| cred by you in the conclusion of your opinion
is one of the most important that has ar-.en CON
| cerning the boundary that divides the Federal
| and State authorities.
! The Central Pacific Railroad Company is our
| child, member of our family "a creation or
| our sovereignty taS we had occasion to -ay lu
1872, Il Cal r.. i3l and the Federal Cover mtnf
| by making Il contract with the corporation oil
| not thereby tOriSfamnate our offspring or put
| itself into any new relation with tine State cor
! pOration. other than mere contract relation
! Our assent was required to the contract ANA w"
| gave it and III very guarded manner Acts
] 1861, p. 471): said company to he subject o.
all the laws of this State concerning railroad JUd
| telegraph lines, except, etc. do not think
| that the reservation i'll the Act of the Legisla-
| tuTe, though well enough, was important, pc-
! cause | suppose that the political authority of
| the Government and the states. respectively, is
such as is defined by constitutional law and that
/ il cannot be increased nor diminished rs the re-
! suit of contract, express or lmplled-meTs bar
gain and sale between the Federal Government
| and any particular state. don suppose that
| we could as Il State with or without cOnSiaeTa-
ton sell to the Federal Government our rightul
authority over this corporation, or our power to
regulate its affairs. II we would, there would
soon be an end of ''the uniformity of the rela-
tions existing between the several states upon
| the one hand and the Federal Government upon
the other"
| think, my dear Judge. YOU speak out in this
opinion for the preservation OF the limits which
| we have been taught to regard as defining the
| powers of the Federal Government and which,
! ifmaterially transcribed, must end in the de-
| struction of the entire system, and you speak
| clearly and strongly and with your accustomed
| vigor of argument and all rejecting men Will
| thank and honor you for it.
Judge Wallace was at that time Chief
| Justice of the Supreme Court Of California,
and his use of the pronoun We implies
that the full bench concurTed il his in
| dorsement of Judge Fields dissent.
The J[aH has no further interest in the
| fight between the Field and W2llace fac
| tons of the California Democracy than to
note certain glaring inconsistencies devel-
| oped on one side or the other, such as that
! herewith presented. 1t is Instructive to
know that Judge Wallace indQrsed, some
| what eaborately, as above, the very act on
| the part Of Justice Field for which the latter
is now and has been condemned by fac
| ton of his party, Judge Wallace in the
meantime posing as the beau ideal of the
| condemning faction. The incident serves
well to show what strange things some
| times occur in politics