Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-20

Constitution, Section 1920.
"Who has ever gainsaid the canon of
construction and Interpretation thus
plainly spoken from this bench?
with such key to the import of a
provision, how minor and needless become
conjectures about what the actors in past
scene knew or thought or expected or be-
lieyed, as to incidents or events in the
future which might invoke the aid of a
principle of law.
Man being human, and his vision
finite, it is well that saving ordinances
need not be shrunken in their uses or dura-
ton to the measure Of what the trainers
foreszw.
Truths and principles do not die with
occasions nor do they apply only to events
which have cast their shadows before.
NO HOROSCOPE FOR STATESMEN.
The statesman has no horoscope which
maps the measureless spaces of nations
life, and lays down in advance all the bear
lngs of Its career.
Futurities are naked before the all-seeing eye
" All that wisdom and science in legis-
lation can de, is to establish Just principles
and laws; this done, every case which
afterward falls within them, is case for
which they were established.
A tree, fountain, lamp, set in the
public way-a beacon on a cliff-a buoy on
the sea, for whosoever sake first thought of
or provided, becomes the benefaction and
common property of wayfarers, whoever
they may be-
To the Mongolian and the Caucasian,
as well as to the African, the Constitution
says: Humani nihd me dtieaua put0'
The hand that rounded Peters dome,
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome.
Wrought in q sad sincerity
he builded better than he knew
"Those who devised the Fourteenth
Amendment wrought in grave sincerity.
They may have builded better than they
knew
''They vitalized and energized a princi-
pie as old and everlasting as human rights.
To some of them the sunset of life may
have given mystical lore.
They builded not for day, but for all
time; not for few or race, but for man.
They planted in the Constitution monu-
mental truth, to stand four square what
ever wind might blow. The truth is but
the golden rule, so entrenched as to curb
the many who would do to the few as they
would not have the few do to them.
" If it be true that new needs have come:
if it be true that wrongs have arisen or
shall arise which the trainers in their fore
bodings never saw-wrongs which shall be
righted by the words they established,
then all the more will those words be
sanctihed and consecrated to humanity and
progress"
THE RESULT OF VENGEANCE.
He dealt with the subject of classified
ton and showed that no attempt at CLASH
fcation was made. He sustained with all
the power which truth gave him, the
opinion of Justice Field and Judge SAWYER
upon that subject. In the presence of the
Supreme Court of the United States, he
read the discriminating provisions of our
Constitution and said:
"Can your Honors listen to these recitals
and doubt that vengeance brooded over
Constitution?
'Can your Honors deal more humanely
with such acts, even when done by an
American State, than to rank them among
the brutalities of progress@
'They were done by Court. A conven-
ton which frames an organic law is a
Court high Court of justice; and JUS
tice is depicted as stony statue, with
blinded eyes, with an arm unmoved by a
throb of feeling, holding mistaken the
even scales.
"And these vengeful edicts were made
in the name of anti-monopoly, equality and
right.
sit has been often SO. Vice in the name
of virtue-rascality in the name of reform
-demagogism in the name of patriotism
persecution in the name of Justice
cruelty ia the name of humanity-cbaos
in the name of order.
at was in the name of humanity that
a seeming majority flooded France with
blood; and in the name Of religion, that
they would have dethroned the monarch
of the skies.
Somewhere in one of these briefs it is
written that the author has searched from
the time of King John for so fragrant an
instance of discrimination and arbitrary
taxation within the pale Of the common
law, and that the example before us leads
all the rest.
RUDE, CUNNING SEVERITY.
"Be this as it may, for enterprise and
ingenuity, for rude yet cunning severity,
for irreverence for law, for disdain OF OBJ
stacles, appearance, and traditions, and
for contempt of vested rights, it seems safe
to say, that carried away by excitement,
California has in form sanctioned provis-
ions without parallel in the Constitutions
of North American States, made by white
men for white men, in our time"
He then took up the question of the
taxation of the Federal franchise and
said:
Inherent, inwrought and indivisable
in this single and general assessment
blended indistinguishably with all the
other values which enter into it's not
only the franchise originally acquired
from the State, but also every faculty, at
tribute and franchise derived from the
United States The defendant, if not a
creature of the General Government, long
ago became by adoption one of its perma-
nent agencies and instrumentalities. As
sucn agency and instrument, it had i'm
posed upon it by Acts of Congress various
perpetual conditions and obligations
adapted to securing and preserving its ex-
istence and efficiency forever, not only as
part of one uniform, continuous trans
continental line of railway, but a postal
and military road.
The road, in fact, built was constructed
by direction of Congress, and with the aid
and under the auspices of the United
States. The laws of California gave no
right to construct such road, and the
Acts of Congress were the sole authority
The time within which the road should
be completed was prescribed by Congress,
and it was provided that should the de-
PENDANT fail Of the completion within the
time, the United States should proceed,
through other agencies, to complete it.
RULES PRESCRIBED BY CONGRESS.
Rules and regulations for the construc-
ton and use of the road were prescribed
by Congress, and these regulations in
cluded not only the location, gauge and
character Of the road, but the subject of
fares, charges and tolls, for carrying pas
sengers and freight.
AS part of its action to stimulate and
insure the construction and maintenance
of national highway, Congress endowed
the defendant with various benefits, ad-
yantages, faculties, franchises and valuable
rights: and received to itself not TO Cal
ifornia or to any CT the other States and
Territories soon to be States, through