Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-02-12
Centenary Celebration.
Mr.. CLEVELAND ON THE HIGHEST JUDICI-
AIRY TRIBUNAL.

Mr.. CLEVELAND ON THE HIGHEST JUDICI
| AIRY TRIBUNAL.
Ex President Cleveland presided over the
commemorative literary exercises at the
celebration Tuesday of last week, in the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York, OF
the Centenary of the United States Supreme
Court. Mr.. Cleveland called eloquent at.
tention to the necessity of a final arbiter
like the Supreme Court of the United
States, and said:-
In the work of creating our nation the
elements of a free government were suppli-
ed by concessions of sovereign States, by
surrender of accustomed rights and by the
inspiration of pure and disinterested pa
triotism If from these elements there had
not been evolved that feature in our federal
system which is our theme to day the struc-
ture might have been fair to look upon aud
might have presented semblance of solid
ity and strength. but it would have been
only semblance, and the completed edifice
would have had within its foundations the
infrmity of decay and ruin.
1t must be admitted that it IL hardly
within TIE power of human language 80 to
compass diverse interests and claims within
the lines of q written constitution as to free
it entirely from disputes of construction, and
certainly diverse constructions were apt to
lark in the dictiou of constitution declar-
ed by the President of the Convention
which formulated it to be '.the result of a
spirit of amity and of that mutual Difference
and concession which che peculiarity of our
political situation rendered indispensable.
1t is fairly plain and palpable, both from
reason and review of events 10 our his
tory, that without an ar bitter to determine
finally and conclusvely the rights and du-
ties embraced iu the language of the con-
stitution the union of States and the life of
the American nation must have been pre-
carious. and disappointing. Indeed, there
could hardly have been we'll grounded
hope that they would long survive the in
depreciation of the national compact by
every party upon whom it rested, and the
insistence OF each to the last extremity up
on such an Interpretation as would secure
coveted rights aud benefits and absolve
from irksome duties and obligations.
In the creation of the world tho earth
was upon the face of the deep until God
said, Let there be light, and there was
light.
institutions were without the form aud
symmetry of strength, and the darkness of
hopeessness brooded over the aspirations
of our people until light in the Temple of
Justice and Law, gathered from the Divine
Fountain of Light, illumined the work of
the fathers of the Republic.
Ga this centennial day we will devoutlv
thank Heaven for the revelation to those
who formed our government of this source
of strength and light, and for the inspira-
ton of disinterested patriotism and conse-
Grated devotion which established the tribu.
nal which we to day commemorate.
Our fathers had sacrificed much to be
free. Above all things they desired free
dom to be absolutely secured to themselves
and their posterity. AID yet with all their
enthusiasm for that sentiment, they we're
willing to refer to the tribunal which they
devised all questions arising under their
newly formed constitution, affecting the
freedom and the protection and safety of
the citizen. Though bitter experience had
taught them that the instrumentalities of
government might tIespass upon freedom,
and though they ha learned in hard
school the cost of the struggle to wrest lib
erty from the grasp of power, they refused,
in the solemn work they had in hand, to
lake COUNSEL OIL uuuue l-dr OF ulsLtdc6lDS
perturbation, and they calmly aud deliber-
ately established as function of their gov.
ernment check upon unauthorized free
dom and restraint upon dangerous liberty
Their attachment and allegiance to the
sovereignty of their States were warm and
unfaltering; but these did not prevent tt em
from contributing fraction of that sover-
eighty to the creation of court which
should guard and protect their new nation
and save and perpetuate a government
which should IN all time to come bless an
independent people.
After Chairman Cleveland had spoken
the Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, rector of Trinity
Church, made long prayer full Of devo
iopal feeling, in which, toward the conclu-
ion, he remembered the sufferers by the
recent calamity in Washington.