Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-08

tablished, hundred years ago, "an indie
structible Union of indestructible States"
"The Court" said the speaker, "by means
of that great writ of habeas corpus, has
maintained, against executive power, the
right Of trial by jury; has annulled, as er
post fqcto, new test oaths and penalties i'm
posed by Congress and by the States; has
prohibited unreasonable searches or seiz-
ures, and has protected the citizen against
unlawful imprisonment, under color Of the
legislative power of Congress; has forbid
den the taxing power of either Congress or
the States to impede the exercise by the
other of its appropriate functions of gov
eminent has enforced the obligation Of
lawful contracts, while declaring utterly
void those intended to aid rebellion, and
refusing to recognize, as contracts, prlvl-
leges Improvidently granted by State Leg
islatures. Interpreting those great amend
ments to the Constitution, it has shielded
citizen and alien alike, of every race and
color, against unequal laws and oppressive
ordinances; but while upholding the
power of Congress to enforce them
by corrective legislation" has de-
MED its right to supersede the Leg
islatures of States. Asserting the right
of the United States, both by the legisla-
tive and the judicial power, to guard the
purity of the national elections and TO pro-
tect the officers and agents OF the nation in
the discharge OF every duty, and unfolding
the supremacy of the General Govern
ment, within Its sphere, over all persons
and territory and things throughout the
Union, it has not less firmly maintained
the power and duty of each State, within
its proper sphere, to legislate for the well
fare of its people. In its own comprehen-
sive phrase, the Court 'has held with a
steady and an even hand the balance be-
tween Federal and State power"
In concluding, the speaker said: "The
true power of the Court has resided and
must ever dwell in the sincere respect and
unbought confidence of the people of the
United States, conscious that with them
selves still rests the destiny of their free
institutions, whose safely and endurance
depend upon their own reverence for the
sanctions of law"
Quoting De Tocquevilles declarations,
fifty years ago, that the Supreme Court is
placed at the head of all known tribunals,
both by the nature of its right and by the
class of parties which it controls, Mr..
Hitchcock's address closed as follows:
Reviewing, at the century's close, the
exercise of these powers, with what pa
triotic pride, with what reverent thankful
ness to the supreme Ruler of nations, may
we not Justly regard, in either aspect of its
Jurisdiction, this most august OF human
tribunals In the one we contemplate the
vast conflicting interests, of private and
public concern, whose adjustment has been
demanded by the unparalleled growth and
development of great people, and the
still graver controversies among powerful
States, such as elsewhere drain the life
blood and make desolate the homes Of
nations; alike peacefully determined by
those judgments, pronounced by illustriouS
men, the records Of which are more glori.
Gus than the blazonry Of battle-fags, since
upon them are inscribed the bloodless
victories of peace, nobler than all the tri-
umphs of war. In the other, the imagina.
ton pictures that impressive spectacle, the
unbroken procession through all these
years of the suitors whe have come before
its bar; suitors. not suppliants, Of every
class and race and rank, the citizen, the
friendless alien, and the representative Of
the proudest State, for whose equal pro
lection that sublime purpose, to establish
Justice is declared. Such are the judicial
powers in whose pure and faithful exer.
else is reflected, so far as man may fulfill
the perfect ordinances of Heaven, the di-
vine and eternal law whose seat is the
bosom of God, whose voice is the harmony
of the Worldn