The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-02-09
AT THE METROPOLIS.
Some Reflections on the Power
of the Supreme Court.
A STRANGE CASE OF SUICIDE.
Arraigning the Modern Drama Impeaching
the Moral Sense of the Great City
Glimpses of Gotham.

New York, Feb. 4, 1S9O.-[Special co.,
respondence of The HERALD.I-O hun
dred years ago to-day the supreme court OF
the United States held its first meeting.
That was in the city of New York, and as
the centennial of that event has been ap-
proaching the papers and magazines have
been full of eulogium for this institution of
our country / see the noted correspond
ent, F. G. Carpenter, gives in his latest
contribution to the press elaborate pen pic
lures of the present occupants of the su-
preme bench; while Professor Bryce, in
his American Common Wealth." the most
thoughtful and comprehensive survey of
our. institutions given since DIR. Tocque-
v11ss Democracy in America" is very
efeforate in his treatment of this branch of
our government, which he aptiy calls the
"Living voice of the constitution" 1t is
indeed an august court and every possible
provision has been made to have 1T free
from bias The court is made independent
1t cannot be destroyed or robbed of it's
powers except by the people. The judges
are appointed for life by the President with
the sanction of the Senate; but once ap-
pointed they are beyond the control of both
President and Senate. They can be re-
moved only by death or impeachment, and
their salary is secure. All these precau-
tions are taken that these judges may be
beyond party control or political intimida-
ton: that neither fear nor favor may IN
fluence them in the discharge of their high
duties. viz to interpret the constitution
as it is. Such court, hedged about with
so many safe guards against bias and cor
ruption, and made up of men of high char
acter may well challenge the respect and
ADMIRATION Of men.
Mt while it is deserving of respect and
submission to its judicial decisions as an
imperative necessity, still | deem it an
error to hold it up as in1allible. 1t has
sometimes over-ruled its own decisions: in
hundreds of instances the meaning Of the
constitution has been so doubtful that the
Judges themselves disagree as to which it
is; and in many other cases reaching right
down to fundamental principles Of human
rights the judges have been almost equally
divided and the minority have openly said
the judgment of the majority was perver-
sion of the constitution.
Apropos this talk about the supreme
court, i overheard conversation between
well-known eastern man and a young
Utah business man. The former was advo-
eating the idea that people must accept the
decisions of the supreme court on any
question as final settlement of its being
RI ght or wrong: not as iudicially right or
wrong alone, but morally as well. My soul
reyolted against such submission as that,
even to the supreme court of the United
States; and / remembered to have read
that when such complete, not to say ser
vile. submission to the decision of this
same court was insisted upon little more
than a quarter of century ago the demand
was met with a storm of indignation, and
Abraham Lincoln, as the leader of the ris-
ing Republican party, refused such sub
mission to the court. 1--WE believe" said
he, in one of his debates with Douglas, sin
obedience to and respect for the judicial de-
partment of government. We think its
decisions on constitutional questions when
fully settled should control, not only the
particular cases decided, but the general
policy of the country. subject to be dis
turbed only by amendment of the constitu-
ton as provided in that instrument itself
More than this would be revolution. But"
he added, Notwithstanding his avowed re
-spect for the court, 1--WE think the bred
Scott case is erroneous. We know the
court that made it has often over-ruled its
own decisions, and we shall do what we
can to have it over-rule this Further on
in the debate Lincoln said: "We do not op-
pose the bred Scott decision so far as it
concerns the freedom of bred Scott, but
we do refuse to accept its dicta as rules of
political action And he led an agitation
against that decision OF the supreme court
until it was over-ruled by constitutional
amendment. That was his right 1t was
the right of the party which followed him.
While the laws enacted by Congress and
cknhrmed by the rulings OF the supreme
q sErt must be the supreme law of the land.
thy decisions of that court no more affect
thu moral right or wrong of a given ques-
ton than the decision of the Jewish San
nedrim affected the question as to whether
Jesus was the Son of God or not The
Sanhedrim decided that the Nazarene was
RI ,Nf( Nd 1a.,+I
less and the world accepted Him as such
notwithstanding the decision of that au-
gust court of the Jews.
New York had a sensational suicide a
few DAYS ago, but the Gothamites have for
gotten it by now, and you may not have
heard of it. Suicides are so frequent that
they attract but little attention but this
case ought to be remembered if only some
Hood could be found to tell the pathetic
story. One Mrs. Henderson, about thirty
two years of age, in a garrett in Second
avenue, threw herself from the roof of the
bliI&ing to the stone pavement be-
low and was literally smashed to pieces. 1t
seems that her husband had formerly been
In prosperous circumstances, but reverses
in business and failing in health compelled
him to go and seek work in the country,
while his wife was TO make an effort in the
city. The following note that the unfer-
tunate wrote to her husband Just before
her fatal leap tells its own pathetic story:
''SUNDAY EVENING.
my Ever Loved Ed:
81 am not in fit condition of mind to
write you, because l am too respondent.
cannot get any employment, and what is
going to become of me know not.
81 was out in all that storm last week
and came in drenched, and, as usual, un-
successful. / think / will become total
wreck II L ever again hear the expression,
Have you any references! Women who
are so ignorant that / felt sorry for them,
would not take me in their kitchen because
l could not show city references l tried
to Explain that | had never had to work be-
1o&e :, but because was not born and bred
1nNh gutter / must starve Such is life in
charitable New York
There is help for all but the genteel
poor, and they are the ones who suffer
most.
sBut | have the satisfaction of knowing
that have tried and would have done any
honest work, even to scruhbing. / could
have got plenty of shady work Widowers
who advertise for 'housekeepers' and then
gently insinuate that you add wifely duties
TO domestic arrangements are very plenty
in this city, but L do not approve of such
economy.
81 have been so indignant that / would |
like to have shot the top OF their heads off, |
the old fools!''
That is a sad story and hard though |
truthful reflection on the present state OF |
society, and gees far in iustiiying tne |
rathse severe arraignment of society one |
occasionally hears. Let no one. however |
tel Us that the days of heroism are past |
This poor, unfortunate woman who pre- |
ferred death to dishonor in that at least is |
glory to our race; and one likes to think |
that his mothers bosom would have burned |
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