The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-08-27
FEDERAL AND STATE LAWS
Annual Address Of President Baldwin
Before the American Bar Association.
Review Of a Years LeeisIation-Able Paper by
Z. n. Judson. on individual Liberty of
Contract Under the Police Powers"

u ~ Al wa
meeting of the American Bar Association,
the first held In New England. was opened
this forenoon IN Horticultural Hall. Nearly
two hundred members were present. After
Prof. Simon +. Baldwin, of Yale College.
the president of the association, had called
the assemblage 10 order n welcome was ex-
tended to the visitors by Hon. John Low
ell. the president of the Boston Bar Asso-
citation. President Baldwin responded,
stating that the association felt pleased
with the warmth OF the reception accorded
it in this old historic town. Though Phil
adelphia was first n city Boston long hung
to the town system and its old and vene-
rated customs. The president then pro-
ceeded to deliver the annual address,
which, according TO the bylaws of the as
ISOLATION. must be q review of the note
worthy changes of statutory law during
the preceding year. In opening his address
Professor Baldwin spoke of the great di-
versity of matters treated by the federal
and State governments, and said:
Where is history more truly. written
than In the legislation of the times, and
what new field of legislation is entered
upon in this age, in any quarter of the
globe, that is not soon known and Travelled
In every others Here, in America. are fifty
distinct, and for most purposes. independent
governments. each with a legislature ex-
pected and DESTROYS to add something of
value to the institutions of its people, and
between which climate. and soil, and his
tory have made wide differences of social
conditions. There is the frontier territory.
Offering bOuntics for the destruction of
lions and panthers: the river States. with
their levee systems; the dry-season States.
with their plans for irrigation and
ortaSian vvalle. tina Snufh with ifa 10
norant and half helpless masses of
colored laborers; one State. where com
merce is q main object of regard; another
where mining, another where manufactur-
ing is; some rapidly increasing in wealth
and population. some stationary, some
going backwards; some still overrun with
Indians, and some built mp on usages and
traditions that have been the slow growth
of nearly three centuries. No land in
human history has presented such a di-
versity of social forces working in different
ways towards the same end, and under
common principles and attachments. Our
own country has not. before the past year,
which brought the number of our States up
to fOrty-four."
III SECRET-BALLOT SYSTEM.
Prof. Baldwin then proceeded. in a mas
terly way. to review the acts of Congress
and of the legislatures of the different
States, showing that twenty-nine States
AAtA ooOPtNo A IN
this subject he said: John Randolph, of
Roanoke, once said at a London dinner
table, that the adoption of the ballot
would make any nation a nation of scoun-
drels, if it did not find them so.' The
power to vote ono way and talk another
would make men hypocrites. 1t is a singu-
lar instance of rapid revolution In political
ideas that within sixty years from the time
of this remark England has adopted the
secrecy; that the English form has been
followed in a majority of our States; and
that the last to retain the viva voce vote,
Kentucky, having already abandoned it in
her largest city: has now. by her constitu.
tional convention, pronounced against it
altogether in popular elections. and pro-
poses to make the Australian system part
of her fundamental law"
In closing he said: There is noticeable
in the legislative proceedings of many of
the States a want of respect for the spirit
of their constitutions. while adhering to
the letter, which one cannot but regard as
q serious menace to the perpetuity of our
institutions. Obedience to law has no Sc
cure foundation which does not rest upon a
certain reverence for it; and no people will
long revere what they see their rulers daily
evade.
.Our American system of government
its giving through its written constitutions
such guarantees of individual right as no
sudden change in public sentiment, no
sudden exigency In public affairs. could
break over or break down. Blu cOnstitu-
tons arc nothing unless they are enforced
in the spirit in w.ich they were conceived.
In them. more thar In any other thing of
human institution. the letter killeth.'
faithful Interpretation, but that our
legislators may be equally true, can
be secured only by the constant
insistence on the part of our profession.
as the great lecdcr of public
opinion, at least as put IN form by legisla-
tive action, that no constitutional princi-
pie ought ever to be undermined or evad-
ed in statute law on q plec Of public neces-
sity. There Is no necessity so imperious as
that of supporting the Constitution to
which we are doubly bound by our oaths as
citizens, and our oaths as members of the
bar. Its fOrmalities, its delays. its lItiga-
tions are the best fruits of q Thousand years
of Anglo-Saxon history. The omnipotence
of the British Parliament our fathers re-
fused to reproduce on American soil, and it
belongs to us to keep 1T out in substance, as
it Is in FORM"
At the close of the Presidents address.
which lasted an hour and a half. the gener-
al council reported on the nomination of
new members. One hundred and sixty
names were presented. of which number 101
are from Massachusetts and thirty-one from
Connecticut. There being no objection all
were constituted members. A recess was
then taken.
UNDER III POLICE POWER.
At the afternoon session Frederick n.
Judson, of st. Louis. read a paper on 'In-
dividual Liberty of Contract Under the
Police Power" Mr.. Judson, In part, said:
The police power of the State is said
to be underlined and undefnable. In the
words of Judge Cooley, it embraces
the whole system of internal regulation.
by which the State seeks to preserve public
order and prevent offenses against the
State; and, like the power of taxation, it
| pervades every department of business, and
reaches to every interest and every subject
! OF profit or enjoyment. We
have 10 inquire. In the light of recent legis-
lation and decisions. what IS the protection
afforded the citizen by existing c0nsti-
tutional guarantees in the exercise of his
right and liberty of contract. against the
legislative determination, in tie exercise
of the police power. that the public wei
fare demands the abridgernent of that lib
erty.'
Mr.. Judson then reviewed the judicial
construction of the federal and State courts
of those clauses in the Constitution of the
United States ana the different States
which protect the liberty of contract of
private individuals against legislation. He
referred 10 IA very large number of impor-
tant decisions. He also referred to the at
tempt of the agricultural class to suppress
the manufacture of oleomargnrine, and