The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-07-23

gress TO destroy the franchise OF DanR, ana
IS therefore beyond the constitutional power
of Congress. The first answer to this IS that
the judicial cannot prescribe to the legislative
department of the Government limitations
mon the exercise of its acknowledged pow.
ers. The power to tax may be exercised
oppressively upon persons, but the RESPONSE
bility of the Legislature is not to the courts,
Int TO the people by whom its members are
elected. So if a particular tax bears heavily
upon corporation ora class of corporations,
it cannot for that reason only be pronounced
contrary to the Constitution.
If. therefore, Congress has been the
instrument by which this wrong was con-
summated, and is to be held responsible
for the results which have followed, it
should be prompt to afford the only ade-
auate relief attainable by reducing this tax
to an amount equal to that paid by the
national banks, which, if done, could work
no possible harm to the national banks,
while it might be very reasonably product
i've of enlarged and needfui banking facili-
ties to localities now unprovided for and
supply the requisite circulating medium to
meet the wants of trade in those localities.
have thus briefly and imperfectly pre-
scented some of the phases of this important
subject, and trust that | may succeed in
exciting sufficient interest in it, to cause
the able and experienced men who have so
largely contributed to the greatness of our
common country, to give to it patient and
careful investigation, that properly consid-
cred action may follow. In treating this
subject, l have duly appreciated its delicate
aud sensitive character, because of the fact
that to treat it with ordinary intelligence
would compel me 10 claim for the States
certain rights which are reserved to them
under the Constitution, 1t has become
the rule and fashion of late, when any one
seeks to claim for the States certain rights
which were supposed to have been reserved
to them, to stamp the utterance as disloyal,
and if it come from any one Of southern
birth or procivities, as showing unmistak-
able evidence of the bad temper Of the
southern people toward the Federal Gov
ernment, and especially toward the North
ern people. And yet you find Mr.. Justice
Miller, in delivering the opinion Of tho
Supreme Court in the celebrated louisiana
Slaughter house cases, which were decided
so late as the December term, 1879, uses
the following comforting words
"Under the pressure of all the excited feel
ing growing out of the war, our statesmen
have still believed that the existence of the
States with powers for domestic and local
government, including the regulation of
civil rights-the rights Of person and of prop
erty-was essential to the perfect working OF
nOp,Ylay Of oOvarnmant thOuGh thew
have thought proper to impose additional
limitations on the States, and to confer addi-
tional power on that of the nation. But
whatever fluctuations may be seen in the his
tory of public opinion on this subject during
the period of our national existence, we think
it will be found that this court, so far as its
functions required, has always held with
steady and an even hand the balance between
State and federal power, and we trust that
such may continue to be the history of its re-
ation TO that subject so long as it shall have
duties to perform which demand OF it con-
struction of the Constitution or any of its
parts."
Mr. Justice Miller will not be accused
of any undue Partially for States rights,
and therefore any expression from him on
this subject is entitled to the careful perusal
of those partisans who In their ardnF seek
to clothe the Federal Government with
every attribute of authority and centralize
within it every source of power, by strip
ping the States of the very last vestige of
that sovereignty which the Constitution
solemnly guarantees to them. | entertain
no such vain belief that proper legislation
concerning the State banks is the only want
from which the country is suffering, nor
by any means the remedy which will bring
complete relief to the large manufacturing
interests of the country and employment to
the suffering laborers, whose cry of distress
is daily heard throughout the land. 1t is
too plainly manifest that the country in
seeking to adjust itself to the grooves of
prosperity in which it successfully moved
before the war, now finds the large and lu-
cratiye trade of the South an absolute re-
quisite In the restoration of the former en-
ergy and vitality of the business interests
of the whole country, and without which
the country will be long in regaining its
lost equilibrium.
Those, then, who seek to build a wall of
prejudice and of bitter luminosity between
the sections; who strive for political ascep-
depcy by postponing complete reconcilia=
ton of the interests and sentiment of the
country; who see in an impoverished apd
stricken South the highest evidence of our
country's magnanimity and greatness, they
may, if the country in an evil hour assent
to these propositions, realize their wishes,
but they will never live to see this country
again prosperous and happy. four repub-
lican form of government, the perpetuity
of which is largely dependent Ipon the
virtue of its citizens and the wisdom and
integrity of its legislative, judicial, aud ex-
ecutivo officers, cannot be administered
with Just regard for the rights Of all the
States which constitute in one harmonious
whole this great and glorious Union, then
all efforts to revive its dropping and d.
minishing trade, which by all natural laws
is entitled to be prosperous will prove futile
and vain, and the line which DIR. johnson
added to Goldsmith's Deserted Village will
tell the tale of our future
Trades proud empire hastes to swift de-
cay.