Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-05-16
WUN LUNG MUST GO
Geary Law Sustained by the
Supreme Court.
MAY BE BAD, BUT CONSTITUTIONAL

So Say Six of the Justices, Fuller, Field
and Brewer Dissenting. the California
Jurist Very ViGOrously-Points from the
Majority Opinion Read by Gray-A
$4,000, 900 job with Only SIG, 500 Avail
able to Do 1t with.
WASHINGTON, May 1G.-The Chinese must
20. The supreme court has said it, but
with the dissenting voices of Chief Justice
Fuller and Justices Brewer and Field. The
court was packed with lawyers when the
decision was read by Justice Gray which
upholds the constitutionality of the Gearv
law The law is drastic one It denies
the right of bail and imprisons any China
man not registering after May : last, the
Imprisonment to be for n year, and after
that it banishes him from the country. II
is an axiom of law that an accused person
must be proved guilty. The law reverSes
that axiom. The government is not called
upon TO show guilt The accused must
establish his innocence, and to this end
must produce the testimony of at least one
white witness If he fails 10 prove his in
nocence he is deemed guilty.
Well Settled Principle.
Justice Gray said i'll announcing the
judgment of the court that the power OF
any nation TO restrict prohibit the i'm
migration OF any aliens into the country.
TO require such aliens already in the
country TO remove therefrom, well
settled principle OF international law aud
confirmed by an unbroken line of decisions
in this court. The legislative power of the
government had not transcribed any of
its constitutional limitations in the act I'M
der consideration. If congress makes n
law inconsistent with a treaty, it may give
ha irrHf ,llit, and
40 take such action as it may deem for its
own interest, but the duty of the courts OF
the United States is clear aud they must
recognize its force
Rights of the Legislature.
The legislature has right to prescribe
what evidence shall be demanded before its
judicial tribunals. 1t was within its power
to provide that those ali ems who have been
within the United States year without get
ting out certificate should be deported. Ii
had the right to define what witnesses
should be heard; right TO protect the
courts against testimony from persons who
have no regard for the Sarctity of an oath.
He would not touch upon the wisdom. the
policy, even the Justice of the act. Those
questions werc for the political-the legis-
lative and executive departments of the
governmental the act were within their
constitutional powers. and ii would be out
of place for the court to interfere.
No Punishment Provided.
What congress Ia. done had not been TO
provide for any definition of crime in the
act, nor to provide amy punishment. 1t
provided that the persons in question
should be sent out of the country TO the
place from whence they came; ii provided.
not for the adjudication of crime, but
simply for the removal of persons whose
presence congress considers inconsistent
with the public welfare. 1t must be re-
II
lized. Doubtless they are entitled to the
security and safeguard guaranteed by the
constitution and laws in such measure rs
they provide, hut there nothing in
the constitution law which impugned
the power of congress TO compel them to
leave the country.
Justice Field Finds No Good in 1t.
Justice Field who delivered the opinion
of the supreme court in the first case I'M
der the exclusion act, read his dissent
ing opinion. He characterized the act in the
strongest language as iuhuman and brutal,
ard as vIolative of the constitution in every
section. He regretted to say that the de-
cision of the court was, to his mind, fraught
with tine gravest dangers to the priceless
constitutional liberties of the people.
A Very Essential Difference.
Justice Field said there was n very es-
sential difference between excluding aliens
and deporting them. The one was I'M
doubtedly constitutional, but the other had
never been asserted by the government ex-
cept for crime or as an act of war. Hequoted
Jefferson and Madison in support of this,
besides other authorities. Aliens residing
within the country were entitled to all the
protection of law accorded native citizens.
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