The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-10-11
USURPATIONS
OF THE COURTS.
The EX-Chief Justice of Minnesota
on the UsurpatiOns of the
Federal Courts.

A Very Important Document
Every Citizen Should Read.
We have tried to use the columns
OF the REPREsENTATIVE to give the
people information which they could
not get elsewhere:-whic the hire
ling press makes il us business to
Suppress. Among the questions so
d scussed we have given a prominent
place to the acts of the supreme
court of the United States, which
have resulted in robbing the people
OF their rights and turning this gov
eminent from republic into a mon
eyed oligarchy. We heard some years
since of striking address, delivered
april 1884 by Hon. Thomas Wilson,
ex-chief justice of Minnesota and ex-
M. c., and one of the ablest lawyers
in the Northwest, upon this topic.
We asked Judge Wilson for copy of
it, which he was kind enough to send
us. His statements are the more
significant because he is and has
been for years past, an attorney for
great railroad corporations: but he
comes of strong and sturdy stock,
(the same which gave the nation
President Andrew Jackson,) and he
has an ingrained love of liberty and
hatred of oppression, and hence is
one of the few lawyers in Minnesota
who has risen above the narrow limi-
tations of his profession. 1t has oc-
Cured to us that we could not do
better than give our readers some ex-
tracts from this address.
Mr.. President, and Members of the Bar
OF Minnesota:
CONTINUED.
now ask attention to the act of
1875, providing for the removal Of
canses. By section 2 of that act it
is provided "that in any suit of a
civil nature at law or in equity,
in any state court in which
there shall be a controversy be-
tween citizens of a state and
foreign states, citizens or subjects,
either party may remove such suit in
to the circuit court of the United
States of the proper district; and
when, in any suit mentioned in this
section, there shall be controversy
which is wholly between citizens of
different states, and which can be
fully determined as between them,
then either one or more Of the plaintiffs
or. defendants actually interested in
such controversy may remove such
suit" etc. Comment on this statute
is unnecessary. Its text clearly
shows that the intention and pur-
pose of it's trainers, and of the con-
gress which enacted it, we're. so far
as in their power, to authorize the
removal of any and every case from
the state courts into the federal
courts, without reference to the
reason for such removal, or the spirit
of the constitutional provision re-
ferred to; and, in effecting that pur-
pose, the act has been a magnified
succefs. The idea on which the con-
stitutional provision aforesaid is
bottomed, of permitting a removal
from tribunal merely to get rid of
actual or implied bias against the
party petitioning for the removal,
is wholly lost sight of and ignored.
And this is but one of a series of
steps to belittle state authority,
wipe out state boundary lines and
concentrate all power in the hands
of an irresponsible central power, di-
rected by an obligarchy of corpora
tions.-I. D..
So far my complaint has been
against congress. [ now wish to ad-
vert to the action of the federal
courts in the direction suggested.
] know that for lawyer to even hint
that the supreme court of the
United States has erred, or that it
has been influenced by a desire to
magnify the federal judiciary, or to
amplify it's own Jurisdiction, is
sheer heresy in the eye of the pro-
fession; but it would be obsequious
'affectation to deny or to blink the
fact that that has been, the aceakness and
besetting sio of the courts IN all times.
And, at the risk of being excommun-
icated for my professional temer-
ity, shall venture to call attention
to a series of decisions of the federal
courts which are, think, not only
erroneous, but most unfortunate,
and opposed, in their practical eff
feet, to the interest of the people.
I refer to those decisions in which
it is practically held, that, for the
purpose of jurisdiction, a corporation
is to he considered a ''citizen' of the