The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-05-20

the regular forms of judicial proeedure2 If
any rule in the administration of Justice is to
be omitted or discarded in his case, what
rule is it to be? If one rule may be laid aside
in his case another rule may be laid aside,
and all rules may be so treated. In such in.
stances rule of evidence may be set aside
in one case, a rule of pleading in another;
the testimony Of witnesses may be re-
iected and hearsay opted or no evidence
at all may be received. but simply an inspec-
ton of the accused, is often the case in
tribunals of Asiatic countries, where personal
caprice and not settled rules prevail. That
would be to establish pure, simple, undis
guised despotism and tyranny with respect to
them and their class, and such an exercise
of power is not permissible under our consti
tuition.
II utterly dissent from and reject the doc
trine in the opinion of the majority that Con
gress might have directed any Chinese la
borer found in the United States without
certificate of residence to be removed out of
the country by executive officers without iu
dicial trial or examination. just as 1t might
have authorized such officers absolutely to
prevent their entrance into the country. An
arrest for that purpose could not be reason
able seizure of the person within the mean
ing of the fourth article of the amendment
of the constitution. 1t would be brutal aud
oppressive.
1.-The existence of the power thus stated is
only consistent with the admission that the
government is one of unlimited and despotic
power SO far as aliens domiciied in the eoun,
| try are concerned. According to its theory
Congress might have ordered executive Off
GERS to take the Chinese laborers to the ocean
and put them into Il boat aud set them adritt;
or might have ordered executive officers to
take them to the borders of Mexico and turn
them loose there, and in both cases without
any means of support; indeed, 1t might have
sanctioned toward these laborers the most
shocking brutality conceivable. | utterly
repudiaie all such notions, and reply that
brutality, inhumanity or cruelty are not eie-
ments in any procedure for the enforcement
\ of any laws of the United States.
"Had the punishment been fine, or any
| thing else than of an infamous character, II
! might have been imposed without indictment,
| hut not so now, unless we hold that & for
eigner, though domicied by the consent OF
the government OF the country, is Withdrawn
from all the guarantees of due process of law
prescribed by the constitution, when charged
with an offense TO which the grave punish
ment designated is affixed.
The punishment is beyond all reason in
its severity. 1t is out of all proportions to
! Tue dlltBtu OHtuscs ~ 10 SluCi anu
| As to its cruelty, nothing can exceed forci-
BILE deportation from a country Of ones resi-
dence, and the breaking up of all the rela
tons of friendship, family aud business there
contracted"
Chief Justice Fuller also dissented from
the opinion of the court. He denied the
soundness of the proposition that the cases
before the court were such as the political
department OF the Government alone could
deal with 1t was, in his view, a judicial
question, and, however reluctant courts may
be to pass upon the constitutionaliiy OF legls
lative acts, it was the very essence OF Judicial
duty to do so when the discharge of that duty
was properly imposed upon it. He enter
tanned no doubt that the provisions OF tht
fifth and fourteenth amendments were uni
versal in their application, and that while the
general Government was invested, SO tar al
foreign countries were concerned. with al
the powers necessary to the maintenance o
its absolute independence and security,
could not, in virtue Of u supposed inherent
sovereignty, absolutely deal with persons
lawfully and peacefully within its domain
The act before the court was not an act t.
abrogate or repeal a treaty, nor to expe
Cinnamon lawfully here, aud no such inten
could be imputed to Congress. Its objec
was to prescribe a method OF registration
and the deportation denounced by way o
punishment was, in his view, an unusual pun
ishment not authorized by the Constitution