The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1896-09-12
HARMON WRITES 70 BRYAN
Letter From the Attorney General on
Federal Authority.
IN THE CARRIAGE OF THE MAILS
A More Serious Matter, in His Judgment,
Than the Money Question or Any other
Question Now Before the People
of the United States"

WASHINGTON Sept. l2 Attorney Gen
eral Harmon yesterday furnished the fol-
lowing for publication:
l have concluded TO give public an
swer to the many inquiries made of me
upon a subject Of great moment, to which
general aNention Is now directed.
Mr.. Bryan, in his letter accepting the
nomination for president by the conven-
ton at Chicago, Hmplifies the protest
which that convention made in its plat
form against federal Interference in local
affairs, which, strangely enough, is not
found in the platforms of the other two
conventions which have also nominated
him
AS nothing else had been done or pro-
posed to which they can possibly apply
| these protests were intended and are un-
derstoOd to be directed against the recent
action of the president in fOrcibly sup
pressing riotous disorders which had
| stopped the carriage of the mails and in
terstate commerce and were defying the
civil officers of the United States
The president took this action not only
without the request but in some instances
against the protest Of the authorities of
the state in which the riots occurred, and
Mr.. Bryan, taking Section of Article "
! ject pledges himself against any repeti-
tion Of the violation thereof, which his let
ter necessarily charges. He vindicates the
wisdom of the trainers of the constitution
| by declaring that the local authorities
''are better qualified than the president to
| judge of the necessity for federal assist
| ance"
| This in my Judgments n far more seri-
GUS matter than the money question or
| any of the other question before the peo-
pie, grave as they all are. Our form of
| government may survive wrong decision
of those questions, and the people may
endure for time the evils which result
| from false systems of finance and taxa
ton, but if the president has deliberately
! disregarded the instrument upon which
the Union is founded by supplanting the
authority of sovereign state by armed
force, a precedent has been made which
threatens our form of government while,
if a candidate for president may properly
pledge himself in advance as Mr.. Bryan
has done, to do nothing to protect the
property, maintain the authority and en-
force the laws Of the United States unless
and until the officers of another govern
ment request or consent, then we really
have 70 federal government; for govern
force to protect and maintain itself in the
discharge of its proper functions is no
government at all
The section of the constitution to which
Mr. Bryan refers is as follows
"The United States shall guarantee to
every state in this Union a republican
form of government, and shall protect
each of them against INVASION and, on APP
! plication of the legislature, or of the exec
utive (wten the legislature cannot be con-
/ vened), against domestic violence"
This section plainly refers merely to the
protection Of the states against interfer-
ence with their authority, laws or prop
srty by domestic violence, and they are
wisely made the same judges whether and
when they need such protection. Mr..
Bryan betr0ys IA consciousness of the linn
tied operation of this provision in the ex-
preston federal assistance" in the clause
1 have quoted.
By the express terms of the cOnstitu-
ton a state has nothing to do with the
maintenance Of the authority or the ex-
ecution of the laws of the United States
within the territory of the state. The pre-
ventioA and punishment Of offenses con
nected with the mails with interstate COM
merce and with the administration Of
justice in the federal courts, are committed
| to the general government, and to it alone
! Such offenses in no wise menace the gov
ernment of the state within which they
are committed. Therefore the state can
not require protection against them. The
state has no duties to discharge in those
matters, Therefore it can require no fed
eral assistance" with respect to them.
OF course domestic violence often as in
the recent riots is directed against both
state and federal authority indiscrim-
nateiy, so that either OF both may sup
press it. And in such cases the action of
each in maintaining its authority over
the subjects commuted to it tends to aid
| the other. But in such cases each is act
| ing in its own independent right as a SOW
| ereign government, and on its own be-
| half. 1t would be as absurd to claim that
the United States must neglect its own
interests because in protecting them those
of state may be incidentally protected,
as TO claim that state must let riot run
| free because IL happens TO be directed
against federal rights or officers rs well
as its own. This would limit and belittle
the sovereignty Of both governments
According to Mr. Bryan there is some-
where implied in the constitution, for il is
nowhere expressed, Il prohibition of the
use of force by the United States against
persons who, within the limits of state,
may be successfully resisting its officers
and completely paralyzing all its opera
| tions as a government unless the local
authorities shall first make request or
give consent.
This is contrary to the settled principle
that while the federal government is one
whose operation is confined to certain
subjects, it has, as to those subjects, all
the attributes of sovereignty, and one of
these is always and everywhere, within
the territory of the states which compose
it, to suppress and punish those who in
any wise Interfere with the exercise of its
lawful powers. The fact that there are
within that territory other governments
exercising sovereignty over all matters