Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1896-10-01

Every time a lawyer goes into court
and asks for reversal of the decision
Of the CORTLAND II is not an infre-
quent thing avery time lawyer does
1t, he attacks the correctness of the
decision which he desires to have re,
versed. Let me read you what the
republican platform said about decis-
ions Of the supreme court in 1860;
That we condemn the reopening Of
the African slave trade under the
cover OF our national flag, aided by
preversions Of judicial power That
is what that platform said. 1t declar-
ed the decision of the court was a
perversion Of judicial power. There
Is no language in our platform that is
as harsh on the supreme court as that
republican platform. And they call
upon congress in that platform to
take prompt and efficient measures
for the total and final suppression Of
that execrable traffic
LINCOLN AND THE SUPREME COURT,
MY friends, on these two questions,
where we are assailed by the republic
cans today we have not taken as en-
| phatlc q stand as the republican party
took in the first platform upon which
it elected president of the United
States. Let me read you what Abra-
ham Lincoln said about the supreme
court. This is from his inaugural ad-
dress. This is not the party platform,
my friends This is not an extract from
a public speech uttered on the spur
Of the moment. / read you from q
state paper, from the inaugural ad-
dress Of Abraham Lincoln: 4 do not
forget the position assumed by some
that constitutional questions are to be
decided by the supreme court, nor do
I deny that such decision must be
binding in any case upon the parties
to the suit as to the object OF that
suit, while they are also entitled to a
very high respect and consideration
in all parallel cases by all other de-
partments of the government !
| quote again, at the same time; THE
candid citizen must confess that if the
policy Of the government upon vital
questions affecting the whole people
is to be irrevocably fixed by the de-
Cisions Of the supreme court, the in
slant they are made, in ordinary liti-
cation between parties in personal &C.
ton, the people will haYe ceased to
be their own rulers, having to that ex-
tent practically resigned their govern
ment into the hands Of that eminent
tribunal Mr. Lincoln says that when
it is asserted that the supreme court
has right to determine the policy Of
the government on great questions,
that then we will have resigned our
government into the hands of the SUI
preme court. Our platform is not as
harsh as the language of Abraham
Lincoln, We do not criticise the
court as he criticised it, and when he
uttered those words he was standing
as coordinate part Of the govern
ment Of the United States. l quote
these authorities, my friends, IN order
that you may see how far-fetched is
the criticism that is leveled against us.
LINCOLN NO LONGER REPUBLICAN.
Il quote these IN order that you
may see that the very men who use
the criticism against us must, in order
to do 80, abandon the republican
platform upon which Lincoln was
elected. But / must apologize for
quoting Abraham Lincoln as a repub-
lican authority. Abraham Lincoln is
no longer a republican authority. Alb
rsham Lincoln believed in a govern
ment by the people, Of the people and
for the people, and that is not repub-
lican in this campaign.
"Now our opponents say we are OPP
posed to the enforcement OF law. l
deny 1t. stand as the candidate Of
three parties. 1 do not speak of my
self as an individual, because the in
dividual is lost in q campaign of this
character. But, my friends, 1 want
to say to you that the fear that is ex-
pressed is not fear that, if elected, l
will not enforce the law. / have said
before, say again, that il, by the
suffrsges Of my countrymen l am
placed in that position, which is the
highest position within the gift Of any
people of the world, every law shall
be enforced against the great as well