The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1899-03-23
THE INSPIRATIONS OF FEDERAL
COURTS.

JTlct o. OeOfgla, mas granted q
permanent Injunction restraining
the Georgia Railroad Commits
sioners from enforcing penalties
against the Southern Express Co.
| for their refusal to affix the one
cent internal revenue stamp as re-
quired by act Of congress, to re-
ceipts and bills of lading issued
i by the company.
| AS to matters rightfully within
the Jurisdiction of the United
States courts, as determined by
the intention of the trainers Of the
federal constitution and of the
state conventions which gave it eff
feet, is an old controversy, coeval
with the government itself. Thorn
as Jefferson, the author of the
declaration of Independence and
| the founder of the Democratic
party, and later, John G. Calhoun.
of South Carolina, besides many
other persons illustrious in Amer
lean history, maintained that the
federal courts were never intended
to be invested with the power and
authority to bind by their actions,
the states and their agencies when
acting in their sovereign and or
ganized character. In the memo
rable debates in the United States
Senate between Calhoun and Web
ster this fact was clearly shown.
Indeed, any one carefully reading
the proceedings of the Federal
Convention in Philadelphia in
1777, and those of the several
state conventions in 1888, espe-
cially of Virginia, New York and
Rhode Island, would arrive at the
same conclusion. Webster, speak
ing for the north, in the interests
of a tariff for protection, held
that the United States courts were
invested with Jurisdiction to con-
strue the federal constitution SO as
to bind the states in their corpo-
rate capacities. Calhoun opposed
this contention, and maintained
that only the states themselves
possessed this power. This led to
the famous Qualification Conven-
ton" of South Carolina, and final
ly to the war between the states
where the matter was settled, by
force of arms, according the north
ern view.
The decision of Judge Speer to
which we have alluded, and anoth-
er one rendered by him in which
he held that all the election laws
of Georgia are unconstitutional,
which decision, had it been car
ried out, would have produced an
archy in the state, show indepen-
IDENTIFY of positive evidence of the
intention of the founders of the
government as to the nature of
the federal judiciary, the business
of Jefferson's and Calhoun's claim
in regard to the danger of COM
hitting such extensive trusts to
one man or to a set of men. In
deed, according to the present
theory of courts, state and federal,
both the states and the nation are
far from being governments of
the people, by the people and for
the people, A select body of in
dividuals have practically by their
unrestrained power in construc-
ton and passing upon the consti-
nationality of statutes, the fate of
governments aud the lives and
rights of individuals in their
hands. We ask in all seriousness.
in what respect is the American
governments or citizens more Sc
cure than the laws or the rights of
the subjects of the Car of Russia,
save that there one man is the SUI
preme arbiter, while here six men
In one case and nine in another
1.-THE state and the federal supreme
courts) are the uncontrolled de-
positories of power.
A careful examination of the
court decisions, especially those
of the federal tribunals, will de-
monstrate that those bodies are
strongly favorable to corporations
as against the rights and interests
of private citizens, Judge Speer's
decision in the express company
case being fair Illustration of
their trend in this direction; and
these SEINE federal judges, having
a life tenure in office and respon-
sible to nobody for their actions,
can indefinitely hold up sover-
eign state in the administration of
its public affairs and so hamper it
IN its ordinary functions as to