The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-30

hold that in contemplation Of universal
law and Of the constitution. the union OF
much to say in that moment, the consti-
tuition took distinct forward step .aho
the voice of John Marshall spoke again
The three great amendments that fol-
lowed the war, and which mace 1reedOm
Iosic s nd sisissiSl Conversation Of that
great struggle.
The fourteenth amendment Is the great
anchorage for the rights which essentially
belong to citizenship in a free government;
By the nth amendment the people had
Entertainments by the general government;
while by the fourteenth amendment, they
arbitrary exercise of power by states.
When these guarantees were thus made
state legislation, the constitution took a
forward step; and when In 1886, the SUI
preme court decided that these guaran-
ties extended to every person, natural or
artificial, another great advance was
The large scope of the fourteenth
amendment, maintained in the dissenting
S S OF o., ! z ie H. Nv S6i9 T1Is
has since become the established view of
the court in numerous decisions. In none
accepted by the courts been more con-
vincingly expressed than by Mr.. Justice
Harlan in the great case Of Smyth vs.
Ames, in which the court held that
meaning of the fourteenth amendment
declaring that no state shall deprive any
person of property without due process OF
law, nor deny to any person within It's
jurisdiction the equal protection OF the
laws; that statutes arbitrarily liking rail-
way rates which Will not admit of the
carrier earning just compensation are un-
constitutional; and that the validity OF
such statutes is ultimately matter for
In the complex workings of modern
civilization, large fortunes have been rap
idly accumulated, and great wealth has
been centered in few hands. People nat
urally ask: Would just order of social
and economic relations permit this to
happen? Whatever the true answer may
be to this inquiry, no one can doubt that
the well-being of our people depends upon
maintaining sacredly the equal rights
guaranteed by the fifth and fourteenth
Properly. because it is most easy of at
is new illustration of human nature.
but is part of the phenomena of all
In English history, as in our own, most
of the great questions which mark the
progress of legal rights have grown out
of small property disputes. Men nave
invariably been more ready to engage in
litigation over concrete questions than TO
go to law about abstract principles.
1t was such a suit that gave us the great
pronouncement upon the nature of our
government The constitution, in all its
Chase, ITO an indestructible union, COM
posed of indestructible states"
Throughout our constitutional history
we have carried on the most complex sys-
tenn of government known to man-and
today venture to assert that, notwith-
administered as to combine more of lib
erty to the citizen with more of power in
the nation than any other constitutional
government. The states, unimpaired in
their just powers, carry on the due opera
tons of local administration unfettered:
and the union-which is a union both of
people and of states-has long since passed
the time when any court or any states
do the people of the United States form
a nation?'