El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-29

| Special Correspondence of the Herald
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22.-The most
impressive thing in town this week
has been the sight Of the Supreme
Court trying the Constitution for its
life. A man named Pepke was a SOL
der in the Philippines n brought
home some jeweIry which the collect
or of customs in Chicago seized Tor
non-Qayment of duties. Whence the
case of The United States VS.. FOUR
teen Diamond Rings" 1t went up as
a test case and with it by agreement
are heard some other cases involving
Porto Rican duties. The question at is
sue is a strictly partisan one, being
the difference between the Bryano-
cratic view of the Constitution and the
Republican way of looking at things.
Tie Supreme Court is a highly
respectable body-none more so-but
it IS not impressive seen on a
bench. When h justices leave their
dressing room, attired in Happy black
Mother Hubbards and solemnly file
across the corridor to the court room
they ooh like q ~mismatched and dingy
Peers chorus from ~Iolanthe. Chief
Justice Fuller who is a dainty little
bitsy mannikin with a heavy crop of
white hair, leads h procession while
Immediately behind him strides JUS
tice Harlan. somewhat over six feet
and built to correspond. After him
comes Gray, who ranks next in length
of service. and is a bigger man physi-
cally. being not only tall but fat.
Then follow the other justices who
are more conventional in their dimen-
sions.
But in the court room it is a diff
ferent proposition. Fuller sits on a
high chair between his two giant as
sOciateS art assisting nature to mann
tain better profile lines, and h whole
nine wear a ook of concentrated grav-
ity, fairly appalling to the casual stray
gler-in like myself. Solomon in all his
glory was not a marker to them for So
lemnity. And the proceedings are
usually as coldly dignified as a morgue.
Attorneys must talk by their briefs
and eloquence is discouraged. Nor is
there anything e~nlivening about the
Encouragement; it is delivered in legal
slang too hazy for us ~groundlings who
can only judge of what it must be oy
the way it seems to hurt.
In this case though. national politics
being involved. the legal politicians
like Griggs and ex-Secretary Carlisle
have their innings an dthe oratory was
almost fervid several times. When
Harmon. who used to pc solicitor gen.
eral, was talking for the plaintiffs. he
went above a conversational tone oc-
casionally.
OF course I'm biased, being republic
can and lingo. but it seems to me so
far that the plaintiffs are putting Up
a mighty weak ease in support of their
contention hat all customs duties be-
tween us and the islands were abro-
gated at the instant of annexation. And
from the indications the members of
~ 49,, I
naturally does them great credit. They
have been asking searching questions
of both sides and the plaintiffs people
have to founder more tnan the govern
ment'S. On the first day. a man named
Perkins led off and Justice White
democrat. Catholic and ex-senator from
Louisiana-began asking him to define
things which -e wasn't prepared to de-
fine. Perkins believes that every an
neXed man is a citizen because he is
undoubtedly subject co the jurisdic-
ton of the United States and White
wanted to know why the Indians
whose peculiar status antedateS the
constitution-were not citizens, where
upon Perkins fell down metaphorically.
To Griggs their queries are not so en-
barrassing. as he is working on a basis
of precedent and record instead of one
of assumptions and ~jaundiced what
Incidentally he makes
out a list of some seventy guano is
we have exercised jurisdiction
over at one time or another without
citizenship on the human
inhabitants thereof.
The plaintiffs have naturally un-
that interesting ante-bellum
fossil. the bred Scott decision, which
is always a democratic reliance. bred
Scott wyoc q o1oyyn IN on orrnv nfHnnr |
he followed around to his va
rious posts of duty in the free states
The court decided, quite correctly I'M
der existing law, hat the negro did
not thereby acquire freedom, but Chief
Justice fancy, whose larynx habitually |
ran away with his cerebellum, went
outside the question up for discussion
to write a treatise On slavery in gen.
eral and the ethnology of negroes in
particular. He was rather hard on the |
latter and easy on the former. Whether
remarks in this line were good or
not, the decision was overruled later
by a nappeal to the supreme tribunal
all. the musket. But in those far
away days before the war, "Ored Scot"
.nesimus, Ham n r1agar were the
IN which hung the whole dem
fabric. 1t seems queer to have
it crop up again.
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty Passed Senate.
The Hay-Pauncefote-Senate treaty
passed by a fair majority and if any
body can tell me what's going to hap
next. I'll give him a very good six
stogy, specially imported
or me from the corner grocery. The
ANAL bill will probably not be acted on
oy the senate this session. AS a mat
.er of fact it can hardly be taken up
:lii the treaty is accepted or decently