Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-24

| close and firm union was essential to the
liberty and happiness of the American
people, and that without the states in
union there could be no. such political
body as the United States
II then the matchless government
devised by the fathers and ordained
by the people of the United States is
10 be preserved and handed down in
tact to posterity. national power and
STATE power must go hand in hand, in
those powers clash, the paramount au-
thority of the Union within it's pre-
scribed sphere of action must prevail.
such is the express mandate Of the
constitution. and such. our common
sense and experience tell us, must al
ways be the case. If liberty regulated
by law Is not to perish from our land.
Inc nation being supreme within the
sphere OF Its action as defined by the
Constitution, its authority, when le-
gally exerted. binds every state as we'll
as all individuals within the territory
OF the United States. The glory of
the republic is that its affairs are reg
ulated by a written Constitution-the
fundamental law which distributes the
powers of government among three
separate. co-equal and coordinate de-
partments, each exerting the authority,
and only the authority. conferred upon
the mode prescribed by itself, must be
deemed supreme over the Congress.
over the President, over the courts,
over the states and over the people.
Pessimist Is Misled.
The pessimist is misled- by the dec
laration of some, happily few in num-
Der, who hold that, whatever the words
of the Constitution. that instrument
| should be SO construed as to make 1t
mean what majority of the people
think. at a given time. it should mean.
He Is also misled by the theory ad-
Vanced by those who hold that Con-
gress must be permitted to exert any
governmental power whatsoever. not ex-
pressiy denied to 1t, If that body deems
that its exercise will promote the gen
eral welfare" But such theories of
constitutional construction find 10 sun
port In judicial decisions or in sound
reason, least Of all in the final 1udg-
ments of that tribunal whose greatest
function 1t is to declare the meaning
| and scope of the fundamental law
The national government, 1t should
ever be, remembered, is one of limited
delegated powers, and is not pure
democracy In which the will of a pop
u1ar majority, as expressed at the polls
at particular time, becomes imme-
diately the supreme law. 1t is a rep
| resentative republic, in which the will
| Of the people is to be ascertained In a
prescribed mode, and carried into eff
feet only by appointed agents, desig-
mated by the people themselves, in the
manner indicated by law. 1t would be
a calamity unspeakable if our institu-
lions and the sacred rights of life, lib
erty and property should be put at
the mercy Of majority unrestrained
by a written supreme law binding
| the people themselves.
THE pessimist-indeed all-may take
courage in the fact that 1t has become q
recognized rule of construction that the
Constitution is to be taken as meaning
what Its words in thar natural, obvious
sense import. and. If TIVE people desire Il
i to mean something dff0ent, that instru.
i ment must be amended in the manner
and only in the manner, prescribed b,
| Itself The dispute among statesmen has
not been so much as to the soundness OF
the general principles of constitutions
| construction as to the extent of the pow
| ers granted to the general government
| Early in the history of the nation some in.
sisted upon a narrow, literal interpreta
| ton of the Constitution, which, had It beer
| approved, would have made the genera
i government rope of sand, wholly made
quate to the great purposes for which /,
| was established. But long ago that view
| was rejected by the Supreme Court of the
| United States, and it's rejection has beer
almost universally approved
The Powers of Congress.
| There are some who would deny t.
| SousTeSS oil powers tndC are not. iY
words. specified in the Constitution as be-
longing to the legislative branch of the
government. They would eliminate alto
gether from our Jurisprudence the long
established doctrine that Congress ma,
exercise powers which are plainly Incl
denial to those expressly granted by tn.
Constitution. and are not expressly pro
hibited by its words; that is, powers nee
essarily implied because embraced b,
those expressly enumerated. and withou,
| which the government would be uneuua
| to the objects for which it was avowedl,
established and would become, to use thu
words of Marshall. "a splendid bauble. >
| II the views of the latter class of consti
tutional critics should gain the approve
of the American people, the country would
| be carried back to that period of its his
| tory when distinguished politicians grave
| ly argued that the Supreme Court OF thu
United States could not, without violatinf
the Constitution. review the action of Z
state court, which, by its final judgment
| had denied or destroyed rights plainly Sc
| cured to the citizen by the supreme Law
| of the land Such critics are politically Of
kin to those who affirm that the court:
may not declare a legislative enactmen,
void, even when 1t is in plain violation OF
| the Constitution.
1T is true that national power. as now
| exerted, covers a wider field Of action
than it did in the early days Of the re-
L