The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-06-28
and not something dehors the Fed

happiness-or, in other words, the in
alienable rights of citizenship, are
neither derived from the general
government nor are they enforced by
the general government, except as
the Fourteenth Amendment may pro-
tect them from adverse State ac-
ton.
We cannot make progress in de-
veloping a body of substantiative
remedial law without an accurate ap-
probation of the restrictions upon
both the State and Federal powers.
Like the Girondists in the French
Revolution, American lawyers must
submit to be condemned by the Bour-
bOns as radicals If they stand for ra-
tiOnal and constitutional legislation
to meet new conditions and to correct
the evils in the old conditions, and to
be guillotined by the Reds as OBJ
structionists if they fail to endorse
the popular vagaries of the political
ephemera who swarm about every
great movement of reform, unappre-
ciative of it's origin, its tendency and
it's purpose. Such Is the fate of the
profession that studies, loves and de-
tends the institutions of civilized gov
eminent and has ever been their most
powerful constructive and conserving
force.
The preservation of our Constitu-
ton is not committed to the Federal
judiciary alone. 1t is the oathbound
obligation of every legislative, judic-
ial and executive officer of the States
and nation, and is the highest duty of
private citizenship. The Constitu-
ton will not perish at the hands of
the impassioned phrase-maker, and
its defenders should not be deferred
by mistaken or prejudiced clamor
from performing their obligation to
preserve and defend it.
The Constitution was founded upon
the sacrifice of the lives and fortunes
of our ancestors; it Is the solemnly
expressed will of the people; it has
been preserved by the people through
the most gigantic and tragic war of
modern times, and it must endure as
written and eXpounded until altered
by the people by the means they
have prescribed.
The power of the Federal govern
ment cannot be increased except by
new grants of power through amend
men of the Constitution. The af-
ficiency, however, of the Federal gov
eminent will progressively increase
through the application of existing
Federal power to the growing COM
pleXities of social and commercial
conditions.
What changes in these conditions
may be in store for us no man can
foretell. What social readjustments
may follow the application of the
Federal commercial power to such
changes is likewise unknown. The
power is fixed and definite factor;
no one has pretended to define the
boundaries of the subject upon which
it operates. The distinguished pres
ent Solicitor-General of the United
States, an honored son of Yale, Mr.
Henry M. Hoyt, in a recent argument
in the Supreme Court, aptly said:
THE word commerce is not restricted
to trade and traffic, or navigation or
transportation. No one can now say
definitely what movements and inter-
actions across state lines may not be
embraced within its meaning"
Human government is a human ne
cessity. 1t is all the stronger and
more effective in times or dire need
for not having been experimental
with and it's fibre strained in times
of tranquility.
The way to make real progress in
needful legislation, and to perma-
nently retain each advance, is to
move wisely along legitimate lines
This Is the land of law as well as of
liberty, andthe liberty of the law
maker is subject to restraints as we'll
as the liberty of the individual. Con-
gress can only do what is possible to
do under the powers delegated to it
by the body polite, which is the peo-
pie. To do anything more would be
futile usurpation; to do any less I'M
der those powers than the best inter-
ests of the people demand should be
done would be neglect of duty.
1t Is beside the question to urge
the desiraMl1ty and popularity of
measures IL Congress has no power
to enact them. Our heartiest SYM
pathy may be enlisted in many move
ments and yet our judgment may be
compelled to reject the means pro-
remember and am impressed by the
remember and am Impressed by the
words of President Roosevelt in his
first message to Congress, that "The
men who demand the impossible or
the undesirable serve as the allies of
the forces with which they are nomi-
nally at war, for they hamper those
who would endeavor to find out in ra-
t1onal fashion what the wrongs really
are and to what extent and in what
manner it is practicable to apply
remedies
The last words of Washington and
the first words of Lincoln contained
solemn admOnition to us on the
necessity of preserving our dual
government intact.
In his farewell address to the
American people, Washington said
If, in the opinion of the peo-
pie, the distribution or modifica-
ton ofthe constitutional powers
be in any particular wrong, let
1t be corrected by an amendment
In the way which the Constitu-
ton designates. But let there
be no change by usurpation; for,
though this, in one instance, may
be the instrument of good, it is
the customary weapon by which
free governments are destroyed.
The precedent must always
greatly overbalance in perma-
nent evil any partial or tram
sient benefit, which the use can
at any time yield
And in his first message to the
American Congress, Lincoln said:
TO maintain inviolate the
rights of the States to order and
control under the Constitution,
their own affairs nv thair ouD