The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-09-24

awarded a writ o. inquiry By this
time there VAS masn excitement Ia
the public mind throughout the UEica
over the situation The decision % tee
court was regarded as . direct a.
lack upon the sovereignty % the
States ard . breach Of the conditions
upon which the Union 3as formed.
and II would certainly haze eadsd -
h destruction OF the republic loag
before IL was destroyed in 1885. had
not x a. he critical tuncture
that had been reached, proposed al
amendment TO the Constitution oecl&r-
ing in explicit terms. that the judicial
power OF the United States shall not
be construed TO extend 10 any suit IN
Law or equity commenced or ~prusecut-
ed against one Of the United states
by citizens OF another state. or by cit-
izens or subject OF G1y foreign state.
The amendment was speedily adopted.
n the Supreme Court then unan!-
nously decided that the case against
Georgia could be no further prosecut-
ed. .aG IL vgas swept a. once from he
records Of the court Such Is the his
tory Of the way in which the eleventh
amendment came 10 be adopted
The Supreme Court at that time
was presided over By John Jay. OF
New York, chief justice. with Asso-
Cate Justices William Cushing, Of
Massachusetts,; James Wilson. Of
Pennsylvania, John Blair. OF Virginia:
JdElt3 2EtAel4. OF ~ 11EOAAAEs =
Thomas johnson. OF Maryland. Jay.
Wilson and IredeIl were un4uestiona-
bly, the ablest OF the number. and Of
these three, Jay. on account OF his
longer public career n the exalted
positions be had held. was the most
erudite. or 1redell IL is enough 10 say
that North Carolina never a d
brighter exemplar or that wisdom and
integrity. and that simple dignity and
modesty SO characteristic of the illus
trious men of hat state. In the great
case of which | write he was the only
Judge VINO upheld the Constitutional
right asserted by Georgia, and IL is
impossible TO arise from the reading
of his dissenting opinion the be-
ing convinced that. as a constitution
al lawyer, he had no equal on the
bench. The soundness OF that opinion
was attested by the subsequent over
throw of the judgment of the court
by the eleventh amendment.
Chief Justice Jays opinion in this
case was by far the most elaborate
delivered by him While on the bench
That of Judge Wilson is a striking dis
play Of the wide n Of his erudition.
The momentous nature OF the question
under consideration was stated by
him in the following words:
This Is a case of uncommon mag
nitude. One of the parties to 1t is a
ScIaIt, CeIldllIy ICSptCIdDlt, CldlDllDR
to De sovereign. The question to be
determined is, whether this State. 50
respectable, and whose claim scars
SO high. is amenable TO The jurisdic-
ton of the Supreme Court of the Unit
ed States. This question. important
in itself, may depend on others more
important still, n may, perhaps, be
ultimately resolved into one no less
radical than this: DO the people of
the United States form a ~nation?"
Profoundly impressed with a sense
Of the consequences which he fore
saw would flow from the doctrine Of
his associates on the bench. Justice
Iredell. in closing his dissenting opin-
ion, said:
Il pray to God that, if this doctrine
as to the law be establihed by the
Judgment OF his court, all the good
predicted from it may take place, n
none of the evils with which, I have
the concern to say, it appear to me
to be pregnant"
Nothing but the amendment COM
PEELED by Georgia's unyielding atti-
tude averted h evils which that great
Judge so clearly foresaw and so fear
ed.
To the mind of the student of those
times n remarkable fact must oc-
cur in connection with this decision of
the Supreme Court When the Consti-
tuition had been framed, and was sub
mitted to the States for that approval
by them which was necessary to put 1t
in operation, it was SO strongly oppos-
ed in some of the States as to make
the required ratification doubtful. The
opposition to it was based chiefly on
United States Government too strong
n left the State Government TOO
weak; that 1t took from the States the
sovereignty which was theirs and
ought to remain theirs. and conferred
it on the United States, making of the
latter q consolidated National Cavern
ment which would, o or later,
annihilate the States instead of max
ing them that Federal Government
which was the avoWed object of the
convention that framed the Constitu-
ton. 1T sQuints towards a mon
archy,' said Patrick Henry. THE
government established by the Con-
stitutiOn will surely end either in mon
archy, or a tyrannical aristocracy,"
said George Mason, of Virginia.
Alexander Hamilton, James Madi-
son., and John Jay. who We're leaders
of the National party, accepted the
Constitution as a compromise be-
tween the Nationals and the Federals
(State-rights mem of the convention.
and they advocated its adoption be-
cause, as Mr.. Jay said, they thought it
Improbable" 10 answer the objec-
tons, dispel the fears, and win for
it the votes of hose who thought the
States were left too powerless by the
proposed plan of government, they
wrote in conjunction a series of pa
pers in which they vindicated it from
the charge of despoiling the States of
their rights or sovereignty. These
writings exercised a powerful infu-
ence on the public mind. They were
publihed in the newspapers of the
day, and subsequently in the form of
a book called The Federalist,' of
which Chancellor Kent said: II know
not of any work on the principles of
free government that is to be compar-
ed in instruction and intrinsic value
to this small n unpretending vol
ume." This book was then and is
still regarded as the ablest contribu.
ton to American political science.
One Of the specific suggestions urg-
ed against tbs Constitution was the. Il
would, if adopted, place the States in
a situation where any one of then
might be subjected to prosecution by
the citizens of another. To his the
writer's of THE Federalist" replied
that the danger intimated was mere.
ly IDEAL and that there was mo col
or to pretend that the State Govern
1nents would, by the adoption Of the
Constitution, be Invested of the privil-
eye of paying their debts in their
own way. free from every cOnStraint