The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-26
TUESDAY, SEPT. Is. 1911.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL
COURTS.


STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL
COURTS.
A good many people in this country
were quite as nervous about the en-
croachments of federal judges upon
the rights Of the states early in the
nineteenth century as Governor Har-
mon and some Of the other governors
are now.
1t should be remembered that after
the breaking away from the British
crown, the old thirteen were not only
free and Independent states but sover-
sign states. The citizen owed an I'M
divided allegiance to his state, and an
unconditional obedience to its laws.
The judgments Of it's supreme court
were final and conclusive throughout
its borders and for all its people.
They were judgments without appeal.
And it was pretty generally taken for
granted that they would continue to
have the same character of finality
under the constitution Of the United
States. Indeed, in the half dozen
numbers of the Federalist which he
devoted to the exposition of article
Ill. Hamilton exerted himself to con-
vince the Americans Of his time that
the states would have nothing to fear
from the federal judiciary.
All the greater was the excitement
when the supreme court of the United
states-with Marshall and Story on
its bench-practically asserted its
power under the constitution and the
judiciary act of 1889 to review and,
II necessary, reverse the judgments
Of the state supreme courts in cases
where federal questions" presented
themselves. The supreme court Of
Virginia fatty denied the existence Of
the power. At least two or three
state house bills were rushed forward
that forbade any citizen of the state
to appeal from a decision Of its su-
preme court under pains and penal
ties. Judge Roane got busy with the
preparation Of his "Algernon Sidney"
papers; Thomas Jefferson wrote let
tiers right and left. "They-Marshall
and his associates-are constituting our
constitution from coordination of a
general and special government to a
general and supreme one alone" he
wrote to Thomas Richie. these de-
cisions become law by precedent sap
ping by little and little the founda-
lions OF the constitution" he wrote
TO Mr.. Coray. There are two meas
ures which. II not taken. we are un-
DONE" he wrote to Nathaniel Macon;
the first Of the two wac ito check
these unconstitutional invasions of
state rights by the federal Judiciary"
TO Spencer Roane he wrote: "The
great object Of my fear is the federal
judiciary. That body, like gravity,
ever acting, with noiseless foot and
unalarming advance. gaining ground
step BY step and holding what it
gains. ID engulfng the special govern
ment into tho Jaws"
But his attention was violently d.
verted BY the Missouri question. That
woke him up like q fro bell in the
night-as he told John Holmes-and
filled him with terror; he thought he
heard in it "the knell Of the union"
Mr.. Jefferson was mistaken; the
kneel was an illusion; the funeral
didn't come of; there was no corpse
to be inferred. We shall soon be at
the hundreth anniversary of the WRIT
ing Of that letter to John Holmes, and
the union Is still here in life and
health. So, too-we invite Governor
Harmon and the other governors
thankfully to note with us-are the
states. They have today every right
and power which they did not dele
gate Of their own free Will, century
before last. to the general govern
menk T. Is I'd 70 them uox-as =