The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-03-15
CUSTOMS Become LAW
Ocala, Fla. March 8. 1912.

To the Editor Ocala Banner:
Judicial writer's of past times have
decided that although each state. on
its colonization, brought with it and
introduced the common law of the
mother country as the common law
of the state Immediately on its set.
Element, vet there was no national
common law.
Before the organization of our gen
eral government the several states
that composed the Confederacy were
substantially independent nations, !;
each had its own system of jurispru-
-dence; but between them there was
no common law, except the generally
accepted law of nations.
. The formation of the national gov
eminent introduced no national COM
mon law, but there still remained as
many distinct systems of local law
as there were states of which the
new nation was composed. Since the
formation of the national compact
and our civil war, which in great
degree have changed the relations of
the states to the nation, this question
has assumed new phase. Time, the
mother of all unwritten codes, has
passed, and customs, which in their
or;o 1uaro A,.otuaf;no ord 11vaoy-
tain, have, with the lapse of time,
put on the garb of reality and fixed
ness; usurpations, too, long contin-
ued and persisted in by the national
government, with no word of remon-
STRANGE from the states, have be-
come, from their long use by the ma
tional government, part of its pre-
rogative, agreeably to the well known
legal maxim, "consentire videtur, qui
tacit' appears to consent who re-
mains silent-or, as the old adage
expresses it, silence gives consent
Thus, the tariff, when first intro.
duced, was held by good authority
to be wholly unconstitutional, and
was only adopted as temporary
measure, yet by the tacit consent OF
the states, tariff after tariff have
been passed until their legality has
ceased to be questioned.
In 1903, Thomas Jefferson, the
great, far-seeing, practical statesman,
in plain violation of the constitution,
bought the state of Louisiana from
France. The act, although question
ed and fiercely denounced at the
time, was a precedent which the
purchase of the Floridas soon after.
wards, proceeded to strengthen, and
when negotiations were commenced
for the purchase of Alaska, it was by
all tacitly admitted that the right to
purchase existed, and the purchase
of Porto Rico. the Philippines and
the Hawaiian islands, were permit
ted without very serious protest.
So, also, incumbents of the presi-
Dental chair have never held it for
more than two terms, and a third
term has never been sought by q
second term incumbent successfully.
This rule will probably be either
modified or strengthened by the cleo
ton of 1912, but it has been so uni
formly acted upon that the custom
may be conceded to have grown into
law as one of the undisputed and
long continued customs of the ma
ton. If General Grant, with his i'm
mense war popularity, was not suffi-
GENTLY strong to break the custom it
is not to be supposed that Col. Roose-
welt, with his dangerous proclivities,
will succeed where Grant failed
Like natural productions, common
law is generally formed by slow de-
grees. A custom, which is originally
local and transitory, after while be-
comes general and time proceeds to
strengthen it, and when many years
have passed. and it still continues
without change, it acquires the force
of law.
If the United States have COM
mon law, and we think in a certain
degree they have, it has, like all spe-
cies of law, grown up from long con-
tinued customs, and from the usurpa-
tions of the general government
For more than one hundred and
twenty years the custom has obtain
ed against a third term, a custom so
binding and long-continued that it
has, beyond all question, grown to
have the binding force of law, and we
fain believe that the efforts of Mr..
Roosevelt and his friends will prove