CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



199 



eral courts all mere questions of personal diffi- 

 culty or personal rights between citizens of 

 the same State, making simple assault and 

 battery by two or more persons on others in 

 the same town, village, or neighborhood, a 

 felony punishable by fine of $10,000 and im- 

 prisonment for ten years, if the Federal judge 

 in his discretion sees fit to impose such punish- 

 ment. Enact these provisions, and local State 

 government is at an end ; the States may as well 

 make bonfires of their statute-books and bar- 

 racks of their court-houses-, for their laws will 

 be a mockery and their courts a farce. The 

 smallest modicum of common-sense would seem 

 to me sufficient to enable any member to see 

 the insane folly of conferring such jurisdiction 

 on the Federal courts, even if the power to do 

 so existed. With only one Federal court in 

 some of our largest States, how could justice 

 be administered, often five hundred miles from 

 the venue, 'without sale, denial, or delay? ' 



" What conqueror even, either in ancient or 

 modern times, ever destroyed the local tribu- 

 nals and laws of their provinces ? No Eoman 

 proconsul ever ventured to do it, no monarch 

 in modem times ever thought of it ; that 

 supremest of supreme folly is reserved for 

 the (so-called) Eepresentatives of the greatest, 

 freest, and most enlightened republic on earth. 

 Gentlemen will pardon me for again referring 

 to the Constitution. My only apology is, you 

 have all sworn to support it. 



" The judicial power of the United States 

 granted in the Constitution to this Government 

 is defined by and limited in the third article. 

 The first section declares that 'the judicial 

 power of the United States shall be vested 

 in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior 

 courts as the Congress may from time to time 

 ordain and establish.' There is no other way 

 in which the judicial power can be exercised. 

 It cannot be delegated to a star-chamber, a 

 high commission, or a board of military officers, 

 nor to any other special tribunal improvised 

 for the conviction of particular individuals. 

 All power to hear, decide, and adjudicate in 

 civil or criminal cases is confined to the or- 

 dained and established courts; which I beg 

 you to remember, especially when you are 

 authorizing the President to try men by drum- 

 head court-martial, or punish them, if the 

 militia and the Army and Navy do not do it 

 sufficiently, 'by such other means as he may 

 deem necessary.' " 



Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, said: "Mr. Speaker, 

 no man is equal to the task of discussing, as it 

 ought to be discussed, the issue before this 

 House within the limits of a single hour. I 

 scarcely hope that I shall have done more than 

 touch the hem of the garment of the argument 

 when my hour shall have expired. But, sir, 

 whatever I may fail to do, the great people 

 behind me will not fail to supply. They, sir, 

 constitute the tribunal before whom this issue 

 is on trial. 

 . "The question as presented here and now 



may be stated thus: is it competent for Con- 

 gress to provide by law for the better enforce- 

 ment of the Constitution and laws of the United 

 States and the better security of the life, lib- 

 erty, and property of the citizens of the United 

 States in the several States of the Union ? The 

 Constitution is not self-executing, therefore 

 laws must be enacted by Congress for the due 

 execution of all the powers vested by the Con- 

 stitution in the Government of the United 

 States, or in any department or any officer 

 thereof. No man can successfully deny the 

 power of Congress so to legislate, for it is ex- 

 pressly provided in the Constitution that ' Con- 

 gress shall have power to make all laws which 

 shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 

 execution ' the powers therein expressly grant- 

 ed to Congress, ' and all other powers vested 

 by this Constitution in the Government of the 

 United States, or in any department or officer 

 thereof.' 



"My honorable friend from Indiana (Mr. 

 Kerr) discussed this question, upon the Con- 

 stitution as it was and not upon the Constitu- 

 tion as it is. In the ' progress of his remarks 

 the gentleman (Mr. Kerr) did disclose to this 

 House and to the country the fact that, under 

 the Constitution as it was, it always was com- 

 petent for the Congress of the United States, 

 by law, to enforce every affirmative grant of 

 power and every express negative limitation 

 imposed by the Constitution upon the States. 

 The great case from which the gentleman read 

 in 6 Wheaton, pages 375-447 (Cohens vs. Vir- 

 ginia), is a judicial ruling that clearly, distinct- 

 ly, and beyond all question, to the extent of 

 all the affirmative grants of power in the Con- 

 stitution, and of all the express negative limi- 

 tations of power imposed by the Constitution 

 upon the States, it is competent for Congress 

 to legislate. From th.e opinion in this case, 

 delivered by Marshall, C. J., I read the follow- 

 ing: 



America has chosen to be, in many respects and 

 to many purposes, a nation; and, for all these pur- 

 yoseSj lier Government is complete ; to all these ob- 

 jects it is competent. The people have declared that 

 in the exercise of all powers given for these objects 

 it is supreme. It can, then, in effecting these objects, 

 legitimately control all individuals or governments 

 within the American territory. The constitution 

 and laws of a State, so far as they are repugnant to 

 the Constitution and laws of the United States, are 

 absolutely void. These States are constituent parts 

 of the United States. They are members of one great 

 empire. (6 Wheat., p. 414.) 



"Mr. Speaker, I have not the time to read 

 from that opinion further. I will state, how- 

 ever, to the House, that in this opinion, scarce- 

 ly second in importance to any of the opinions 

 that emanated from that matchless Chief Jus- 

 tice whose full-orbed intellect for thirty years 

 illumined the jurisprudence of his country, you 

 will find incorporated the words of Hamilton, 

 who was second to no man, in gifts of mind, 

 and second to no man in the service which he 

 rendered to the people of his own day and to 



