Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

514 ABRIDGMENT OF THE SENATE.] The Judicial System. [APRIL, 1826. apprehension. They are the judges of the of others. They are the avenues through General Government, and will always have the which that force finds its way to the delinquent wisdom to prefer foreign conquests to domestic citizens, and it should find its way in the genbroils. My great object is to save the States tlest of all the conceivable efficient modes. from being degraded, to save the liberty of the This is required by the peace, tranquillity, and States from being frittered away, by the judi- harmony, of society. When the marshal seizes, cial oligarchy of the United States. For, I and bears away with him, the property of an insist upon it, Mr. President, that the Supreme individual; if you abstract the authority under Court of the United States, if it shall be in- which he acts, his conduct amounts to robbery. dulged in the exercise of the powers which it The authority, therefore, under which he acts, has assumned, by inference and construction, in should not only be visible, in his acts, but it addition to those with which it is legitimately in- should be obtrusively so; it should be a dovested by the Constitution of the United States, mestic, and not an alien authority; the individ. is the most stupendous aristocracy which was ual who is the subject of it should perceive its ever tolerated in any country in which the sound justice from his consciousness that it was acof liberty was uttered, and its import understood. cording to the will of the people of which he But I will leave this section to the reflection was himself a part, and in which he had confiof the Senate; my deficient manner of discuss- dence, because he had consented to it. He ing it, will be supplied by their good sense. I should, in fact, recognize his own power, as the must, however, beg their indulgence for a few agent, in producing his own privation. minutes, while I offer to them the reasons Hence I insist, Mr. President, that it is the which influenced me to propose the remaining right of every State to enact the execution amendatory section. laws by which the judgment and decrees of the The execution laws, -Mr. President, of any Federal Court, in that State, shall be carried people, who assert their right to self-govern- into effect. ment, should, in a more emphatic sense than Mr. President, we are taught that the liberty any other of their laws, be suited to their con- and property of the citizens are regulated, dition. Their other laws are, comparatively, guarded, protected, and guaranteed by the theoretic and abstract. They exist in the stat- States. But how can they guarantee the liberute book, for contemplation, as rules of con- ty, or protect the property, of their citizens, if duct and of property; while unobstructed in they permit their persons to be imprisoned, and the acquisition of property, and uninterrupted their property to be taken from them, at the in its enjoyment, the people, unfortunately for will of another Government, or at the instance the durability of their rights, pay but too little of its functionaries? The citizens and their attention to the complexion of their code. property must be regulated by the State; that Busied with the avocations of life, vexed with is, by the people in their corporate capacity; its cross purposes, and thwarted by its vicissi- or the State is not sovereign, and they are not tudes, they have but little leisure, and less in- free. The proprietary right of the States over clination, for abstraction of any kind. But the people, and their property, is, or is not, execution laws, Mr. President, address them- sovereign. If sovereign, it implies not only selves to the senses of the people; an execu- the right to regulate both according to their tion law, is law, in its practical, noun-substan- will, but competent wisdom for this purpose. tive, macctter-of-fact shape. The other laws If the power of the State is not sovereign, why constitute the rules by which each man regu- are they mocked with it? If the General Govlates his oown conduct and disposes of his own ernment is the proprietor of the people, and property. The execution law constitutes the their property; that is, if the citizens, and rule, and creates the authority, by which one their property, are to be regulated by the Fedmnan takes and disposes of the property of oth- eral Government, why is not that power asserters, by which he even deprives others of their ed by that Government? But I have, I trust, personal liberty. I repeat, then, that the exe- been successful in showing that the Constitucution system of any State should be enacted tion of the United States did not, and could with a wise regard to the condition of its peo- not, confer this power; that it is inherent in ple. It is a despotic feature, which cannot be the States, and that the States would be faithdiscussed from the countenance of the Repub- less to themselves, if they were to surrender it, lic; it should, therefore, be softened as much or permit it to be usurped, or filched from:as possible. The laws of right were enacted by them. It is not, it cannot be pretended, that,the Legislator of the Universe, and written the Congress could pass laws regulating conlegibly and irreversibly in the volume of na- veyances, descents, and distributions, or last ture; the social compact recognizes that code, wills and testaments-laws regulating the pur-:and legitimates it: its fitness and its force is, chase and transfer of property. But an exe-:instinctively, recognized, felt, and acknowl- cution law is, in fact, a law of this character; (edged by the people. But, Mr. President, the it involves, in its operation, the sale, purchase, ilaws of remedy are created by the State; they and transfer, of property. And in States Hare the rules by which civil society exerts its where land is, and shall continue to be, subject;:remedial and protecting force, in favor of one to sale under execution, that must, at no very,or more of its citizens, against the delinquency distant day, (such is the vicissitude of human

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 514
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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