S. S. Gregory

“ If, as has always been understood, the sovereignty of Congress, though limited to specific objects, is plenary as to those objects, the power over commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, is vested in Congress as absolutely as it would be in a single government, having in its Constitution the same restrictions on the exercise of the power as are found in the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives, both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? ”

“ Before the war those unifying influences, now so fully developed, by which transportation and free communication have been so marvelously increased since the foundation of our government, had begun to operate. We are now one people in a sense that was not only physically impossible, but mentally inconceivable, when the Federal Constitution was adopted. It is an impressive and overwhelming fact that our population, then but three millions, has increased to ninety millions. ”

“ Every day the incidents of national import are, by the wonderful agencies of the press, gathered up and simultaneously communicated to all our people. In all matters of National sovereignty, state lines are vanishing lines; and without objection and, indeed, almost without comment, powers are now exercised by the General Government which would never have been even hinted at fifty years ago. ”

“ He was fond of out-door life, especially of hunting, and seemed to have abounding physical and mental vitality and energy.
This was a great case, involving profound constitutional and governmental questions; and he made a great argument. But twenty-six years of age, he spoke with all the fiery eloquence of youth and the deep earnestness of sincere conviction.
I cannot make any extracts from his argument; but one thing I must quote; and that is the most impressive tribute to trial by jury to be found in the English language. ”

“ Judge Smith, who granted the first application of Booth, was a Democrat. One would suppose that his party would stand by him in this extreme assertion of state sovereignty, a cardinal doctrine of Democratic faith. Perhaps this might have been so on an abstract question. But in the conflicts of life there are no, abstract questions. Men seldom reason logically or clearly where their feelings are involved. ”

“ Let us all strive to do our part to, secure its accomplishment. Let us cherish that simple, old-fashioned faith in ourselves and our country, through all our national struggles and trials, which our past history so amply justifies. ”

“ It is, of itself, a sufficient and conclusive answer; for no one will suppose that a government which has now lasted nearly seventy years, enforcing its laws by its own tribunals, and preserving the union of the states, could have lasted a single year, or fulfilled the high trusts committed to it, if offenses against its laws could not have been punished without the consent of the state in which the culprit was found. ”

“ Let us never forget that great material prosperity, the glory of conquest and all the bright and glittering panoply of national power, can not take the place of those higher essentials which sustain and develop individual and national character. ”

“ The negro waved his hat as he mounted the wagon in return to the waving of hats and joyous shouts which arose from that vast crowd of freemen who said that the Milwaukee jail could not be used for the confinement of men who had committed no crime. ”

“ Resolved, That the government formed by the Constitution of the United States was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; but that as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress. ”

“ Nations, like indivduals, have a certain organic growth and development. In this country for fifty years there has been a constant growth of National power at the expense of that of the state. Nulla vestigia retrorsum. It has been an evolutionary process, due to changing conditions in our national life, before the realities of which, academic theories of government have been compelled to yield. This is not to say that the Constitution has been evaded. ”

“ The people gathered in great numbers; impassioned addresses were made and fiery resolutions were adopted. By these resolutions the arrest of Glover was denounced as an outrage and his trial by a jury was demanded; it was also resolved that the citizens of Racine would go in person to secure his release; and that, "as the Senate of the United States has repealed all compromises heretofore adopted by Congress, we, as citizens of Wisconsin, are justified in declaring, and do hereby declare, the slave catching law of 1850 disgraceful and also repealed." ”

“ These qualities, honesty, steadfastness, frugality, temperance, courage, loyalty, industry and perseverance, homely virtues though they be, established our national character and made us what we are. They are still our birthright and our best possession. ”

“ The Federal government in the exercise of all the extensive powers granted to it, is restrained only by the express limitations of the Federal Constitution. As to these powers there are no states. The National government and its agencies deal directly with the people of the Union. ”

“ PROBABLY most well informed persons of the present generation associate the notion, once maintained, that a state might secede or nullify an act of Congress, with the South and its earlier statesmen. And it is true that the resolutions drawn substantially by Jefferson and adopted by the Legislature of Kentucky in 1798, and similar resolutions drafted by Madison and adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia in the same year, together with some similar and more explicit declarations by the Legislature of the former state in 1799, seem to furnish some warrant for this impression. ”

“ If the Congress shall deem it expedient to undertake the colossal task of providing, by administrative commission, similar to the Interstate Commerce Commission, for the regulation of all interstate and foreign commerce, including the control of prices, he will be a bold man who challenges the constitutional validity of such an effort, whatever may be said as to its wisdom. ”

“ It is, however, of more significance in this connection that our great metropolis now has a population more than fifty per cent in excess of that of the thirteen original states; while the time occupied to travel from that metropolis to the Golden Gate of the Pacific hardly exceeds that occupied by Thomas Jefferson in his journeys from Monticello to Washington; and communication between nearly all parts of our extensive domain by the miracle of electricity has become practically instantaneous. ”

“ A committee of one hundred was appointed to see that the resolutions were carried out, and the committee took steamboat for Milwaukee in the afternoon-of that day.
The news of Glover's arrest had reached Milwaukee early in the morning by telegraph. At that time Sherman M. Booth had lived in Milwaukee about six years, having come there from Connecticut where he had carried on an active propaganda for the abolition of slavery. He was, as earnest men are apt to be in a great cause, zealous to the point of fanaticism. ”

“ Yet if God wills that it continue till all the wealth, piled by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether'." ”

“ Yet, if the opinions of John Marshall, that profound and far-sighted statesman and jurist, are examined, there will be found, clearly enunciated, those fundamental principles of organic law, which amply justify the most extensive modern claims of Federal authority. ”

“ The Democratic party was really a pro-slavery party. So in Wisconsin they sacrificed Judge Smith; and when his term expired, nominated another candidate. The brilliant young advocate, whose eloquent appeal had so swayed the court, was nominated by the Republicans and, after a bitter contest, elected on this issue. Carl Schurz campaigned for him, and on one occasion closed an impassioned address as follows:—
"Our poor state has suffered much, its credit is ruined, its prosperity blighted, its political honor has been forfeited by wholesale corruption and maladministration. ”

“ If not, place a man there who dares to be himself. Let the friend's of liberty and self-government present an unbroken front. Their banner bears the inscription, 'State rights and Byron Paine."
And so the people of the state elected Byron Paine and really indorsed the attitude of their public servants.
I digress long enough to say that Judge Paine made a brilliant and able judge. He resigned in 1864 to enter the Union army, returned to practice after the war, was appointed to the Supreme Court September 10th, 1867, and served until his death, January 13th, 1871, at the age of 43. ”

“ You know you have many companions in the pathway of that effort; but I think none excels you in the completeness and force with which the points are presented and some of the views with which you sustain points made by others are strikingly original. ”

“ I remember him well in later years; a man of medium height, with no little energy of manner, speaking in an earnest, florid and rhetorical style and with much fluency.
Mr. Smith issued a warrant for the arrest of Glover, and a deputy marshal, with the slave owner and such assistance as he deemed necessary, proceeded to Racine, forcibly entered the little cabin where Glover lived, knocked him down, and carried him, bound and handcuffed, in a wagon to Milwaukee, where he was lodged in jail. ”

“ Shortly prior to the Booth case Taney had written the principal opinion in the Dred Scott case. His appointment was certainly a political appointment. The decision in the Dred Scott case was obviously wrong on the merits and probably so on the technical or jurisdictional question involved; and from these circumstances Taney's fame as a judge suffered. But he was really an accomplished lawyer and an excellent, possibly a great, Judge. At the time the Booth case was decided, 1859, he was an old man, some eighty-two years of age. He died October 12th, 1864, at the age of eighty-seven. ”

“ The court as then constituted, consisting of Luther S. Dixon, Chief Justice, and Orsamus Cole and Byron Paine, Associates, was the court as I first remember it. It was a strong and able court and enjoyed, in a high degree, the confidence of the Bar and the people of the state. ”