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PAGE SIX
the States, deprive them of powers necessary
to preserve a republican form of government,
and make it impossible for the States to pro
tect their citizens in the. enjoyment of those
rights guaranteed to them by the Constitu
tions of the States:
(2) That the new laws usurp Federal con
trol oxer (he State mililia, and render the sov
ereign State powerless, in case of any unfore
seen and sudden riot, invasion, or other emer
gency which puts the State upon the defen
sive. to uphold its authority and defend its
soil:
(3) That the new Acts disintegrate the
States, disorganizing and revolutionizing
their internal affairs, penalizing freedom of
speech and of press: and rendering ineffec
tive the State's Constitutional guarantee of
life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happi
ness.
In other words, the Acts complained of
amount to a repeal of the most important of
the civil liberties set forth in every State Bill
of Rights.
(4) they violate both the letter and the
spirit of the organic act of the Union, totally
subvert the scheme of divided and balanced
sovereignty, reduce the States to the helpless
ness of subject provinces, and are therefore
null and void.
(•'>) Section G of the Act (May 18, 1017)
places under Presidential conscription every
officer of the State. The new duties of the offi
cials thus conscripted, are left undefined.
Those State < Hirers must obey such orders as
th? President chooses to issue. In case the
Governor of a State fails or refuses to do what
the President tells him to do, the Governor
becomes guilty of a misdemeanor. If he
should be unable to give bond when arrested,
lie must go to jail. He may then continue
to act as Goxernor. the best he can, from the
prison to which the President commits him.
If found guilty at his trial, he may be pun
ished by a year's imprisonment : or if held
to be a part of the military establishment, —
and therefore subject to military law —he
may be summarily court-martialed and in
continently shot.
No other construction can be put upon
Section (>, if it is admitted that the Governor
is one of the officers of a State.
To every State-officer the same section ap
plies; and no matter how pressing might be
the needs ol the State for the diligent service
of her officials, she is compelled to sacrifice
the interest.- of the Slate to the demands of
tho President.
In other words, the State government is
paralyzed, and the various organs of State
administration must cease to perform their
functions, if the President exercises the enor
mous powers conferred by this Act.
Such powers are not democratic, or repub
lican; they are imperial, belonging to systems
where Divine Rigid and One-man Power are
supreme, and where the personal will of the
sovereign is not limited by charter or kept
in check by independent, incorruptible courts.
I ou may ransack your law-libraries, read
every paper of Hamilton and Madison, scan
every speech of Webster and John Quincy
Adams, study every decision of John Mar
shall. Joseph Story, and Roger Taney—but
you will search in vain for the germ of the
revolutionary doctrine, that Congress may,
through the Executive, transform State. Gov
ernors into President ial satellites, lesser State
officers into Federal officials, and suspend the
sovereignty of the State, by sending the
entire State establishment to jail, for non
performance of Federal duties, suddenly
thrust upon it by Congress.
II this kind of thing can be done, anything
can be done.
It comes dangerously near to abolishing the
State’s form of republican government, if
it does not, m fact, no that very thing.
•What’s left of the State’s form of repub-
THE JEFFERSONIAN
lican government, when her entire establish
ment is placed under conscription by the Fed
eral Government?
What could be a more ruinous blow at the
separate, sovereign existence of the State,
within its Constitutional orbit, (han an Act
of Congress which fuses all State establish
ments into one federal mass, and makes the
whole mass criminal, if it fails to obey such
commands as the President may see fit to
issue ?
It is almost a mockery to talk of the. Con
stitution and the laws, and of our unprece
dented mixed system of government, when
such a revolutionary Act of Congress is be
ing enforced.
Has any statesman in this Union ever con
tended that the President can be legally vest
ed with authority to prescribe duties to any
and all State officers? Has any Court done
so?
Does the power to raise armies carry power
to subjugate peaceful, loyal States?
Cannot we raise armies without burying the
Constitution? Must we build our military
system in the cemetery where we have first
entombed the States?
It has been many years since I appeared
in any court —except where compelled to go in
my own behalf—and had not expected to
ever argue another case. But the vital and
lasting results that depend upon the recent
Acts of Congress, caused me to volunteer my
services, and I am here, without fee or other
reward, and with no other interest than that
of a lover of liberty and of country.
As well as possible, under the shadow and
handicap of a terrible, domestic affliction, I
have done my duty by those who trusted me.
The issue is with your Honor.
Let me conclude, in the words with which
Mr. Hill ended the great argument already
quoted:
‘‘Sir, in disunion through the disintegration
of the States, I. have never been able to see
anything but anarchy with its endless horrors.
In disunion through the destruction of the
States. I have never been able to see anything
but rigid, hopeless despotism, with all its end
less oppression. In disunion by an} means,
m any form, for any cause, I have never been
able to see anything but blood, and waste, and
ruin to all races and colors and conditions of
men.
‘’But in the preservation of our Union of
States, this confederate nation, I have never
been able to see anything but a grandeur and
a glory such as no people ever enjoyed. I
prav God that every arm that shall be raised
to destroy that Union may be withered before
it can strike the blow."
Note
The daily papers of today (Tuesday, Au
gust 21), announce that Judge Speer lias de
nied the application of writs of Habeas
Corpus. holding the Conscript law to be con
stitutional.
Not having seen the text of the decision,
and intending as we do, to carry the case
to the Supreme Court of the United States,
I am not able, even if it would be proper, to
make any comment. T. E. W.
The Pope and the President
I 1 tickles me to see the War-Whoops squirm,
as they try to escape the plain truth, that
the Pope’s plea for peace is a repetition of
(he plea made by the President, last Decem
ber and January.
Can the fact be disputed?
No.
The President urged peace without victory
—a peace which would leave no rankling
memories to cause future wars.
The Pope renews the plea.
Face the music, brethren I If it was right
when tho President did it—and you vowed
it was—the same plea is right, noun
Nothing has happened to Belgium and Car
dinal Mercier, since January.
German militarism and autocracy are the
same (hat they were in December.
For. that matter, the German system has
not changed since Woodrow Wilson analyzed
it, without censure, in h!s book, ‘‘The State,”
revised and republished by him in 1901.
Face the music, brethren: if the Pope is
wrong, at this time, the President was wrong,
in January.
But you said the President was right.
Did you mean it?
If so, what will you do with the Pope’s
renewal of the President's plea for peace?
Think it over, dear War Whoops.
Get ready to flop, once more.
I sec signs that the Romanists of England,
France, Belgium, England, Ireland, Canada,
and these United States, are listening to that
voice from the Vatican.
It is the master's voice ’
To devout Romanists, ( lie voice of the Pope
is the voice of God.
On earth, he personifies Christ. When he
says to the turbid waves of war, “Peace be
still!” it is Divinity that speaks.
So the Catholics believe.
And the Pope lias spoken for peace, on
exactly the same lines that the President
spoke for in January of this year.
What about it?
The President is hesitating.
American Catholics, headed by cardinal
gibbons, arc coming out for peace.
Watch the weather-signs, little War-
Whoops !
There’s going to be a change.
W
7 A
Managing Editor’s
Column
[ N common with every one else on The Jeff
pay-roll, the Managing Editor is very fond
of her job, and is most anxious to help keep
things going so that there will continue to
be a job for her to be fond of.
In the present “misunderstanding’' between
Uncle Sam and the Editor-in-Chief of The
Jeffersonian, it has been very difficult for the
managers of the business to get a copy of The
Weekly to every one who is entitled to a copy.
In the cities, this has not been so difficult,
but in towns not reached by express, the
trouble has been so bad that “Andy,” our
mailing clerk, has lost a lot of flesh and some
hair, worrying about how to get the papers
to every one.
You can help us solve this, if you will.
While all places have not express offices, ex-
The Jeffersonian and ihe Mails
(continued from page one.)
suppression of newspapers, on account of their
anti-administration attitude and propaganda,
is not a censorship of the press.
It might be a real mental treat to learn
what is a press-censorship, according to the
Lamar-Burleson theory.
Without specifications of alleged wrong
doing, and without trial by jury, and without
knowing why it is done, a publisher’s busi
ness is outlawed and his property scrap
heaped, and his presses stopped: still, this is
not a press-censorship.
What, then, is it?
Evidently, it is a part of “The New Free
dom” which Father-in-law Wilson advocates
in his book; which Son-in-law McAdoo em
ployed in his sales of Liberty Bonds; which
the Germans are suffering so badly for the
want of; and which we are spending blood
and treasure to establish throughout the uni
verse. - , • . . . i v
Thursday, August 23, 1917.
