Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by

CHARLES L. WOODBURY.

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Stereotyped by

HOBART & ROBBINS,

NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY,

BOSTON.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:

PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

JUDICIAL.

ON STRICT CONSTRUCTION OF POWERS.*

It is essential to the pure and peaceful administration of justice, that all its officers keep carefully within the boundaries of their constitutional powers. Auxiliary to this, but not secondary in importance, is a due knowledge of the leading subjects for their inquiry and decision. Attending to these considerations anxiously, as we all ought, and the judicial tribunals of both the States and the United States are likely to perform their respective functions without jealousy or serious collision; and our beautiful system of double legislatures and double judicatories of political checks and constitutional balances - can move onward, notwithstanding their complicated machinery, with a regularity and harmony scarcely surpassed by those of the revolutions of the planets. What, then, are the general boundaries for you, as well as this bench, in respect to constitutional power? What are the sacred limits established by the people of the States, beyond which it is usurpation, or, at least, a dangerous dereliction of duty, for any of us to pass?

They are, in brief, that for most internal and domestic objects other courts and other juries have been organized in this country, and offenders in relation to those objects are not amenable to the tribunals of the General Government. In our political system, those other tribunals belong to the several States, act within and for each of them, and any tendency to encroach on their jurisdiction is justly watched over with much jealousy.

population entertain concerning State rights, on this and all subjects, is the fact that the people, through the States, and not the General Government, are the original source of all power in this country; that they thus made the General Government, and not the General Government them, and that they granted to the General Government only certain limited powers, and expressly retained all others to themselves. The State institutions, including their judicial tribunals, are likewise nearer to the community, and mingled more with their every-day life and business. They also came into existence, generally, at an earlier date, and have been longer tried, and are better known. They relate usually to what is dearer, as well as nearer, to individuals, and more imperative in demands for protection against violence and crime; being private relations of parent and child, master and servant, and that consecrated union of husband and wife, which has, by its improved purity, been one of the greatest instruments in advancing modern civilization. They gather into their embrace, likewise, the altar, no less than the hearth, the institutions of religion, some of the duties it inculcates and the crimes it forbids, and the rights of freedom of conscience which are here guaranteed. They include, in ordinary affairs, under the State constitutions and State laws, also much of the wide domain of public morals, public education, security in most cases of property as well as person, protection of character, and a vast variety of other topics connected, in that sphere, with the support of political rights and public liberty. In respect to all these, therefore, so far as placed in other hands, we must not, because we ought not to, interfere; but, on the contrary, while forbearing to encroach on the jurisdiction of others, it becomes us to be vigilant over everything clearly intrusted to us by the constitution and laws - over everything which depends chiefly for safety on our labors and our oaths.

What is so intrusted? In a confederated government, like ours, foreign and exterior relations, with the protection of the persons and property embarked under them, can always be more appropriately administered by some general or central power, acting only for the whole, and acting principally on matters which concern the whole. That central power exists in this country, and most of its judicial functions are confided to us. The very nature and object of such a power indicate the extent, no less than the general design, of our duties under it. Within the range of your inquiries, therefore, will be found most of the offences against foreign and exterior business and rights, and also most of the offences against the constitution, laws, government and institutions, formed to protect that business and those rights. Without authority to punish offences against these various institutions of the General Government, as well as the persons and property of our citizens exposed abroad, the whole central authority would become stripped of efficiency and independence. It could not protect the vast foreign commerce placed under its guardianship, or its own rights, or even its own existence. It would become the derision of offenders.