Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New YorkWarburton, A. F. (Adolphus Frederick)
History
Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
Warburton, A. F. (Adolphus Frederick)
Piracy -- United States; Privateering -- United States; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
I say to you, moreover, gentlemen, that that right, under the law of
nature, to resist the attempted usurpation of a power which has not
been granted by the Constitution, resides, in a State, in the executive
government, and necessarily in the Governor of the State; because you
will recollect one of the premises upon which we started was, that all
the residuary power in the government, beyond what had been expressly
ceded to the Government of the United States by the Federal
Constitution, is, by the Constitution, reserved to the State; and the
Governor of the State is the sentinel upon the watch-tower for the
protection of the rights of the State. He is placed in that position to
watch the danger from afar. He communicates with the General
Government. Any steps taken having reference to the State, pass under
his inspection; and he alone has the materials within his reach for
knowing the circumstances and deciding upon the facts in regard to the
question whether the General Government is acting within the
constitutional limit of its powers, or whether it is guilty of any
usurpation of power, in any claim of authority it makes with reference
to the affairs of the State. Because, in the case I have supposed, of a
President elected from the State of Massachusetts, seeking to destroy
the commerce of New York, and stationing a fleet off the harbor, it is
not likely that a President who was guilty of such wickedness would
avow that he did it for the purpose of building up the commerce of
Boston and destroying that of New York. No; he would say that he had
notice of a hostile invasion--a fleet leaving the coast of Great
Britain or of some other maritime power to make a descent upon New
York,--that he had notice of some threatened injury to New York, which
would make it necessary to station a fleet there, and to prevent
vessels from entering or leaving. The Governor alone would have the
means of ascertaining whether there was any foundation in truth for
that, or whether it was a mere pretence to cover his iniquitous
purpose; and in determining the case whether the Federal Government is
exceeding its power or not, or acting within the constitutional limit
of its power, the Governor has to deal with a compound question of law
and fact. He must first read the Constitution of the United States, and
ascertain its grant of power, and then compare that with the facts as
presented to him; and upon that comparison the jurisdiction is placed
in him to decide whether the act of the General Government is within
its power, or a transgression of it.
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