Speech #560029816

President. the Senator from Kentucky in his speech. great and masterly in statement. but utterly unwarranted in its preiises. virtually appeals to the Supreme Court to override all the precedents in order that we may say that people of our own flesh and blood. citizens of this our common country. who may see fit to take up their abodes in some of the distant possessions which it is claimed nave come to us. shall not there have their rights conserved by this Constitution of ours. I understand well enough that a court. when it finds that a former decision was erroneous and mistaken. will not hesitate. upon sufficient reason. to overrule it. but when it involves a question of constitutional construction or even statutory construction. the court will not overrule it except when it feels constrained to do so in order to carry into effect Ihe great end and purposes for which the Constitution was ordained or the statute enacted. But now the Senator from Kentucky invites the Supreme Court to ignore the great purpose for which the Constitution was framed. namely. to secure to the people of the United States. the entire body of citizenship. native born or naturalized. to secure to all of them and to their posterity. wherever they might be (and they knew they were a migrating. a progressive. an expanding people. they were State builders). wherever they might go. within the political jurisdiction of this Government. not limiting it to the particular number of sluare feet of the original thirteen States. the rights and blessings of constitutional liberty. And in 10 Howard. a very early case. that idea is expressed so potently and so tersely that it seems to me that high authority ought not to be gainsaid. I read from page 96 of 10 Howard: The Constitution was. in the language of the ordinanceThat is the ordinance of 1787adopted by common consent. and the people of the Territories must necessarily be regarded as parties to itThe people of the Territories must necessarily be regarded as parties to itand bound by it. and entitled to its benefits. as well as the people of the then existing States.