hes and seizures" as against the suspensions
of "the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_, * * * unless when, in
cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." It
was doubtless to afford the people the means of protecting and enforcing
these inestimable privileges that the jurisdiction which this bill
proposes to take away was conferred upon the Supreme Court of the
nation. The act conferring that jurisdiction was approved on the 5th day
of February, 1867, with a full knowledge of the motives that prompted its
passage, and because it was believed to be necessary and right. Nothing
has since occurred to disprove the wisdom and justness of the measures,
and to modify it as now proposed would be to lessen the protection of
the citizen from the exercise of arbitrary power and to weaken the
safeguards of life and liberty, which can never be made too secure
against illegal encroachments.

The bill not only prohibits the adjudication by the Supreme Court
of cases in which appeals may hereafter be taken, but interdicts its
jurisdiction on appeals which have already been made to that high
judicial body. If, therefore, it should become a law, it will by its
retroactive operation wrest from the citizen a remedy which he enjoyed
at the time of his appeal. It will thus operate most harshly upon those
who believe that justice has been denied them in the inferior courts.

The legislation proposed in the second section, it seems to me, is not
in harmony with the spirit and intention of the Constitution. It can
not fail to affect most injuriously the just equipoise of our system
of Government, for it establishes a precedent which, if followed, may
eventually sweep away every check on arbitrary and unconstitutional
legislation. Thus far during the existence of the Government the Supreme
Court of the United States has been viewed by the people as the true
expounder of their Constitution, and in the most violent party conflicts
its judgments and decrees have always been sought and deferred to with
confidence and respect. In public estimation it combines judicial wisdom
and impartiality in a greater degree than any other authority known to
the Constitution, and any act which may be construed into or mistaken
for an attempt to prevent or evade its decision on a question which
affects the liberty of the citizens and agitates the country can
not fail to be attended with unpropitious consequences. It will be
justly held