by the Constitution of the United States, of as being consistent with the spirit, the object, which they alone could have authoritatively the provisions, or the supremacy of your great established. With less power than what was National theater.

thus granted, and without inherent and Like the Mosaic Economy-according to paramount authority to uphold and en- which, each of the Twelve Tribes exercised force it, the harmony, justice, or even exis- local Government under the supervision and tence of the Union could not have been long ultimate control, as to all national interests, of maintained. No power was delegated to the the National Government, just as families, and General Government except what the guardian hundreds and thousands, exercised subordinate of the Union should possess for preserving sovereignty in each tribe-each State in your peace and promoting "the common welfare" Union possesses a local sovereignty for reguof the people and of the States. To reclaim lating its own separate interests, and each any essential portion of that national power, county and incorporated city of every State or to object to the full exercise of it, might exercises, subordinately, a more circumscribed frustrate the desirable ends for which it was sovereignty-the Government of the Union entrusted to the constituted organs of all the being the ultimate sovereign, as to every nacitizens of the United States. And to deny tional interest or concern. If in every conflict the ultimate right of the representatives of between the Government of an integral porthe whole Union to decide authoritatively on tion of the Union, and the Government of the delegated powers of the whole, would in- the whole Union, as to their respective spheres volve the absurdity of claiming its inferiority and subjection to each of its integral parts, the practical subordination of which was the purpose of the Constitution, and is required by its declared and necessary supremacy. Without such right the General Government would not be sovereign-for authority to decide on its powers is the distinguishing element of all true and legitimate sovereignty. The depository of the national powers expressly granted has the implied, as well as the declared, right to employ the requisite means for fulfilling the great trust. And the charter should be so construed, and its powers so exercised as to fulfil, as far as may be, the beneficent objects of the grant. Submission to the acts and decisions of the General Government, or relief from them only in a mode prescribed by the com- the Patriots who achieved your Independence, pact of the Union, is the civic obligation of every citizen, and of all associations of citizens. This is the object of all Constitutional Government; and none could long exist under any other theory or practice.

of constitutional authority-the former should have concurrent and co-equal sovereign power, any one State might stop the wheels of the General Government, and annul or paralyse any of its delegated powers. This we never intended-and we all thought we had made a Constitution and established a Government which would forever prevent a State from again overruling the United States in any of their acts held to be Constitutional by the Authorities provided by their Constitution for that purpose. This is the vital principle of the Federal Constitution-without it your Union would have no power to preserve its own existence-with it, that Union-the wisest, best cemented, and most hopeful the world ever saw-may last as long as the memory of

and of the Statesmen who, by adopting its magna charta, did their best to establish your liberties on the Rock of Ages. My valedictory address contains my opinions as to the nature and value of your political Union. I re-endorse it.

It was my fortune to be an actor in fra- Representing the people and responsible to ming and adopting the Federal Constitution- them, like the State Governments, there is called a Constitution, because it was made not as much danger of usurpation by the Genby the freemen of the United States as their eral as by a State Government-because the fundamental law, for "consolidating" their former is not so near the affections and felt inUnion, and overruling all opposition, from in- terests of its constituency, and is subject to dividuals or States, to their aggregate power more checks. The tendency of your political and will-and called also Federal, because the system is centrifugal, rather than centripetal. people, in their federal capacity made it, and There is no danger of too much centralization, because, in the same capacity they were still unless it should arise from a corrupt abuse of permitted to act as subordinate sovereignties Executive patronage-it will never result from over their own local concerns. The great ob- Legislative or Judicial encroachment on State ject was to substitute a presiding Government rights. But should it ever approach, resort to over the people of all the States in lieu of a no other than peaceful and constitutional remconfederation of sovereign States, and to endow edies, unless you shall be well satisfied that that Government with all power necessary for revolution will be better for you and the maintaining, against all opposition, its own cause of liberty, than submission. You have authority. Thus universally understood, I never hitherto had cause for that last resort of approved and signed it as President of the oppressed man-and there is but little ground Federal Convention, and, with the same under- for apprehending that you ever will have suffistanding, it was ratified by the people of the cient cause for breaking up a Union which you States. Such an absurdity as a concurrent could never again re-establish on as good sovereignty in the States was not then thought foundations. Its destruction would be an

act of madness. The map of North America -with its rivers, its lakes, its mountains, its seas, its climates, and its soils-points to Union. Its population-of common origin, common language, common faith, common history, common name, and common gloryinvites to Union; the blessings it has conferred, and the history of all confederations demonstrate the value of the principle of your Union; and the memories of the past, the enjoyments of the present, and the hopes of the future, consecrate that Union as cemented with the blood and constructed by the wisdom of your revolutionary fathers. Under its auspices you have grown and prospered beyond exampleyour will rules from the Northern Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean-every citizen is a sovereign in his sphere, and every freeman is as free and secure as he could be under any good government-your progress and improvement are the wonder of the age, and you are already the light of the civilized world. Be grateful for those unequalled blessings, and cling to your Union as the ark of their and your safety. Let him who is not content with it remember the illustrative fable of the members of the human body, complaining of the stomach as monopolizing and rapacious, and on that delusive egotism, proposing to destroy the source of their nourishment and health.

Forcible resistance to the authorities of the Constitution is not a political right-successful resistance by force would therefore be revolution—and unless the result should be an aggregate blessing, it would be treason to your Constitution-treason to the genius of liberty -treason to the memory of your predecessors -treason to the hopes of your posterity, and treason to all mankind.

the innocent-love your country and your kind-and steadfastly maintain your blessed Union and all its vital powers and functionsand then the close of this century will exhibit to the admiration of good men and angels, and to the terror of bad men and demons, one hundred millions of freemen, of the Caucasian race, on the continent of North America, far ahead of all other people in privileges and enjoyments, and blessed with institutions more rational, laws more just, and a country more beautiful than any on which the sun will then shine-then "American" will be the most honored of national names-Liberty the most cherished of earthly possessions—and all things may be ready for the dawn of millennial light and peace; and then, too-though last, not least-American principles and the English language Americanised will be understood and admired, if not adopted, wherever christianity has a temple, science a monument, or Liberty an altar on the footstool of God."

Fellow-citizens of the United States, if we of this generation will follow these counsels, this patriotic vision will become historic truth. But, if we discard the principles or neglect the precepts of the tutelar genius of our country, we must expect that the doom of all fallen republics will, at no distant day, become our unhappy destiny. Shall this doleful tale ever be told of the countrymen of Washington, of Franklin, of Hamilton, of Jefferson, of Madison, of John Marshall, of Webster, of Clay? Shall they, by their apostacy from the faith of their fathers, verify the predictions of the foes of self-government, and, by their degeneracy and recreance, blast the best, and perhaps the last, hope of the friends of equal right? Shall they, unmindful of their own Whoever shall attempt such manifold and sac- dignity and of the history of ages past, yield riligious treason, would deserve eternal infamy. themselves up to selfish demagogues-surrenBut go on as hitherto, and there will be no der the glorious name of American-cast lots danger. Cherish your own boundless resour- for the vestments of Washington-crueify his ces of matter and mind. Improve your name, and scatter his ashes to the senseless country-encourage fraternity and intelli-winds? Forbid it reason-forbid it libertygence by arteries of circulation throughout forbid it our household gods-forbid it heaven. your land-educate all your children-cultivate their bodies, their minds, and their morals-indoctrinate them in the benign principles of a rational and charitable christianity -acquaint them early with the true principles and history of your institutions-attend to your own concerns-abstain from officious interference with those of other nations-elect Then let us live in the trust that the all-wise your best and ablest men to all places of Creator of our race-who guided the pilgrim public trust-never become parasites or place-band from the old to the new world, and has, men, or sycophants of rich men-countenance virtue, and frown on vice, in whatever habiliments they may be clad-uphold the law as the shield of the weak and the sanctuary of

No-this must not, cannot be our ignoble fate. The age, with its cheering tokens, points to a far nobler future. Under a benignant Providence, we have cause to hope, that our course will continue onward and upward until man shall reach his ultimate state of sublunary dignity.

thus far, signalized their adopted country with peculiar blessings-will still guide us in the pathway of duty and bless the great mission of liberty and light to this Land of Promise

PRELECTION,

The following judicial opinion on important Constitutional questions; and the following Briefs in the Supreme Court of the United States, and petition for a re-hearing in the Appellate Court of Kentucky, contain matter deemed useful and rather peculiar; and are therefore herein re-published for more general circulation.

,M. W. DICKEY, against The Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington

Turnpike Road Company.

[Messrs. Robinson and Johnson for appellant: Mr. Owsley for appellee.]

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF MASON COUNTY.

Chief Justice Robertson Delivered the Opinion of the Court.

THE only question presented for consideration in this case, is whether Milus W. Dickey, as the contractor for carrying the United States' Mail from Maysville to Lexington, in this State, has the right, in execution of his engagement, to transport the mail in stage coaches on the turnpike road between those termini, without paying, to the use of the Turnpike Company, the rate of tollage exacted by it, under the authority of its charter, from other persons for the transit of their horses and carriages.

Having been constructed by an association of individuals incorporated into a private body politic by an act of the Kentucky Legislature, which gave the corporation the right to charge tolls according to a prescribed scale, in consideration of the appropriation of its own funds to the construction of the road for the public benefit-the turnpike road from Maysville to Lexington should be deemed private property, so far as the value of the franchise and the right to preseve it, as conferred by the charter in the nature of a contract, may be concerned. All national power should belong exclusive- And therefore, the public-whether it be Kenly to the general or national government. tucky or the United States-can have no conAnd, as nothing can be more national than stitutional right to use the road without conthe regular and certain diffusion of intelligence tributing, to its reparation and preservation, among the people of the United States through either a just compensation for the use, or the the medium of the public mail, therefore, the rate of tollage prescribed by the corporation power to establish post offices and post under the sanction of its charter. By authorroads" is expressly delegated by the federal izing the company to exact a fixed compensaconstitution to the Congress of the United for the use of the road, the charter interfered States; and that power being necessarily ex-with or impaired the power to carry the mail clusive, plenary, and supreme, no State can wherever Congress should elect to carry it, no constitutionally do, or authorise to be done, more nor otherwise than it obstructed or imany act which may frustrate, counteract, or paired the right of every freeman to travel on impair, the proper and effectual exercise of it any public way he might choose thus to use. by national authority. From these axiomatic Had Congress designated this road as the truths it follows, as a plain corollary, that the mail route from Maysville to Lexington, the general government has the unquestionable right to use it as such would have been subject right to transport the national mail whenever to the condition of paying either a just comand wherever the National Congress, in the pensation, or the toll which every citizen is constitutional exercise of its delegated powers required to pay; for the road would still have shall have prescribed. But full, and exclu-been the property of the corporation, and the sive, and sovereign, as this power must be burthen of repairing it, when dilapidated by admitted to be, it is not unlimited. It cannot the horses and coaches of the mail contractor, appropriate private property to public use would have devolved on the stockholders. without either the consent of the owner, or the payment of a just compensation for the property or for the use of it. If the general government may constitutionally use a private way, or establish a post road through the lands, or a post office in the house of a private person, any person whose property shall be thus taken or used for public benefit, may lawfully demand a just compensation for the property, or for the use of it; the federal constitntion expressly secures it to him by interdicting the appropriation of private property to public use, without the owner's consent, or just compensation.

There is no restriction, as to locality, on the the federal power to establish post offices and post roads. But the right to use private properey for a mail route, as for any other national purpose, being qualified by the constitutional condition that a just compensation be made for the use unless the owner shall voluntarily waive it, the power to establish post offices and post roads wherever Congress deem it expedient to establish them, though exclusive and supreme, does not, therefore, imply an authority to take or to use, for that purpose, the land or the house of a citizen, or the railroad or McAdamised road of associated citi

zens, without paying to the owner or owners stockholders, for a valuable consideration, to a just compensation. prescribed tolls, of which the legislature could The turnpike road between Maysville and not deprive them without impairing the obliLexington is the property of the stockholders, gation of a solemn contract, and violating the in the same sense in which the railroad be-plighted faith of Kentucky. There can, we tween Lexington and Frankfort is the property think, be no doubt that the State had a perfect of the Company whose money constructed it. right to make such a contract, and, having The only difference is, that the railroad com-made it, is certainly under a clear moral and pany is not required by its charter to permit political obligation to observe it scrupulously any person to use its road otherwise than for and in good faith. transportation in its own vehicles, and the But, if the Lexington and Maysville turncharter of the turnpike company requires it to pike should be deemed in all respects a State permit all persons, who may desire to use its road, and if the power to establish post roads road for transportation or travel, to do so, in should be understood as giving to Congress their own way-on foot, on their own horses, or authority to designate and use, as a post road, with their own carriages-by paying a pre-any highway in a State, without the consent of scribed toll. And can it be doubted that the the State, nevertheless, such a power could United States would have no constitutional not be understood as implying a right to use right to use, as a mail route, the railroad be-State roads upon any terms, or in any manner tween Lexington and Frankfort, without the the general government may choose to preconsent of its owners, or without paying them scribe, or on better terms than those on which for the use a reasonable compensation? He the people of the States themselves are permitwho doubts on that subject, would be chargea-ted to use them in a similar manner. It cerble with palpable inconsistency, unless he tainly does not impose on any State the duty should also doubt whether his own house might either moral or political, of making or of renot be taken and used as a post office without pairing roads for post roads, but leaves them his consent and without any compensation; for in the full possession of all the discretion they the power to establish post offices and the power would otherwise have had to make such to establish post roads are commensurable, State roads, and to keep them in such repair and the one is as sovereign and unlimited as as their own convenience and judgment alone the other, and not in any sense or in any may suggest. The people of the several degree, more so. States are under no constitutional obligation Can the carrier of the United States mail to make or repair roads for the use of the genhave a right, either legal or moral, to use the eral government; nor can they be required to bridge of a private person, or of an incorpora- apply their own money or labor even to the ted company without paying pontage, or the keeping open of any one of their roads which ferry of a grantee of such franchise without shall have been designated as a post route; paying ferriage? That he would have no such for, though a State highway once legally deright is, in our judgment, indisputable. And signated or established as a post route may the denial of such an unjust and anomalous continue de jure a post road as long as the act pretension is not at all inconsistent with the of Congress by which it was so designated or proper supremacy of the general government, established shall remain unrepealed, yet cerin the exercise of its necessary power to trans-tainly the State will not, therefore, be bound port the mail as cheaply, speedily and certainly to continue it, but may discontinue it as a State as possible, and when and where Congress road; and consequently, if, after any such disshall have prescribed and had authority to continuance of any such State road, the genprescribe. The power delegated to the general government choose still to use it as a eral government over the mail cannot be post road, Congress must keep it open and in greater than that which each State once pos- suitable condition, by the application of nasessed within its own borders; and had the tional means. The people of a single State people of the States never delegated any such are not exclusively interested in the transporpower to Congress, the State of Kentucky, in tation of the national mails within and through all the plenitude of her power, upon that hy- their own Commonwealth; the people of all pothesis, would surely have no right to use the States are benefitted by the proper and efthe Lexington and Maysville turnpike as a fectual transportation of intelligence through post road without paying a just equivalent to each State. And hence the interest being thus the company; for the constitution of Kentucky, common, and the power therefore national, the like that of the United States, provides that burthen, and the responsibility also, should be, private property shall not be taken for public and undoubtedly are, equally national, in use without "just compensation" to the owner, each and every State. The right to judge, or without his consent; and moreover, no and the responsibility of judging, as to what State can, consistently with the federal con-roads and kind of roads the United States shall stitution, pass any legislative act impairing have for post roads, having been devolved on the obligation of a contract; and not only is Congress, a State can neither exercise any turnpike stock private property, but the charter controlling authority in that respect, nor be of the company is a contract, entitling the held responsible for any deficiency in any of