Show I A CONSTITUTION DEFENDER Editor Tribune Under tho heading Qf An ExposlUon Most Sound you lodi lo-di qJoto with arted approval tie utterances terances of tho editor ot the Brooklyn Eagle Mr Sl Clair McKclway a those of a mastertul thinker and writer Sonic portions of what you quote wo might all agrco with but other portions are not so clearly right Ho says tho Republic Is a Nation As a Nation It made the Constitution 1 Consti-tution and tho Consltutlon did not muko IL I derives from the Constitution no right and duty of aoverelRiUv Its sovereignty Is In Itselt not in tho Constitution Its sovereignty preceded tho Constitution and may survive It Always Al-ways Its Constitution must be construed with reference to Its sovereignty and never can Its sovereignty bo arrested or Impaired by Its Constitution In Its dealings with nations making aggressions upon It or with th6so la resistance to its sever cljjn authority TliV author Of the foregoing rcatfoulng by analogy would no doubt say that 1C members of a convention or of a Legisla ture orof a Congress found In the coun of their procedure tho rules adopted nt Iho beginning of their session proven ted their iliriiiK something they thought they sought to do or wanted to do they would be justified In doing the thing notwithstanding notwith-standing tho dolni as they were thero first and were bigger than tho rules and in fuel nvide them I they did that without first changing arv the rules would It not bo unparliament By lie awe token ito would claim that If I tho people or a authorities a 1 City or of n State found tho ordinances C1Lt the city or laws of tho SLate In the Way of their doing something they t thought thry ought to do or wanted to do they would be Justified in doing that thing notwithstanding notwith-standing tho ordinances or Kiwtt I they did that without lirst changing Ito ordinances or laws would not that bo rcvoUUOiilry I In commenting on what tho masterful thinker and writer ntvz I yon ay no lurtUco of llin supreme court from Chief Justice Marshall Chltt JU3tCC halFrown no Senator or PteBldint 0 iho < iJiilt < d States ever said more or said It mOre to tho point In the Famo number of word titan will bo seen lmn wi fccn in tho above That may bo true hut could ho not have sid the limo thing In effect and hnvo said It In fewer words if ho had said simply IlIQ Constitution does not Justify the thing the Constitution 11t l ddt CHAS DLDWJN Salt Lnlm July IS loo When we put out that extract we thought that probably friend Baldwin would give It a hasty reading fly at once to the conclusion that pulp was being made of the constitution and that he would want to burn the pulp mill The law of selfdefense and sclfproservatlon Is inherent and that is I all that Is anirmcd in the extract to which Mr Baldwin takes exceptions He will hardly dispute that t the law applies ap-plies ns well to natlpns as to individuals Individ-uals There arc laws against homicide and murder but they are subject to that unwritten law which Justifies I man In killing another man In defence I of his own life What Mr McKelway says is that the sovereignty Ofthe Nation Na-tion is superior to ahy clause which the men of tIle Nation can frame and that no clause can stand In the way of that sovereignty when Its authority Ii being be-ing assailed by oilier nations That seems to us like good reasoning The ground was repeatedly fought over during dur-ing the Civil war The position taken generally by l loss of men In the I North was that tie rebellion the nt I tchlpT 16 destroy the Republic might j be ever HO wicked on the part of the men of the South but that It would be entirely unconstitutional to try to arrest 1 I ar-rest and turn bock tho attempt But the n was fought out on tho assumption r assump-tion that the Nation hiacljt Ight to I make a tightfoiH s ownuH5eg < 8 Jackson gave expression to the ttamc Irlna in his mosKage to tho moil of South Carolina some years before that To make any other construction Is to say that u Government can make a rule which Is so much stronger than tho Government itself that it takes from It tho power to defend Itself agalnat assassination as-sassination |