xt7wwp9t2q46_56 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/59m61.dao.xml American Liberty League 37 linear feet archival material English University of Kentucky This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed.  Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically.  Physical rights are retained by the owning repository.  Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws.  For information about permissions to reproduce or publish, contact the Special Collections Research Center. Jouett Shouse Collection (American Liberty League Pamphlets), No. 59 "The Spirit of Americanism" Address by William H. Ellis, Justice Supreme Court of Florida Before The Civitan Club, Jacksonville, Florida on Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 1935 text No. 59 "The Spirit of Americanism" Address by William H. Ellis, Justice Supreme Court of Florida Before The Civitan Club, Jacksonville, Florida on Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 1935 2013 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7wwp9t2q46/data/59m61/59m61_59/Am_Lib_Leag_59_001/Am_Lib_Leag_59_001.pdf section false xt7wwp9t2q46_56 xt7wwp9t2q46 arrest.” We are regarded as the most lawless
people in the world. It is said that Oswald *
Spengler, a great German historian, referred to *
us as a "lawless band of migratory criminals.” e
Jud e Taft said, man ears a o, that the “ad- • •
minfstration of the crirnlinal laigvs in the United   Splrlt
States was a disgrace to civilization.”
The ambition of politicians with their rum-  
bling laughter and affected smiles, the usurpa- e
tions of olitical powers, and exercise of unlaw- • •
ful authbrity and steadily increasing invasion  
upon the powers of the sovereign states make
fertile soil in which the seeds of suspicion, dis-
trust, social unrest, resentment and crime * * *
quickly germinate.
It is time that we, through our civic organi-
zations, local clubs, fraternal societies, school Addmss by
organizations and churches, should awaken the WILLIAM H. ELLIS
sp1r1t of the old South that General Lee wanted _ _
to preserve and hand on to coming generations- Jusucc Supreme Court of Flomda
the spirit that will urge us to protest in an in- Before
tellectual and parliamentary way against fur-
ther encroachments of the federal power upon The Civitau Club
the right of the sovereign states and their peo- J8GkS011Vill€, Fl0l‘id8
ple. If our Constitution in its present form is
inadequate to serve the ends of government, then Cenfederate Memorial Day
let it be changed by amendment or the adop- 1935
tion of a new one, but, in Heaven’s name, not ·
by usurpation.
Lincoln said: “It is my duty and my oath
to maintain inviolate the right of the states to
order and control under the Constitution their JE VC4
own affairs by their own judgment 6XCl11SiV€lY·” Y   4*
Washington said: “If, in the opinion of the •;   us
` people, the distribution of the constitutional  ep"  C?
powers be in any particular wrong, let it be ry Le
corrected in the way which the Constitution
designates. But let there be no change by usur-
pation, for this, though it may in one instance
be the instrument of good, is the ordinary
;::}p;1£”by which free governments are de- AMERICAN LIBERTY LEAGUE
If we love our Government and our country, National Headquarters
let us follow the commandments of our Con- NATIONAL PRESS BUILDING
_ _ 5*% WASHINGTON, D. C.
st1tut1on. A
Document No. 59w

 The Splrlt or Amerlcanleln The means the southern people adopted to
‘ * secure that end consisted of withdrawing from
I THANK you for the invitation to lunch with what they considered to be merely a compact
. . . . . . between the states after notice given of their
You today and Jem Yee m thet Spun Whlch intention to do so, which they did in general
premplie you te treat thm Occesmn as a Sort of state conventions. In that purpose they were
memorial service 1n honor of those of another Opposed by other Parties to the Constitutional
genereuem whe’ although m a dleerent were Compact, who just as sincerely believed that
with an ueeltereble purpose and unfellmg falth the Federal Government was an indivisible one
Steed for the building of good citizenship and could not be dissolved in that manner.
Their lives were cast in a different political The contention of thc northern people was
mould from that in which ours is cast, but there that the people of all the States were citizens
is no reason to believe that the metemel IS I of the United States and citizenship and alle-
enrrerenh - giance could not be separated. That premise the
They were only Seventyewo Years remevee southern people denied, holding that allegiance
from the beginning of the Federal Government. T was due to no government but-it was due to the
‘ The belief that it was a government of limited paramount authority of the people of the
powers was strong in their minds. They remem- States, which could make or unmakc govern
bered what their own great lawyers and states- ments under our System. AS the people in Each
menv as well as the greet lawyers aud Statesman state in convention assembled acceded to the
of the northern SteteS* had Said about the ehm" union of states, so in convention assembled they
acter of the Federal Government which had could Swede from it when in their  udgmem
been rormeo· The Words or the framers ef the the government established became destructive
Constitutional Compact, as Daniel Webster de- of the ends for which it was Ordained.
scribed it later when referring to it in his speech When the States Whose people thought Othcp
of 1830 on the Foote resolution, were still fresh wisc undertook to coerce the écceding States to
in their mernoriee They knee that as there recede from their position the Civil War re-
are nnenengeahle Priheiplee of rlght eee f“°r‘n' sulted. The issue was decided against the South
i*¤Y» Wnnonr which Soeiety would bs 1mP°e` by the wager of battle. It was compelled to
sible, so they believed that there are funda- yield, as General Lee Said, to overwhelming
mental Prineiples or justice Without ,whieh numbers and resources. The issue of law, how-
all Constitutional government would be an in- v ever, was never decided against the South bv
tolerable and hateful tyranny. v force of argument and mason
THE people of the South of that generation W-E HAVE learned to aCC€P'¢ th€ iSS116 and, 88
were loyal to the principles on which they con- Father RY‘=m Suggested, to furl the ¤0¤<§I¤€1'€d
i ceived the Federal Constitution to have been banner, although W6 b€]i€V6 thati
adopted and their protests against repeated vio- “Its fame on brightest pages,
lations of those principles led them to assert Penned by Poets and by Sages,
the right declared by the Declaration of lnde- Will go sounding down the ages,
pendence to exist in all free peoples, to set up Furl its folds though now we must.”
e new government when the ord heeerne deetrue' T In the Florida Constitution of 1868 we were
tive of the ends for which lt was established required to insert the Clause providing that
and to 1eY the ronndehone or the nsw one on "The Paramount allegiance of every citizen `is
Snen Prinennee as ts them Seemed most hkely due to the Federal Government" as a condition
to effect their safety and happiness. 3 `
2

 of assuming our former status as a state in the olare oooh aggresslons and unlawful expanslons
( Federal Union, which, itself, was an illogical to be void-
requirement imposed by Congress, as, according It maY be profitable to 0hSe1‘Ve that the Sli-
to the theory on which the North waged the Prenle Court has manY tlmes in tts history found
war, the Southern States were never, by their the duty of oPPostng Congress and the EXeeu·
various secession ordinances, out of the Union. tire in their seVeral and eo·oPerattVe aggt-'es· “
The political doctrine of State’s Sovereignty, slons and usurPatlons to be "too Palntul” to de·
now almost completely annihilated by federal elere void-
usurpation of powers, cannot be refuted if it is That Spirit of the South. however, whieh lcd
admitted that the Federal Government is one her to Protest against violations of the Federal
of delegated or enumerated powers only. The Compact and defend her Position by all means
ninth amendment indisputably proves it_ That available during four years of horrible warfare
clause in the Constitution provides that the ‘ and sustained her during a Still longer period
rights enumerated in the Constitution shall not of the eruel tYrannY of the Reeonstruettom
be construed to deny or disparage others retained should not perish hut should find a new eXPres·
by the people. The enumerated rights referred ‘ sion in these new and strange eondlttons·
te in the clause are the rights   the Federal It is €SSCI1lZl.3.]. that it Sl10`I.1ld be SO   WC desire
Government may exercise and no other except t to proteot American lnstltutlons and PreVent
the implied powers which are appropriate and ‘ the dieappeerenee of what is left of the Re-
necessary to the exercise of a power expressly g Puhllo·
given. 1 lt is said that at about the time General Lee
No statesman, jurist er historian, after whom i surrendered, the officers and soldiers of his army
I have read, has ever undertaken to maintain t of Northern Virginia indicated to him that if
the theory that it was the purpose of the people i he would glvo the Word theY would make the
of the sovereign states to set up a Federal Gov- War a dllol to the death; thoY would drag lt
ernment ei unlimited nevveie out in relentless guerrilla struggles and there
should be no pacification of the South until the
POWERS not delegated to the Federal Govern- figtlsttmg classes had been cXt.crm}natCd° .
_ _ athan1el W. Stephenson, 1n h1s book entitled
ment remained 1n the people of the several wrhe Dey ef the Cenfedereeyn, eeid: Although
states respectively undenied and und1sparaged. the heroism ef that prepeeei ef L e e,e men had
If the Federal Government usurped the powers ite enum for SO brave a man as Lee, yet h e
retained by the states» denied or dlsllaraged refused to heed it, because, considering that
them. to whom if not to the people of the states such qualities could be handed on to posterity,
respectively did the allegiance of a citizen of the suieide ef an entire people et Such Spirit
the state go? would have maimed incalculably the America
s If it is contended that in such case allegiance U of the future. It were better that such spirit
was nevertheless due to the usurping Federal * should be kept alive than that it should be
Government, then that government becomes by exterminated.
virtue of its own aggressions and crimes of
usurpation an elective monarchy of unlimited IN WHAT Way een thc America of the Present ,
Powers, unless the SuPreme Court of the United day be maimed in the absence of a protesting
States, as Chief Justice Marshall suggested in and vigilant spirit en the part et the People,
the case of McCulloch v. Maryland (4 Wheat) otherwise than by unlawful aggressions of the `
— might regard it to be its "painful duty” to de- Federal Government and the exploitation of the
4 5

 people in the interests of special groups and the THE Federal Government has proceeded
furtherance of political intrigues? And do not through a period of sixty years in the direction
such activities always result in defeating the of the centralization of power in Washington
purposes for which government is established, and the elimination of rights reserved to the
which are to secure the people in the possession states by express provision of the Constitution.
' of their inalienable rights to liberty, the owner- The powers to coin money, to borrow money
ship and protection of property and the pur- on the credit of the United States and to regu-
suit of happiness? late commerce with foreign nations and among
That spirit of the old South which General the several states and to levy and collect taxes,
Lee was so anxious should be passed on to pos- duties, imports and excises, powers expressly
terity produces the qualities of good citizenship, granted by the Constitution have been by Con-
which are the safeguard of this nation against gressional enactments and judicial interpreta-
the encroachments by the Federal Government ’ tion widened and extended to such dimensions
upon the liberties of the people as citizens of on the argument of increase of population and
the different states. growth of industry and complexity of social re-
Whenever it je apparent that the Executive # lations, until a vast political machine with its
and Congress are encroaching upon the reserved Six hundred and ninety thousand officers and
rights of the states; whenever it appears that an on1Pi0Y€€S with their Va1‘i0uS h08rdS, eenlrnie-
Executive, who may be supported by a wide and sions, departments and bureaus are administer-
overwhelming popularity, seeks to dominate ing the Pnhtio p airaira ef the nation, 0i’d€1'ing
Congress and direct its activities toward the en- the lives ot the PeoPte and ahaliing our political
actnlent Of Hlcasurcs Scculingly required   destiny and CCOI].OIn.iC life,   H0 voter, as
existing emergencies, but for which the powers Mr- John W- Davis Said, has the right to vote
enumerated in the Constitution afford no au- tot more than hve ot that Vast horde of tax
thorny, than the people of this country are eaters, the so-called servants of the people, in
· within the Political Zone of an elective mom fact servants of a political. machine dominated
archy; a government of unlimited powers whose by Whatever may at the ams through Sklllfltl
chart, as Mr. Glenn Frank said, may be merely propaganda be popularly called Publlc Scutb
,4 . . ment or the general welfare.
an entangled web of Alice 1n Wonderland eco- H h b h_ h 1 »
nomics,” and whose sanction will be the unlaw- . {lv? We no C art. Y W lc goverumcntm
i ful promise of a division of wealth in a land actlvlucs may   guided except the thcorlcs j
which some pol1t1c1an may assert to be for the ;
Of pl°mY° general welfare and which by skillful propa· V
Such encroachments Ot p°W°t`¤ Buch an and ganda he succeeds in making popular? ls every
to the great enterprise which was undertaken emergency to be the `alpsumcicm cause and
by the founders of the Federal Government to justification of federal usurpation_of power?
establish a representative democracy of limited In 1862 an emergeney CXiSt€d· p The wal. bc_
powers, may easily he reached through the aid g tween the states was rapidly weakening both E
of a complaisant Supreme Court composed of sides to the controversy in man-power and
nine lawyers, who under the so-called general wealth. Trade was practically suspended and
welfare clause of the Constitution may build gold and silver coin was scarce. In that situa-
whatever arguments and apply whatever theo-, tion Cvusress PaSS€d the Legal Tender Acts. ’
ries that will be necessary to impart a semblance TreaanrY notes in the Sum of 0ne hundred and
of legality to usurpations of power that even htty miiiiou dohara aggregate face value were r
Hamilton would have Hcd from- issued. They were made by Congressional Hat "

 legal tender for the discharge of all debts pay- Union, but a strong believer in its limited pow-
able in dollars upon contracts made before or ers, thought every one was evil who did not
after thc passage of the act. The validity of believe in the “Union and hard money.”
that act was challenged in the case of Hepburn Whatever may be said for the economic neces-
v. Griswold, 8 Wallace. sity of legal tender treasury notes, which were
The Supreme Court of the United States then merely the government’s promise to pay, it does
consisted of eight Justices, one of whom was not justify an usurped power and a complaisant
Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice. By a majority court.
of five to three the act was declared to be in From that date to the presentday the history
violation of the Constitution and not within . of the Federal Government has been marked
the power of the Federal Congress to enact. by expanding powers and encroachments upon
By an act of Congress the membership of the the powers of the states reserved to them by
Supreme Court was increased to nine. Mr. Jus-   the Constitution. It would make this paper
tice Grier, one of the majority of five, resigned.   much too long to give even a summary of the
President Grant appointed Mr. William Strong l numerous federal invasions of state powers rest-
of Pennsylvania and Mr, J, P, Bradley of New ing upon a sophistical latitudinarian construe- _
Jersey to {ill the vacancies. Two cases, Knox v. tion of the Constitution and supported by com-
Lee and Parker v. Davis, involving the question plaisant judicial authority.
of the legality of the legal tender acts, were v Mr. Franklin Pierce, in his book entitled
pending before the Supreme Court. On motion “Federal Usurpation," written twenty-five years
they were taken up for consideration. The ago, gives a full account of Executive, Legisla-
Court, by a majority of {ive to four, overruled tive and Administrative aggressions and usurpa-
the decision in the Hepburn.Griswold case, 20 tions to that date. It is impossible to read the
L. Ed., and held the legal tender acts to be arraignment of the Federal Government upon
valid. Mr. Justice Strong wrote the opinion, that charge, and the evidence adduced by him
and Mr. Justice Bradley wrote a concurring to support it, and believe that the Federal Gov-
opinion. Chief Justice Chase dissented and ernment is functioning within the scope of its
Justices Clifford and Field each wrote dis. delegated powers. The new doctrine that the V
senting opinions agreeing with the views of the P0W€1‘S of Congress arise from the powers “not
Chief Justice. expressly withheld from Congress by the Con-
That act and the latter deeision enabled e stitution,” an expression occurring in the case
debtor to discharge his contract obligations to of Juilliard V- Gi’€€iimati» 28 L- El¤d<·=S his miclo
1927, proved indisputably that the common de- who the etetememi wrhue we ooo in our ooo"
fense and general welfare contemplated was not elosroo that ther? IS fo general welfare eleuee
that of the people of the United States but of e m ithe Conetrtutiore i Mr. Alexalideri Ham1l-
the Geveremeet ef the United Steteei _ tons effort to put lt in the Consutution es a l
There een be ee eeeum ti H id M i St. separate and substant1al power was six times t
P 0 ° Sa r defeated in the Constitutional Convention.
George Tucker that C°“gr°“ has the P°“"”’r to Alon list of me names of `urists statesmen
determine what is the common defense and end uigieiete ie ive . J t {St G
what is the general welfare. He said the con- T P , . g H m Suppor 0 . ° amiga
_ _ uckers v1ew, among them are Ch1ef .lust1ce
tenuonithat Congress may determine that any Marshall, M L Juetiee Brewer, Judge Miller,
0b·lect_ IS for the general woifare and theo ep' e Judge Cooley, John C. Calhoun, Thomas Jeffer-
U proprlete rex money whlch It IS authorized to son, Spencer Roan and Presidents Cleveland
levy for that purpose is to hold that there is and Coolidge
S “rmrreo in Congress two great PoWerS¤ danger" e To command politicians to do away with the
ouc booauso unlimited, tho cnc to Sclcct tho unlawful exercise of power in order to save the
objects of its favor, and the other the power government is to command them to give up that
to appropriate money from the treasury for such which to them makes government worth sav-
objects. The unlimited power to tax and the ing, said one writer. But Hallam, the historian,
12 13 H

 of her “Kultur” and the destructive influence
said: “The durability of liberty owes its greatest upon the happiness of the w(n·]d_
security to constant suspicion by the people,”
cc I I O
Th t 1 d th 1 - . .
aild crc IS (icy am Y ilfgcr m . CSC ds Cga   HEN w1ll the “worsh1p of Mammon” cease
t1ons of preem1nent trust, and S1r Charles J. . . . . . .
. . 6, .· to be the mot1vat1ng spirit of man 1n his pur- i
Napier sa1d: As to Government, all discontent Suit of ha mess.? In the brief histor of our
springs from unjust treatment. The only agi- PP ` . .y .
t t , _ _ t, ,, J h F, k _d Golf th own country we passed from the 1ns1gn1ficant
a or IS mlus mc` , · 0 n 15 6 Sal ` B condition of struggling, jealous, weak and unin-
day should ever arr1ve when the people of the . . .
. ‘ , fluent1al states, 1n a faulty and meffectual con-
d1fferent parts of our country shall allow their · . . . . .
_ _ _ federation, to a federal organization wh1ch b1d
local affairs to be adm1n1stered by prefects from . 6,
_ fair to set an example of a government of ex-
W`ash1ngton and when the self-governments of . . ,,
alted ]`l1St1CC and benevolence. Then came
the states shall have been so far lost as that of . . .
s expand1ng powers and usurpations of author1ty
the department of France, on that day the po- and 1. . 1 b. . 1. . . W h
_ _ _ _ po 1t1C3 am 1t1ons centra 1z1ng 1n as -
l1t1cal career of the Amer1ca11 people w1ll have . . . .
_ _ _ mgton. We experienced occas1onal per1ods of
been robbed of 1ts most 1nterest1ng and valuable . .
_ _ _ , prosperity for a short wh1le and became a world
‘ features and the usefulness of th1s NRIIOH will · . . b 1. d . H
b lamemabl im aired ,7 power exercising as we e ICVC a great 1n uence
C _ Y P _ ' _ _ _ _ for the democratization of the world.
Nearly, 1f not qu1te, all 1nternec1ne pol1t1cal 0 . . .
_ _ _ _ ur joy was short l1VCd, as the l1ves of govern-
disturbances have arisen from the amb1t1on of ments are reckoned For five years WC have
political leaders, usurpation of power, exercise V 1 . . .
_ _ _ _ strugg ed 1n an economic depress1on more fear-
Of ‘{“l‘°‘Y“’f“l authimtlg mfanablyl H; fflliiolz of ful in its toll of destruction of wealth, social un-
Sl)€C1a_ mt€mStS’   B P"’°P B usua y u C new rest, human distress and criminal activities than
a fschng °f Sccumy by “ tsmpsmry Pmspcnly we thought it was possible for the American
unt1l the government subst1tut1ng 1ts own m1s- people to Sugar
Fkcnh peteglulgstli thyioylys Off geltwral wtilfarc The progress that crime had made is a repul-
Or t C m {V1 ua _ actyltms 0 t C pcop °’ as i sive blot upon our record. The information
ds Tocqusilss Studi Tlggiy sm muses *0 a given ooo by the uoisosi States Flag Association
sense of their own m1sery, or utter dependence is enough to Put us to Shame The cost of
upgill thc pIIl)11C pOl1C1€s 0f(;•h0$€blu power-   crime, upwards of thirty l)illl0I1S of d0l1&I`S‘P€I`
FP Come (-iconomm lstur anccS’ ufllesli p year, is nearly, if not quite, ten times more than
susp1c1on and cr1me—such has been the history ~ it costs the people to maintain their public
of Demons' lt was uiuc m Roman h1st°ry’ m ‘ school systems. Mr. Courtney Ryley Cooper, in
Enjliil h1St°ry' Thi usmlpatmns °f Kmg ‘l°hn p his book recently published entitled “Ten Thou-
an IS Supporters sd to th°_ pmtcst _°f thc L sand Public Enemies,” said crime costs every
Barons, who were ready for an 1nsurrect1on but   mam Woman and child in thc United States
. i v ·
secured Magna Carta; lt caused the downfall   $120 00 a year in high insurance Premiums
I I V 9
if Charles I_ en; thchaliscudancyil °f (~iT°Igw°H‘   extra costs brought about by racketeering, high
f JMS tru? m mnc {Story W an t 8 Own' taxes for the army necessary to combat the mil-
a of Lolus XVI and Isls queen °°°uH`°f1 and lions of law breakers, monetary losses from rob-
thc elevation 0f Robesplcrrm and thc r€1gn_ (lf _ beries, larceny, embezzlement, assaults, bur-
terror followed. It was the cause of the C1V1l g]a1,iCS’ murders and kidnapings _1
1 War in America; tl1C loss of Cuba 811d thi? Phil- I Hg Said that “gu1; df gvgry fgrty-{wg Persons _
lPPl¤es to SPelll9 the llowlllell ol ths German   in the United States one is either a convict, an
EmPl1`e ss her dream of Grosse? Deutschland [ ex·convict or possessed of a police record of
und Mittel Europa became the basic principle § · _ 15
14 Q