(2) Congress and the Executive naturally entertain great respect for the constitutional decisions of the Supreme Court. These decisions not only indicate what legislation the Court will enforce, but they are also the opinions of men in independent position who are devoted to the study of such questions.

(3) The public has great reverence for the Court. Should Congress or the President come into collision with it, the public confidence would commonly go with the Court.

Accordingly, the decisions of the Supreme Court have a farreaching significance. At the same time, it cannot always enforce its decrees. Its executive arm is the marshal, and if this officer is not able to give them effect he must call upon the President for aid. And if the Executive fails in such a case, the Court is powerless. Nor have the Judges any power to enforce their decrees against the Executive. Thus, in 1861, Chief Justice Taney issued a writ of habeas corpus in the interest of a military prisoner at Baltimore; but President Lincoln refused to enforce the writ, and it fell powerless to the ground. States have also refused to obey the decisions of the Court.

554. THE NATIONAL JUDICIARY.-No department of the government has more fully met the expectations of its authors than the Judiciary. No department has commanded more confidence at home or more applause abroad. Its influence on the political and legal development of the country has been very great. To quote Professor Johnston: "Unquestionably the most important creation of the Constitution was the Federal Judiciary. It will be seen that the only guaranty for the observance of the Articles of Confederation was the naked promise of the States. This had been found utterly worthless. The creation of a system of United States Courts, extending throughout the States, and empowered to define the boundaries of Federal authority, and to enforce its decisions by Federal power, supplied the element needed to bring order out of chaos. Without it the Constitution might easily have proved a more disheartening and complete failure than the Articles of Confederation."1

1 American Politics, 11, 12.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF STATES.

ARTICLE IV.

Section 1.-Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

555. PUBLIC ACTS, ETC.-The public acts refered to are acts of legislatures; the records, the records of wills, deeds, and legislative journals; the judicial proceedings, the orders and judgments of courts. For a State to give full faith and credit to the acts and records of another State, is to give to them the same credit that the State to which they belong gives them. This provision is obviously essential to the domestic peace and order of a federal union like the United States. Even the Articles of Confederation contained the same provision in somewhat different words.

Section 2, Clause 1.-The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.

556. PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES.-Whatever privileges and immunities any State accords to its own citizens, it must accord to the citizens of all the States who may happen to reside in it or visit it. A citizen of one State going into another cannot claim the privileges and immunities that he has enjoyed, unless they are also accorded by the State into which he goes to its own citizens. Inability to read is a bar to voting in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and no illiterate citizen moving into either of them from Rhode Island or Vermont can

claim the right to vote because he has hitherto enjoyed that right. Still, civil and political rights are nearly the same in all the States. This provision also is found in the Articles of Confederation, and is obviously necessary in a federal republic.

557. A CITIZEN DEFINED.-Previous to 1868 neither the National Constitution nor laws contained a definition of a citizen. The States made their own definitions, and there was more or less contrariety. Slaves were never citizens in any State; and Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott decision, denied that free negroes were ever citizens "in the sense of the Constitution." The fact is, however, that they were citizens, and even voted on the same terms as white citizens, in several of the States when the Constitution was framed and for some time afterwards. The Fourteenth Amendment contains this definition of citizenship: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside." A citizen of the United States is not, however, necessarily a citizen of any State; he may reside in a Territory or in the District of Columbia.

Section 2, Clause 2.--A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.

558. FUGITIVES FROM JUSTICE.-The National authority embraces all the States, and it can, by its own officers, arrest offenders against its laws anywhere within the National boundaries. State.

The treason of this clause is therefore treason against a A felony is a crime punishable by death or imprisonThe jurisdiction of a State is limited by its own boundaries; a State can punish only offenses committed against its

ment.

own laws; criminals often escape from one State into another; while the United States, save in cases of domestic violence, has nothing to do with enforcing State laws: hence there must be such a provision as this, if criminals are to be punished and society protected. It is copied from the Articles of Confederacy almost word for word.

The surrender by one nation to another claiming him of a person charged with crime, is known as extradition. It is not a right under the Law of Nations, but is commonly provided for between nations by treaty stipulations. The surrender of a criminal by one State to another is also called extradition.

559. THE METHOD of SurrendeRING FUGITIVES FROM JUSTICE.-The Constitution says the demand for such a fugitive shall be made by the Executive of the State from which he escapes, but does not say who shall make the surrender. There was some friction at this point until, in 1793, Congress legislated on the subject.

The procedure now is for the governor making a requisition for a criminal to address it to the governor of the State to which the criminal has fled, distinctly stating the crime charged. The fugitive may be arrested and held in custody before the requisition is received, or made; but if not, then it becomes the duty of the governor receiving it to order his immediate arrest, and his delivery to the agent of the governor from whom the demand comes. The fugitive is then taken for trial back to the State from which he has fled. The governor on whom such a demand is made has no right to go behind it to inquire into the merits of the case, but must obey the call. It makes no difference if the offense charged be not a crime in the State where the criminal is found. This rule, however, has not always been followed; on the other hand, there have been recent departures from it.

Section 2, Clause 3.-No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service of labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

560. FUGITIVES FROM SERVICE.-The States authorizing slavery in 1787 could provide for the capture and surrender of all fugitive slaves belonging to their citizens found within their own borders, but not for those fleeing beyond them. Hence the introduction of this clause into the Constitution, as a part of the third compromise. It applies as much to apprentices, or persons bound to service for a number of years, as to slaves, but it was inserted in the interest of slave-holders.

561. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS.-The clause in relation to fugitives from service is much vaguer and more general than that in relation to fugitives from justice. It does not say how or by whom captures and surrenders shall be made. In 1793 Congress enacted a law for carrying the clause into effect. In 1850 it passed an act, known as the Fugitive Slave Law, which was more rigorous and efficient than that of 1793. This law was one of the immediate causes that lead to the election of President Lincoln, to the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Congress repealed the law of 1850, and the slave sections of the law of 1793, in 1864.