Stephen M. White: Californian, Citizen, Lawyer, Senator. His Life and His Work. A Character Sketch, by Leroy E. Mosher. Together with His Principal Public Addresses, Compiled by Robert Woodland Gates, Volume 1

Front Cover

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 233 - We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended. But we think the sound construction of the Constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion, with respect to the means by which the powers it confers are to be carried into execution, which will enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it, in I the manner most beneficial to the people.
Page 40 - ... or by such safeguards of legislation as will insure the maintenance of the parity in value of the coins of the two metals, and the equal power of every dollar at all times, in the markets and in the payment of debts.
Page 233 - The subject to be regulated is commerce; and our Constitution being, as was aptly said at the bar, one of enumeration, and not of definition, to ascertain the extent of the power, it becomes necessary to settle the meaning of the word.
Page 233 - If, as has always been understood, the sovereignty of Congress, though limited to specified objects, is plenary as to those objects, the power over commerce with foreign nations and among the several States is vested in Congress as absolutely as it would be in a single government having in its constitution the same restrictions on the exercise of the power as are found in the Constitution of the United States.
Page 40 - We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sherman act of 1890 as a cowardly make-shift, fraught with possibilities of danger in the future which should make all of Its supporters, as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal.
Page 262 - Whether the president in fulfilling his duties, as commander-in-chief, in suppressing an insurrection, has met with such armed hostile resistance, and a civil war of such alarming proportions as will compel him to accord to them the character of belligerents, is a question to be decided by him, and this court must be governed by the decision and acts of the political department of the government to which this power was entrusted. 'He must determine what degree of force the crisis demands.
Page 324 - Provided, That contracts may be entered into by the Secretary of War for such materials and work as may be necessary to complete...
Page 274 - But the contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to a war in the sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a de facto political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a recognition of belligerency.
Page 40 - We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver, without discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage; but the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value...
Page 234 - That the United States form, for many, and for most important purposes, a single nation, has not yet been denied. In war, we are one people. In making peace, we are one people. In all commercial regulations, we are one and the same people.

Bibliographic information