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 it infers—and logically—that the jurisdiction of government comprehends not only the domestic, commutual and proprietary relations of the social elements, but their unrelated acts, conduct, habits, pleasures and indulgences. It is the doctrine which the malignant charlatan Phillips delivers in lecture halls to applauding audiences, and the vulgar ruffian Kearney roars in the sandlots to auditors equally enthusiastic; and it is the doctrine which tramps and vagabonds, in their own characteristic way, carry into effect when they enter houses and demand entertainment, destroy the labor-saving implements of the agriculturalist, cast railway trains from their tracks to rob the passengers, and burn the depots and rolling-stock of railway companies. It is a reflection of the spirit of the weak, the exhausted, the morbid and the depreciated, bent to make it the law that there shall be none braver, stronger, richer or more potent than themselves. It is the faith of the leveler, who clamors for uniformity; who would obliterate the difference between the sexes; would compel all the young to be educated according to a common measure and model; would equalize estates by division or by destruction; would war against property honestly acquired and tax the industrious to support the idle; would abolish all the great industrial enterprises on account of the incidental disparities of which they are the occasion, and institute a regimen of hate, envy and anarchy. To this cause the Supreme Court of the United States has, on several occasions, afforded efficient assistance, and in no instance more ill-advisedly than in the ease here considered.

The decision of the court is broader in its consequences, perhaps, than even itself has suspected. It places in the hands of civil governments everywhere, absolute power over the marriage relation.

The relations of society, domestic, commutual and economical, are, all of them, in substance, contracts upon conditions, expressed or implied, and for mutual considerations. If one form or class of such contracts, and the right to enter into them, is within the scope of the written law, so, for a common reason, are they all; for they all have a common purpose: to contribute to the convenience, prosperity and happiness of the people. For the first time in the history of jurisprudence, the Supreme Court of the United States expresses the opinion that, at least in one instance, the relations of society are within the scope of the written law. Says the Chief Justice: