John Rice Carter: “let us point out that when our founders as States decided they wanted to write a document that they were going to submit…”

“let us point out that when our founders as States decided they wanted to write a document that they were going to submit to govern our Nation by, the Constitution of the United States, they chose to sit in Congress as a group of diverse opinions representing their various States to come up with this document. They did not ask a battery of judges to come in here and do that. They asked people that represented their States to come in and represent the interests, and they debated, as we debate here in Congress, the laws we designed, and the intent is clear, that they wanted a Congress to make the laws of this United States. They, in Marbury v. Madison, set the precedent that said the Courts may interpret the laws that are made, to see if they comply with the Constitution of the United States, which is the sovereignty of our Nation. Of course, our true sovereignty is in God; and it is clear as the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) points out, we stated the sovereignty that we look to in the Declaration of Independence, where we get our rights from. And they are not given to us by our government, they come from the divine authority of God. But they went forward on that and they established the Congress to make the laws. And I agree 100 percent that is the intent of our founders, and that is the way it is supposed to be. That is the right and proper place.…”