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Is this true as matter of fact?
It is not denied that the States in question have each of them
an actual government, with all the powers--executive, judicial, and
legislative--which properly belong to a free state. They are organized
like the other States of the Union, and, like them, they make,
administer, and execute the laws which concern their domestic affairs.
An existing _de facto_ government, exercising such functions as these,
is itself the law of the state upon all matters within its jurisdiction.
To pronounce the supreme law-making power of an established state
illegal is to say that law itself is unlawful.
The provisions which these governments have made for the preservation
of order, the suppression of crime, and the redress of private injuries
are in substance and principle the same as those which prevail in the
Northern States and in other civilized countries. They certainly have
not succeeded in preventing the commission of all crime, nor has this
been accomplished anywhere in the world.


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