Thus John Marshall's great opinion was influential in securing from Congress the settlement of the claims of numerous innocent investors who had, in good faith, purchased from a band of legislative corruptionists.
Albert Beveridge
The Public Record
Albert Jeremiah Beveridge was an American historian and United States senator from Indiana. He was an intellectual leader of the Progressive Era and a biographer of Chief Justice John Marshall and President Abraham Lincoln.
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Of infinitely more importance, however, is the fact that Marshall's words asserted the power of the Supreme Court of the United States to annul State laws passed in violation of the National Constitution, and that throughout the Republic a…
The national character "is degenerated into a system of stock-jobbing, extortion and usury....
To such extravagance and inaccuracy does the frenzy of combat sometimes drive the most honest of men.
Mine is a sort of metaphysical world, over which the plastick power of the imagination is unlimited--yours, being only physical, cannot be modulated by fancy.
A construction bottomed upon either, overthrows the benefits of language and intellect.
The article of the constitution under consideration closes with an idea, which strongly supports my construction.
It literally excludes the idea of paying a salary, when the officer is not in office; and it is undeniably certain, that he cannot be in office, when there is no office.
This construction certainly coincides with the public opinion, and the principles of the constitution.
By neither is the idea for a moment tolerated, of maintaining burthensome sinecure offices, to enrich unfruitful individuals.
The tenure however is evidently bottomed upon the idea of securing the honesty of Judges, whilst exercising the office, and not upon that of sustaining useless or pernicious offices, for the sake of Judges.
The gods invite us to glory and fortune; it remains to be seen whether we deserve the boon.
But he carried with him taste and science and wealth; and lo, the desert smiled!
In the midst of all this peace, this innocent simplicity and this tranquillity, this feast of the mind, this pure banquet of the heart, the destroyer comes; he comes to change this paradise into a hell.
He breathes into it the fire of his own courage; a daring and desperate thirst for glory; an ardour panting for great enterprises, for all the storm and bustle and hurricane of life.
In a short time the whole man is changed, and every object of his former delight is relinquished.
Jefferson tenaciously clung to his prejudice against Great Britain: "The object of England, long obvious, is to claim the ocean as her domain....
It seems as if in New England the federalists were forgetful of all the motives for union & were ready to destroy the fabric which has been raised by the wisdom of our fathers.
Have they altogether lost the memory of Washington's farewell address?...
The principle that force is right, is become the principle of the nation itself.
No more he enjoys the tranquil scene; it has become flat and insipid to his taste.
His ear no longer drinks the rich melody of music; it longs for the trumpet's clangor and the cannon's roar.
Never did Americans more seriously need emancipation from foreign influence than in the early decades of the Republic--never was it more vital to their well-being that the people should develop an American spirit, than at the height of the…
What did the Chesapeake incident, what did impressment of Americans, what did anything and everything amount to, compared to the one tremendous fact of Great Britain's struggle with France?
But theirs were the vices of pride and of age--they could neither learn nor forget; could not estimate situations as they really were, but only as prejudice made them appear to be.
Politicians like Albert Beveridge
