Albert Beveridge

In short, on land and sea America had stood up to, had really beaten, the tremendous Power that had overthrown the mighty Napoleon.

Moreover, the Embargo, the Non-Intercourse and Non-Importation Acts, the British blockades, the war itself, had revolutionized the country economically and socially.

The migration to the West, which had been increasing for years, now became almost a folk movement.

Only the rosiest dreams were theirs and the spirited consciousness that they were Americans, able to accomplish all things, even the impossible.

Between no two men in American history is there such a likeness.

Physically, intellectually, and in characteristics, Marshall and Lincoln were of the same type.

Both were very tall men, slender, loose-jointed, and awkward, but powerful and athletic; and both fond of sport.

So alike were they, and so identical in their negligence of dress and their total unconsciousness of, or indifference to, convention, that the two men, walking side by side, might well have been taken for brothers.

Both Marshall and Lincoln loved companionship with the same heartiness, and both had the same social qualities.

They enjoyed fun, jokes, laughter, in equal measure, and had the same keen appreciation of wit and humor.

Each man had the gift of going directly to the heart of any subject; while the same lucidity of statement marked each of them.

I am sure its importance to the nation will be felt, and the occasion employed to complete the great operation they have so long been executing, by the appointment of a decided Republican, with nothing equivocal about him.

Scarcely any other judicial act of Marshall's life reveals so clearly his moral stature and strength.

Had he allowed his feelings to influence his judgment; had he permitted his prejudices to affect his reason; had he heeded the desires of political friends--his opinion in the case of the Exchange would have been the reverse of what it was.

The emotions of John Marshall must have raged furiously; but he so utterly suppressed them that clear reason and considerations of statesmanship alone controlled him.

In the South American revolutions against Spain, American sailors generally and, indeed, the American people as a whole, ardently sympathized with those who sought to establish for themselves free and independent governments.

It may be said, generally, that if the government remains neutral, and recognizes the existence of a civil war, its courts cannot consider as criminal those acts of hostility which war authorizes, and which the new government may direct…

To decide otherwise, would be to determine that the war prosecuted by one of the parties was unlawful, and would be to arraign the nation to which the court belongs against that party.

Whether or not his property is enemy property depends not alone on his residence in the enemy country, but also on his intention to remain after war begins.

It is not true that extended residence in a foreign country in time of peace is evidence of intention to remain there permanently.

But modern commerce has sensibly influenced international law and greatly strengthened the common sense and generally accepted considerations just mentioned.

It is essential to an understanding of the time that we firmly fix in our minds that the lawyers, no less than the judges, of that day, were publicists as well as lawyers.

They were, indeed, statesmen, having deep in their minds the well-being of their Nation even more than the success of their clients.

Is it a substantive and independent right wantonly, and in the pride of power, to vex and harass neutral commerce, because there is a capacity to do so?" No!

She does not rove over the ocean hurling the thunders of war while sheltered by the olive branch of peace." Her character is not part neutral, part hostile.