And, finally: "The powers contained in a constitution of government ... ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good....
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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The object of Republican attack was the National Government; that of Republican praise and affection was the sovereignty of the States.
Thus a clear dividing line was drawn separating the people into two great political divisions; and political parties, in the present-day sense of definite organizations upon fundamental and popularly recognized principles, began to emerge.
In this rise of political parties the philosophy of the Constitution was negatived; for our fundamental law, unlike those of other modern democracies, was built on the non-party theory and did not contemplate party government.
Not until Patrick Henry's resolution, and the address of the Virginia Legislature to Congress based thereon, made the point that Assumption was in violation of this instrument, because the power to pass such a law was not expressly given…
This argument best shows Madison's sudden and radical change from an extreme Nationalist to an advocate of the most restricted National powers.
Criticism is ever more profitable politics than building.
It was not to make the American people the tool of any foreign government that he had drawn his sword for their independence.
The executive power of the United States is completely lodged in the President," with only those exceptions made by the Constitution, as that of declaring war.
His stinging criticism of the Nationalist financial measures, his warm championship of France, his bitter hostility to Great Britain, and most of all, his advocacy of the popular view of the Constitution, secured him the favor of the…
The man does not live who wishes for peace more than I do; but the outrages committed upon us are beyond human bearing.
If ever a country had good cause for war, Great Britain then furnished it to America; and, had we been prepared, it is impossible to believe that we should not have taken up arms to defend our ravaged interests and vindicate our insulted…
Powerless to obtain our rights by force or to prevent their violation by being prepared to assert them with arms, Washington had no recourse but to diplomacy.
At all hazards and at any cost, war must be avoided for the time being.
It is perhaps the most humiliating compact into which America ever entered.
Thus, by the Treaty of 1794, we yielded everything and gained little not already ours.
That supreme end was worth the sacrifice and that, alone, justified it.
Fearless, indeed, and void of political ambition were those who dared to face the tempest.
But ... shall the officers of our government prescribe rules of conduct to freemen?
The conduct of the British government is so well adapted to increasing our danger of war, that I cannot but suppose they are secretly inclined to produce it." (J.
What did we choose the Senate for ... but to think for us....
Level must be the head and stout the heart of him who should be sent to deal with that sensitive, proud, and now violent country.
All who are attached to peace and order, ... will now come forward and speak for themselves....
Unsuspected and wholly unforeseen was the influence on Marshall's future which his ardent championship of this despised treaty was to exercise.
Our children see this and learn to imitate it....
Politicians like Albert Beveridge
