On the record
That vision will remain with them as long, and no longer, as there is in their hearts a conscious and willing acquiescence in its wisdom and justice.
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gutenberg.orgJames Beck: “That vision will remain with them as long, and no longer, as there is in their hearts a conscious and willing…”
Editor's note · Context
He suggests that the endurance of constitutional values depends on the people's commitment to them.
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The greatest and noblest purpose of the Constitution was not alone to hold in nicest equipose the relative powers of the nation and the States, but also to maintain in the scales of justice a true equilibrium between the rights of…
Under the American Constitution, they are part of the fundamental law, and, as such, enforceable by judges sworn to defend the integrity of the individual as fully as the integrity of the State.
Without that vision to restrain each succeeding generation of Americans from the tempting excesses of political power, the American Commonwealth, with its great heterogeneous democracy, would probably perish.
It did not believe that the State was omnipotent or infallible, and yet it proclaimed its authority within wise and just limits.
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