James Beck: “Nothing, excepting the principle of local rule, was of deeper concern to the framers of the Constitution.”

It did not believe that the State was omnipotent or infallible, and yet it proclaimed its authority within wise and just limits.

If it ceases to be of the spirit of the people, then the yellow parchment whereon it is inscribed can avail nothing.

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.