And certainly it is with the kingdoms on earth as it is in the kingdom of heaven, sometimes a grain of mustard seed proves a great tree.
James Beck
The Public Record
James Montgomery Beck was an American lawyer, politician, and author from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Republican Party, who served as U.S. Solicitor General and U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania.
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As early as 1613, he had boldly declared in Parliament that even the King's authority rested upon the clear understanding that there were reciprocal conditions which neither ruler nor subject could violate with impunity.
The spirit of man had a new birth and was breaking away from the too rigid bonds of ancient custom and authority.
This view as to the limitation of government and the denial of its omnipotence was powerfully accentuated in America by the very conditions of its colonization.
Thus, the idea of a higher law transcending the power of a living generation, and therefore eternal as justice itself--became lodged in our system of jurisprudence.
They nobly conceived that human society was a single unit and that it was governed by a law that was both antecedent and paramount to the law of Rome.
Five centuries later the greatest of the Roman lawyers and orators, Cicero, spoke in the same terms of a higher law, "which was never written and which we are never taught, which we never team by reading, but which was drawn by nature…
Yes, for that law was not from Zeus, nor did Justice, dweller with the gods below, establish it among men; nor deemed I that thy decree--mere mortal that thou art--could override those unwritten and unfailing mandates, which are not of…
If we turn to the writings of the most intellectual race in ancient time and possibly in recorded history--the Greeks--we shall see the higher law vindicated with incomparable power in the moral philosophy of its three greatest dramatists…
The jurisprudence of every nation has, with more or less clearness, recognized the existence of certain primal and fundamental laws which are superior to the laws, statutes, or conventions of living generations.
A constitution, while primarily for the distribution of governmental powers, is, in its last analysis, a formal expression of adherence to that which in modern times has been called the higher law, and which in ancient times was called…
Johnson to the immortal fame of Shakespeare, that the stream of time, which has washed away the dissoluble fabric of many other paper constitutions has left almost untouched its adamantine strength.
The American Constitution has been the classic model for the federated State.
Few, if any, forms of government have better withstood the mad spirit of innovation, or more effectively proved their merit by the "arduous greatness of things done.
So enduring was their achievement that to-day the Constitution of the United States is the oldest comprehensive written form of government now existing in the world.
That spirit of self-restraint is the essence of the American Constitution.
Let it be emphasized that they did this, not by seeking more power, but by imposing restraints upon themselves.
A few wise and noble spirits, true Faithfuls and Great Hearts, led a despondent people out of the Slough of Despond till their feet were again on firm ground and their faces turned towards the Delectable Mountains of peace, justice, and…
The thirteen colonies in 1787, while small and relatively unimportant, were, however, a little world in themselves, and, relatively to their numbers and resources, this problem, which they confronted and solved, differed in degree but not…
Remember that Our Lady, the Common Law, is not a task-mistress, but a bountiful sovereign, whose service is freedom.
Behind the framers of the Constitution, as they entered upon their momentous task, were the mighty shades of Simon de Montfort, Coke, Sandys, Bacon, Eliot, Hampden, Lilburne, Milton, Shaftesbury and Locke.
While the Constitution of the United States was very much more than an adaptation of the British Constitution, yet its underlying spirit was that of the English speaking race and the Common Law.
In other countries the people, more simple and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the…
The conditions of colonial development had profoundly stimulated in these English pioneers the sense and genius for constitutionalism.
Americans have never lacked interest in English history; for however broad the stream of our national life, how could we ignore its chief source?
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