whom has attempted to subvert the government or to override the will of the people in any essential point. This is the more remarkable as five of these Presidents were chosen because of conspicuous military service.
But the distinguishing feature of the American government has been the judicial department. At moments its judges have cast impartiality behind them, and descended into the political arena. At other times the Supreme Court has shown indecision or instability. It has been "packed" to secure a particular verdict, and has rendered the desired opinion. It has put itself so out of accord with public sentiment that its decrees were successfully overriden or disregarded by the Congress, by the President, by the state executives and courts, or by the people. It has been temporarily the most hated feature of our government, and a recurring popular cry has called for its curtailment or alteration. But in the main it has admirably fulfilled its purposes. So far from grasping power, it has constantly sought to differentiate federal jurisdiction from that of the states, and though its influence is widening, it is because the necessities of national development require it. Because it is the one ultimate court in the world which is allowed to annul as well as to expound a law, it stands as the greatest protector of the minority now known; and because this power has in the main given justice as well as legality to its decisions, the court has won an enviable reputation for fairness, and consequently a respect nowhere else obtained. No matter how unpopular its decisions may be, they are submitted to without question. "We shall abide by the decision," said Lincoln, even in the heat of the Dred Scott excitement, "but we will try to reverse it."
The greatest test of the success of the framers is to be found, however, in the general rather than in the governmental history of the constitutional period. Within that time our territory has been more than tripled, and our states have been mutiplied by over three. Our population has grown from three to seventy million, and we have received foreigners in such numbers that some of
