gained the ascendency. The Chief Justice usually formulated the opinions of the court on such subjects, speaking always ex cathedra, as one who had "sounded the depths and shallows of every argument," and as one who, if not a member of the conven tion that had framed the Constitution, was nevertheless familiar with the thoughts and purposes of the great statesmen who had con ceived it. For clearness of vision, breadth of view and power of logic the decisions of Chief Justice Marshall relating to the Fed eral Constitution have never been excelled and rarely, if ever, equaled. Under his mas terful influence the Constitution of the United States grew for more than a genera tion, along well-defined lines, into those fair proportions of symmetry and strength which the American people have long since learned to reverence and admire. Xo class of men understand so well as lawyers the extent to which legislative en actments, whether organic or otherwise, are affected by judicial interpretation. Statutes may be developed by a liberal construction or emasculated by a narrow, strict and un friendly interpretation. Bad laws usually lose a part of their power to do harm when they have undergone judicial scrutiny, and wise measures of legislation are frequently amplified and improved by the well-directed efforts of the bar and bench. Of the Federal Constitution, as now understood, it may be said truthfully that it owes as much to the influence and genius of John Marshall as to the statesmanship of James Madison, who is supposed by some to have drafted it. Mar shall was in thorough sympathy with those statesman whose will had been most potent in framing the Constitution. He believed with them that "governments destitute of energy will ever produce anarchy:" that the new nation should be armed with power to levy and collect its own taxes and imposts, by its own officers; that it should be able to enforce its own laws by direct action on the individual: that it should have power to raise and maintain such military and naval forces
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as might be necessary to maintain peace at home and to prevent invasion from abroad; and that it should have sole authority to deal with other countries and with all subjects of national and international concern. In short. Marshall was in full accord with that class of statesmen who aimed to secure for the new government a proper degree of respect, both at home and abroad, and who desired to place it on a plane of entire equality with the other civilized nations of the earth as respects its power to maintain its own existence and to discharge functions that are purely national. Actuated by these beliefs and by these senti ments, Chief Justice Marshall read and in terpreted the organic law with no disposition to stunt its growth or curb its influence or to confine legislation by the National Assenibly within narrow boundaries. From pow ers expressly conferred on the general gov ernment he deduced others which he deemed conducive to the public welfare, by liberal inferences. And yet I think it may be said, without departing from the truth, that in the whole course of his judicial career he never upheld the exercise of a power by the Fed eral Government unless a warrant for its exercise could be found in a rational and fair interpretation of the provisions of the Federal Constitution.1
John Marshall grasped the helm with the hand of a master. There was no chart to guide his course excepting his conception i of the spirit of the Constitution. But that conception was based upon a belief in the sovereignty of the nation, and was elevated by a conviction of the power and dignity of the judicial branch of the government. Within three years he had disposed of a con tention, seriously made, that Congress was not bound by the Constitution, excepting as it might interpret for itself the terms of that instrument. He pronounced one of its statutes void: and thus asserted the suprem acy of his Court over the legislative de1 Honorable Amos M. Thayer, United States Circuit Judge.
