The
Vol. XIV.
Green
No. i.
BOSTON.
ROGER
BROOKE
Bag.
January, 1902.
TANEY. .
Bv Francis R. Jones. IN 1836 the Supreme Court of the United States had passed the empirical stage of its history. It had become a mighty power. Its authority was paramount. Its decisions were regarded with confidence and venera tion by both the profession and the public. This happy establishment of the court as a potent, co-ordinant branch of the national government was largely due to the charac ters and abilities of all the great men and learned lawyers who had sat upon its bench. But it was due principally, of course, to the great Chief Justice, John Marshall. At his death the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws of the United States was beyond cavil. The fundamental principles of Con stitutional construction were laid upon bases so firm and broad that they could not be shaken. The strength of the national gov ernment not only had been established, but it had been demonstrated. The ability of the States' to deal with all questions of local government in harmony with one another and with the national government had been proved. Under the guiding hand of the great expositions of its fundamental law made by the Supreme Court, the nation had risen from early weakness and tentative faltering to a consciousness of its power. The country had passed its infancy. It was fast growing into a stalwart manhood. The generation that assisted at its birth had passed away. New questions had arisen. New men, with different ideals and with different purposes, guided its policy. The country had expanded from a strip of seacoast to a continent. It had waged one war
for the freedom of the sea, and was about to wage another for territorial aggrandize ment. The necessity for a strong central government, which had been the controlling idea and purpose of many of the fathers of the Republic, like Washington, Jay, Hamil ton, Adams and Marshall, was not felt by men who had not witnessed the impotency of the Confederation, or, if felt, was known to have been attained. The theory of States Rights was beginning to be elaborated and insisted upon. The marvellous advance in industries served to emphasize the apparent, but superficial, antagonism of interests be tween the North and the South. And it so happened that just at that time the country had come to the parting of the ways in its history. The influence of events could not be otherwise than felt by all its citizens. The course of politics had become disturbed and embittered. The grave question of slavery would not down, and was constantly growing more insistent and passionate. The political tendencies which resulted in the war with Mexico were just .beginning to be mani fested. There still reverberated the echoes of Andrew Jackson's troublous administra tions, not yet ended. The country had grown and prospered. Internal improve ments were necessary. They could hardly have been carried out by the national gov ernment on a sufficiently extensive and ex peditious scale to be adequate to the necessi ties. In these circumstances and under these conditions it was not surprising, nay, per haps it was inevitable, that there should have
