DEPARTMENTS OF GOVERNMENT hereafter constituted. ' ' This is not the ideal way to "Keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men!"
It would result in a political Court, a judicial amendment of the Constitution, and be the end of stable and constitutional government. The security which has hith erto characterized our institutions under the courageous, intelligent, and patriotic action of its Courts would become a delusion and a snare. You may be sure, if we sow the wind, we shall reap the whirlwind. While the Judiciary was to be provided for, I believe it to be the first and greatest in importance and dignity and in the preserva tion of the rights and liberties of a great and free people. It is the keystone of the arch that supports the wonderful superstruc
ture, "the greatest that ever came at any one time from the hand and brain of man." Unaffected by influence, undisturbed by clamor, unawed by power, undeterred by threats or denunciation, it will try every executive and legislative act, whenever they shall infringe rights that may become the subject of legal controversy, by the immemorial constitutional standard that "knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Then will its judgments be like unto those of the "Lord God Almighty, true and righteous" altogether. Thus and only thus shall we have preserved to us and our children's children, "now and forever," the ultimate achievement of human genius in all its pristine glory and splendor, "a government of laws and not of men." WASHINGTON, D.C., January, 1906.
