The Green Bag Volume XXII
Number 3
March, 191 0
Roger Brooke Taney, Chief Justice of the United States’ By HENRY K. BRALEY ASSOCIATE JUsTIcE OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS N a government of divided, but co— ordinated powers defined by a written constitution, the different de
partments will tend to become promi nent and influential in proportion to their ability to meet the demands of the popular will as it may be mani~
resentatives, were largely, if not equally influential in the administrations of Washington and John Adams, and their governmental conceptions, finding ex
pression along the lines of well defined policies, influenced public opinion to adopt at the polls their views of the
fested in the varying stages of national
Constitution as reflected by the ad
growth. We have seemingly entered upon a period when the people expect
ministration at the national capital.
a degree of personal leadership in the
ended in the political opinions and movements of the executive and of Congress. But meanwhile, although the common law remained the inherit
executive branch far beyond that which
possibly can be exerted by the Con gress. The exclusive control of the veto power rightly holds the President to a measure of responsibility which by its mere exercise enables him power
fully and legitimately to control legis lation, while the more than regal au thority and patronage attached to the office constitutes, when skillfully used,
one of the most potent forces for the furtherance and establishment of the Presidential will. In the formative years, however, while slowly and experimentally the
The range of the government began and
ance
of
the
states, whose courts ex
pounded and applied its principles, a
national jurisprudence was yet to be created, and the powers of the judicial
department awaited definition. The early history of the Supreme Court of the United States as the head of the federal judicial system is barren of any effort to enter upon the task. Clothed with the most ample powers either of original or appellate jurisdic
tion in all cases in law and equity aris
machinery of our constitutional system
ing under the Constitution, the laws
was being adjusted, prominent mem bers of the Cabinet or Senators, or Rep
of the United States, and treaties made
"A aper read before the Thur‘ ay Club, Nov. 4, 1909.
Brookline (Mass)
under their authority, all cases of ad
miralty and maritime jurisdiction, and controversies to which the United States
