His many important decisions on constitutional questions. Maintains power of the Supreme Court to decide upon the constitutionality of Acts of Congress. Asserts power of Federal Government to incorporate banks, with freedom from State control and taxation. Maintains also its power to regulate commerce, free from State hindrance or obstruction. His constitutional opinion, authoritative and unshaken. His decisions on questions of International Law. Decides the status of a captured American vessel visiting her native port as a foreign man-of-war. Sound decision respecting prize cases. His views and rulings respecting confiscation of persons and property in time of war. Personal characteristics and legal acumen. Weight and influence of the Supreme Court of the United States. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME XI. Surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown. _After the painting by Ch. Ed. Armand Dumaresq_ Puritans Going to Church _After the painting by G. H. Boughton_. Benjamin Franklin _After the painting by Baron Jos. Sifrède Duplessis_. Franklin's Experiments with Electricity _After the painting by Karl Storch_. The Fight of the Bonhomme Richard and Serapis _After the painting by J. O. Davidson_. George Washington _After the painting by Gilbert Stuart_ Washington's Home at Mt. Vernon _From a photograph_. Alexander Hamilton _After the painting by Gilbert Stuart_. Duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr _After the painting by J. Mund_. John Adams _After the painting by Gilbert Stuart_. Patrick Henry's Speech in the House of Burgesses _After the painting by Rothermel_. Thomas Jefferson _After the painting by Gilbert Stuart_. John Marshall _From an engraving after the painting by Inman_. PRELIMINARY CHAPTER THE AMERICAN IDEA. 1600-1775. In a survey of American Institutions there seem to be three fundamental principles on which they are based: first, that all men are naturally equal in rights; second, that a people cannot be taxed without their own consent; and third, that they may delegate their power of self-government to representatives chosen by themselves. The remote origin of these principles it is difficult to trace. Some suppose that they are innate, appealing to consciousness,--concerning which there can be no dispute or argument. Others suppose that they exist only so far as men can assert and use them, whether granted by rulers or seized by society. Some find that they arose among our Teutonic ancestors in their German forests, while still others go back to Jewish, Grecian, and Roman history for their origin. Wherever they originated, their practical enforcement has been a slow and unequal growth among various peoples, and it is always the evident result of an evolution, or development of civilization.