The want of a proper respect for the people, as has been often said, was Hamilton's great misfortune. If he could have felt otherwise, he would have been a Republican. This distrust of the capacity and disposition of the masses, which had been the bane of his life, retained its hold upon his strong mind and ardent feelings when he bequeathed it to his political disciples, and it has been the shibboleth of their tribe ever since. In a large degree wealthy and proud of their social position, their fear of the popular will, and desire to escape from popular control, instead of being lessened, is increased by the advance of the people in education and knowledge. Under no authority do they feel their interests to be safer than under that which is subject to the judicial power, and in no way could their policy be more effectually promoted than by taking power from those departments of the Government over which the people have full control, and accumulating it in that over which they may fairly be said to have none. CHAPTER VIII. Exceptional Countenance given by the Democratic Party to the Federalist Doctrine of the Supremacy of the Judicial over the other Departments on the Occasion of the Dred Scott Decision--Former Acquiescence of the Country as to the Power of Congress over Slavery in the Territories--That Power brought in question by General Cass, in 1848--The Result a Rupture in the Democratic Party and Defeat of Cass--The subsequent Election of Pierce--Repeal of the Missouri Compromise--Dangers of that Step--The Kansas-Nebraska Act--Opinions of the Judges in the Dred Scott Case how far extra-Judicial--Probable Motives of the Chief Justice and his Brethren--The Author's Recollections of Taney--The Motives of the Judges Good, but their _obiter dicta_ a Mistake--The Course of President Buchanan, with respect to the Dred Scott Decision, an Abandonment of the Democratic Principle of the Independence of each of the three great Departments in deciding Constitutional Questions--Subsequent Action of the Democratic Party on this Subject--Importance of returning to original Doctrines of the Party.