the objects for which the federal government was established. In that long judicial life, with which Providence blessed him, and blessed his country, he was able to lay down, in a succession of cases, the fundamental considerations which fix and govern the relative functions of the nation and the States, so plainly, with such fullness, with such simplicity and strength of argument, such a candid allowance for all that was to be said upon the other side, in a tone so removed from controversial bitterness, so natural and fit for a great man addressing the “serene reason” of mankind, as to commend these things to the minds of his countrymen, and firmly to fix them in the jurisprudence of the nation; so that “when the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, it fell not, because it was founded upon a rock.” It was Marshall’s strong constitutional doctrine, explained in detail, elaborated, powerfully argued, over and over again, with unsurpassable earnestness and force, placed permanently in our judicial records, holding its own during the long emergence of a feebler political theory, and showing itself in all its majesty when war and civil dissension came,--it was largely this that saved the country from succumbing, in the great struggle of forty years ago, and kept our political fabric from going to pieces. I do not forget our own Webster, or others, in saying that to Marshall (if we may use his own phrase about Washington), “more than to any other individual, and as much as to one individual was possible,” do we owe that prevalence of sound constitutional opinion and doctrine at the North that held the Union together; to that combination in him, of a great statesman’s sagacity, a great lawyer’s lucid exposition and persuasive reasoning, a great man’s candor and breadth of view, and that judicial authority on the bench, allowed naturally and as of right, to a large, sweet nature, which all men loved and trusted, capable of harmonizing differences and securing the largest possible amount of coöperation among discordant associates. In a very great degree, it was Marshall, and these things in him, that have wrought out for us a strong and great nation, one which men can love and die for; that “mother of a mighty race,” that stirred the soul of Bryant half a century ago, as he dreamed how-- “The thronging years in glory rise, And as they fleet, Drop strength and riches at thy feet;” the nation whose image flamed in the heart of Lowell, a generation since, as he greeted her coming up out of the Valley of the Shadow of Death:-- “Oh Beautiful, my country, ours once more!... Among the nations bright beyond compare!... What were our lives without thee? What all our lives to save thee? We reck not what we gave thee, We will not dare to doubt thee, But ask whatever else, and we will dare!”