Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 1 (of 2)Curtis, George Ticknor
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Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 1 (of 2)
Curtis, George Ticknor
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
There is still another branch of their jurisdiction, of a grand and
imposing character, which places them far above the celebrated
Amphictyonic council. The Constitution of the United States has made
them the arbiters between conflicting sovereigns. They decide whether
the sovereign power of the States has been exercised in conformity with
the Constitution and laws of the United States; and, if this has not
been done, they declare the laws of the State Legislatures to be void.
Their decisions thus control the exercise of sovereign power. No
tribunal ever existed, possessing the same, or even similar authority.
Now, Sir, suppose you bring these judges to Washington, and employ them
in banc but six weeks or two months in the year, is it not certain that
they will gradually become less and less fit to decide upon these
different codes, and that they will at length nearly lose all
recollection of the peculiar local laws of the different States? Every
judicial duty which each of them would then be required to perform,
would be to prepare and deliver a few opinions annually in banc.
The judgment, like every other faculty of the mind, requires exercise to
preserve its vigor. That judge who decides the most causes, is likely to
decide them the best. He who is in the daily habit of applying general
principles to the decision of cases, as they arise upon the circuits, is
at the same time qualifying himself in the best manner for the duties of
his station on the bench of the Supreme Court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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