The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-11-25
From he .Nto York Union.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND THE SUPREME
COITRT

nc wishes, In the hrst place, IN pursuance oil ms
patricdal system 10 render the Supreme Court odi-
Gus to the people Of the North and to the world to
destroy It's authority far in him lies, by denoun-
eng II as cabal of shareholders. Then in the next
place. he has some slight hope that by this means, he
may RAISE such clamor TO either the whole
bench oil Judges, or at any rate those from the Nor
thern section of the Union, and extort from them
decision against the" Treasury Circular. In either
case he VIII be gamer for in either case his coun
try VIII be dishonoed, and Of her most precious
institutions be dscreded and disabled for future use
| tulness.
But the mere wickedness Of the design is no mea-
sure Of the moral and intellectual perversy Of this
| venerable ex-President of the United States" No
man, not much and long accustomed to contemplate
the dark side of human nature or shall venture
| to say In other words, no man who does not know
Mr.. Adams, could possibly imagine his blind unscru-
| pulousness IN the choice of his TO accomplish
ms end OF course where there is SO much wicked
ness, there is Just as much weakness and folly and
accordingly il is difficult to say, whether he is
TO be detested for the topics he has chosen, desp
| ed for the miserable use he makes of them.
Alter long diatribe against the Executive for go
ing on TO enforce the revenue law against the reye
| nue. opinion of MIR. Adams, and the votes Of The
farty," the venerable ex- President sums up by
declaring that % If John Marshall still presided
that Court, and Bushroi Washington was yet one Of
its members, Captain Tyler would never have made
tins experiment upon their justice and their sympa
thies.p
Now, would any one say that the author of this
sentence had profound respect for the memory of
the illustrious Chief Justice and the most esmable
associate Judge, of whom he thus makes honorable
mention! Would not any reader that did not know
the writer OF this passage to be the preacher Of stem
perance quoted above, but did not know who John
Marshall was, naturally infer that our opinion of
TINS great man would pass with his eulogis--if not
ior good law at least for the expression of honest
Judgment Could any one magne--could il be i'm
agned with pausbilIty of any one, but the venera-
Die eX-fresidcnt of the United States, that he had
paced John Marshall himself in the selfsame cate
gory OF corrupt and srviie judges, to which he
unceremoniousy cons.lmas his successor and his as
socrates! Above all, would it seem to be within the
bounds of bare possibility, that this deep urst mas.
ter, as his friends say, of all law that this nvncbe
dsputant, victorious over every adversary that this
acute logician, equ lily dexterous to detect sophstry
IN Others and to palm it off upon them, had actually
cited IN this very piece, decision of that very John
Marshall to show that the court was to be trust
ed, and had denounced that decision in the same
breath; that he predicted on the strength of it, as
pad one to Gomez lncomprehensible as is such
contrad cton, Mr.. Adams is guilty of it. Here is
the language in which the venerable exPresident"
is pleased to speak of the highest and hitherto the
most revered tribunal in the country:
Mr.. Tyers confidence in his attorney generals
advice must have rested the stronger pillar of
siarehotdng supreme Court; aud truly with the re-
corded reasoning OF the southern Judge in the case
of the Antelope, and the more recent case of Prigg
TO- be expected from heir decisn, when the act of
brother STAKEHOLDER President of the United States
comes IN contact with the first principles of human
liberty, as with Captain Tyler hlnselfn
Now it so happens that g the recorded reason
ing OF the southern judges in the of the Ante
lope," from which we are brought to expect little
from ga slavehoding Supreme Court" in any "ques-
ton involving the first principles of human libery,n
was delivered byChef Justice Marshall himself with
the concurrence of Mr.. Justice Washington, Mr..
Justice Story, and all the judges of that day
1t would be quite bad enough if this most wanton
and unprlncipled attack upon the memory of Chief
Justice Marshall, upon the character of the Supreme
Court, and upon the whole body of his fellow cli-
zens at the SOUTH had been made by the venera-
ble raer IN ignorance of the real state Of the fact
Ii would have been in any holding his responsible
| station, most culpabe degree Of negligence, to
speak at random on such a subject, but especially
would such haphazard denuncation have been deep
Iy criminal, in man looked up to as anoraclc, by
many men both better and wiser than their eccen-
trio conscience keeper.
But there can be very little doubt that this vene-
| rable' person knew full well, when he uttered his
atrocious insinuaons against the Supreme Court as
it Is now constituted, that the Of the .fnielops
had been UNANIMOUSLY decided by that tribunal un-
der the Presidency of John Marshall and that John
Marshall himself had delivered its decree We sa,
Mr. Adams knew this well he could not but have
known 1t 4; he repeatedly referred to that in the de-
bates OF The last session, and IN preparing his inter-
.inisiad, if not before, he had made himself fami-
liar with its whole history. He knew too that it was
only a confirmation of SrWam SCOTS Judgment in
the case of the Louis and the settled and clear opin-
ion of that celebrated jurist all occasions Yet
knowing all these things, the venerable ex-Presi.
dent of the United States has the eIrontery on the
strength oil that unanim us opinion, to hold up to sus
picion and scorn the Supreme Tribunal of the coun
try, as cabal of Shareholders unfit TO be trusted
with question of liberty. And this he does the very
he hyD tica eir
ierred TO above, the loss of John Marshall and
Bushrod Washington!
We undertake TO say, that the records of contro-
versy present no parallel to the unprovoked malice
the perfdious disngenuiiy, and the mpudent con-
tempt of the truths of facts and the opinions of man
kind, which discovered in these sell-contradctory
calumnies.
We have purposely confined ourselves to single
point IN an address vulnerable throughout because
1t was an apt and most striking example of the whole
course of the venerable ex-Presdentn As it is
susceptible of no excuse paliation by him or his
friends so it is impossible TO add to the effect which
the exposure of 1t must have on all unprejudiced
minds. We have cited it, not only because it falls
within the maxim, talsds IN uno, fdsus omnibus but
for the purpose of making still more particular APP
pcation OF IL to the venerable" person in ques-
ton.
In the first place, it strips him of all pretenson to
be respected as an authority or followed as guide,
by any truly conscientious in any matter at all
open to controversy and leaves his partisans no ex
cuse, If they suffer themselves TO be msed by him.
plain that his praise and his aoge-
Their arbitrary, that he deals habually in random as
sertion, grautous assumption, Illogical inference
the darkest and most groundless suspicious, the most
unchartable interpretations and the basest calumny
In the next place, it shows what his ancient allies
well knew before, that if his enemies have had
some reason to dread him, his friends have still
more.
"Who breaks with him, provokes revenge rom hell
But he's holder man. that dares be well.n
If there was one man more than another, for whom
he has always prolessed the profoundest reverence
that man was the late Chief Justice of the United
States 1t has hitherto been the boast of his friends
and those OF his father, that the latter had made
atOnement Tor many errnrs In Indictment and cnnduci