The Elk Mountain pilot., 1901-02-26
Marshall. Monument,

The constitution having invested the
Supreme Court with jurisdiction over
.'all cases arising under the constitu-
tion and laws of the United States,"
Chief Justice Marshall gave life and
potency to this important provision
To determine exactly the limits of the
courts power, TO establish solid, en-
during principle of action for its guild
ance, to inspire confidence in the value
of such action and the wisdom of the
unparalleled and unprecedented pro-
cedure, which the entirely new func-
tions of this extraordinary tribunal in
augurated, demanded great lucidity of
mind, wide grasp of intellect and ire
movable strength of character.
In the early discussions, on the con-
stitution. some of which were very
vigorously conducted. there was little
attention paid to the Supreme Court,
but much to the respective powers
granted the federal and state govern
ments. To suggest at that time the
investiture of any court with power to
would have at once aroused an oppo-
sition to such proposal impossible to
overcome. 1t must not be forgotten
that the majority of men in our revo-
lutionary epoch We're brought up in
the British idea of the omnipotence of
Parliament.
1t was only after the people had sub.
mitted to a written constitution and
formed some idea of the precision in
legislative methods and action such an
instrument demanded that they could
readily acquiesce in the unquestionable
wisdom, the salutary power of Chief
Justice Marshall's irresistible definition
and stabilitation of the judicial power
as one of the most important elements
in our governmental system. With n
lucidity and force that removed all
doubt and forbade all discussion, Mar
shall laid it down that: at is a prop
osition too plain to be contested that
either the constitution controls any leg
islative enactment repugnant to it or
that the Legislature can alter the con-
stitution by an ordinary act. Between
ground. The constitution is either
superior, paramount law, unchanged
BILE by ordinary means, or it is on
level with ordinary legislative acts,
alterable when the Legislature
shall please to alter it. If the former
part of the alternative be true, then
Legislative act contrary to the consti-
tuition Is not law; # the latter part be
true, then written constitutions are
absurd attempts on the part of the peo-
pie to limit power in its own nature
illimitable."
This declaration of principle and
definition of right is the foundation of
American constitutional law. 1t is the
safeguard of the constitution. 1t is the
bulwark of citizenship. 1t is the guide
of chief magistrates, the safety of Leg
islatures. No higher nor better-deliv-
cred eulogy was ever pronounced upon
any man than that uttered by Abra-
ham Lincoln upon John Marshall: "He
found the constitution paper and he
made it power; he found it a skeleton
and he clothed it with flesh and blood"
When enemies of the constitution, thus
transformed and vitalized by Marshall,
sought to destroy it. they found a lion
in the path in the immortal personality
and power of Lincoln and the lion tri-
umphed. Cincinnati Commercial Tri-
oune.
Everything that has happened in the
Philippines since the November election
confirms the idea that the lnsurrectlon