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John Marshall

John Marshall Quotes

Former Chief Justice of the United States

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Famous John Marshall Quotes

“I am N!ai. When the white people first came, I was already a young woman with breasts. Before the white people came, we did what our hearts wanted. We lived in different places, far apart, and when our hearts wanted to travel, we traveled. We were not poor; we had everything we could carry. No one told us what to do. Now the white people tell us to stay in this place. There are too many people. There’s no food to gather. Game is far away, and people are dying of tuberculosis. But when I was a little girl, we left sickness behind us when we moved.”

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Author:John Marshall
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“Whether a law be void for its repugnancy to the Constitution, is, at all times, a question of much delicacy, which out seldom, if ever, to be decided in the affirmative, in doubtful case. ... But it is not on slight implication and vague conjecture that the legislature is to be pronounced to have transcended its powers, and its acts to be considered as void. The opposition between the Constitution and the law should be such that the judge feels a clear and strong conviction of their incompatibility with each other.”

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Author:John Marshall
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“Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal discretion, a discretion to be exercised in discerning the course prescribed by law; and, when that is discerned, it is the duty of the Court to follow it. Judicial power is never exericised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Judge; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Legislature; or, in other words, to the will of the law.”

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Author:John Marshall
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“The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.”

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Author:John Marshall
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“The French Revolution will be found to have had great influence on the strength of parties, and on the subsequent political transactions of the United States.”

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Book:The Life of George Washington: Commander in Chief of the American Forces, During the War which Established the Independence of His Country, and First President of the United States. Comp. Under the Inspection of the Honourable Bushrod Washington, from Original Papers Bequeathed to Him by His Deceased Relative
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“I have always believed that national character... depends more on the female part of society than is generally imagined. Precepts from the lips of a beloved mother... sink deep in the heart, and make an impression which is seldom entirely effaced.”

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Book:The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence, papers, and selected judicial opinions, January 1824-March 1827
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“Seldom has a battle, in which greater numbers were not engaged, been so important in its consequences as that of Cowpens.”

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Book:The life of George Washington: commander in chief of the American forces, during the war which established the independence of his country, and first president of the United States
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“That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis, on which the whole American fabric has been erected.... The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as the authority, from which they proceed, is supreme ... they are designed to be permanent.... The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written.”

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Author:John Marshall
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“Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.”

OrderDifferencesLibertyDemocracyHistoricalChaosLibertarianRepublicLibertarianismBalancedLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveLimited FreedomFounding Fathers DemocracyAmerica FreedomOrder And Chaos
Book:The life of George Washington: commander in chief of the American forces, during the war which established the independence of his country, and first president of the United States
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“The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”

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Book:The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall
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“No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States and compounding the American people into one common mass.”

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Book:The Writings of John Marshall: Late Chief Justice of the United States, Upon the Federal Constitution
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“The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.”

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Book:The Writings of John Marshall: Late Chief Justice of the United States, Upon the Federal Constitution
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“State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress. ... Inspection laws, quarantine laws, health laws of every description, as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c., are component parts of this mass. No direct general power over these objects is granted to Congress, and, consequently, they remain subject to State legislation.”

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Book:The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall
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