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The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence, papers, and selected judicial opinions, March 1814-December 1819

The Papers of John Marshall presents a detailed view into the legal and political thought of one of the most significant figures in American history. It includes Marshall's correspondence, personal papers, and a selection of his judicial opinions from the years 1814 to 1819, offering insight into his role in shaping American law and governance during the early 19th century. more

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John Marshall
John Marshall

John Marshall, a renowned jurist and politician in the United States, served as the Chief Justice of the United States. Born on September 24, 1755, in Virginia, he passed away on July 6, 1835. Marshall had a profound impact on the judicial field, with his legal principles still being followed in the American legal system today. more

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“The poor Constitution itself is hardly paid any attention to. It's necessary to ignore it because most of what government does these days is clearly unconstitutional. The original idea, as expressed by James Madison, was that states would do 95 percent of the governing. Today, they are little more than administrative subdivisions of the central empire.”

“How odd that Americans, and not just their presidents, have come to think of their Constitution as something separable from the government it's supposed to constitute. In theory, it should be as binding on rulers as the laws of physics are on engineers who design bridges; in practice, its axioms have become mere options. Of course engineers don't have to take oaths to respect the law of gravity; reality gives them no choice. Politics, as we see, makes all human laws optional for politicians.”

“Some people don't mind a little constitutional sophistry in a good cause; and for liberals, centralizing all power in the federal government is always a good cause. Since most Americans don't know or care what the Constitution says, let alone what their ancestors thought it meant, the great liberal snow job has been very successful.”

“...[T]he Constitution conferred only a few specific powers on the federal government, all others being denied to it (as the Tenth Amendment would make plain). Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of the U.S. population today - subtle logicians like you - can grasp such nuances. Too bad. The Constitution wasn't meant to be a brain-twister.”

“Those who wrote the Constitution clearly understood that power is dangerous and needs to be limited by being separated - separated not only into the three branches of the national government but also separated as between the whole national government, on the one hand, and the states and the people on the other.”