436
CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
those of the legislative department.
[1] Indeed, the latter necessarily flowed from the former, and was treated, and must always be treated, as an axiom of political government.
[2] But these provisions alone would not be sufficient to ensure a complete administration of public justice, or to give permanency to the republic. The judiciary must be so organized, as to carry into complete effect all the purposes of its establishment. It must possess wisdom, learning, integrity, independence, and firmness. It must at once possess the power and the means to check usurpation, and enforce execution of its judgments. Mr. Burke has, with singular sagacity and pregnant brevity, stated the doctrine, which every republic should steadily sustain, and conscientiously inculcate. "Whatever," says he,
is supreme in a state ought to have, as much as possible, its judicial authority so constituted, as not only not to depend upon it, but in some sort to balance it. It ought to give security to its justice against its power. It ought to make its judicature, as it were, something exterior to the state.
[3] The best manner, in which this is to be accomplished, must mainly depend upon the mode of appointment, the tenure of office, the compensation of the judges, and the jurisdiction confided to the department in its various branches.
§ 1572. Let us proceed, then, to the consideration of the judicial department, as it is established by the
decide, whether a law is constitutional, or not. If it declines to declare it unconstitutional, that is an affirmance of its constitutionality.
- ↑ Journ. of Convention, 69, 98, 121, 137, 186, 188, 189, 212; The Federalist, No. 77, 78; 2 Elliot's Debates, 380 to 394; id. 404.
- ↑ Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. R. 384; 1 Tucker's Black. Comm. App. 350; The Federalist, No. 80; 2 Elliot's Debates, 380, 390, 404; 3 Elliot's Debates, 134, 143; Osborn v. Bank of United States, 9 Wheat. R. 818, 819; 1 Kent's Comm. Lect. 14, p. 277.
- ↑ Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution.
