Page:History of the Supreme court of the United States (IA historyofsupreme00myeriala).pdf/359



With Marshall's death, and with the appointment of his successor, an immediate transformation of the Supreme Court, in one constituent respect, was witnessed. The functions, authorized or self-arrogated, of that tribunal remamed the same; the ancient juridical authorities of legal maxims were subjected to no new interpretation; the fundamentals of law continued in force unaltered. The transformation was not one of the character or power of the institution; it was purely one embodying the divergent views, on a particular question, of new members from those held by the old body.

From the organization of the Supreme Court, its incumbents were punctiliously and critically chosen, not primarily because of their knowledge of law, but with the certain anticipation that they would apply law in consonance with the creed and interests of the divisions of the class from which their appointments came. Their selection was tot, in the intrinsic sense, a judicial appointment; political considerations alone determined who was to go on the Supreme Court Bench, But politics was not an idle formula, neither was it an inane pastime. It was a definite, virile struggle between classes, or groups of classes, for power; behind the ceaseless reach for power lay the stimuli of mixed personal and class interests. Superficially, those political conflicts were invested with an impressive show of principle or patriotism. But analyzing them, in a large sense, they were nothing less than wars for the perpetuation of the interests of one class, and the suppression of those of another. But while the propertied class,