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aroused, the Chief Justice in his court went steadily forward dealing with that one underlying question, beside which all others were insignificant. Slowly, but surely, he did his work. He made men understand that a tribunal ex isted before which States could be forced to plead, by which State laws could be an nulled and which was created by the Consti tution. He took the dry clauses of that Con stitution and breathed into them the breath of life. Knowing well the instinct of human nature to magnify its own possessions, an instinct more potent than party feeling, he had pointed out and developed for Presi dents and Congresses the powers given them by the Constitution, from which they de rived their own existence. Whether these Presidents and Congresses were Federal ist or Democratic, they would be certain, as they were human, to use sooner or later the powers thus disclosed to them. That which Hamilton, in the bitterness of defeat, had called "a frail and worthless fab ric," Marshall converted into a mighty in strument of government. The Constitution, which began as an agreement between con flicting States, Marshall, continuing the work of Washington and Hamilton, trans formed into a charter of national life. When his life closed, his work was done — a na tion had been made. Before he died, he heard this great fact declared with unrivalled eloquence by Webster. It was reserved to another generation to put Marshall's work to the last and awful test of war, and to be hold it come forth from that dark ordeal tri umphant and supreme. John Marshall stands in history as one of that small group of men who have founded States. He was a nation-maker, a State-builder. His monu ment is in the history of the United States and his name is written upon the Constitu tion of his country.1

addresses and judicial opinions can but per ceive that he saw deeper into the heart of a question and with a clearer vision than any of his contemporaries. With this power of insight and logical analysis he possessed the rarer faculty which belongs to the creator — the builder of insti tutions. The • post-revolutionary period abounds with men of high intellectual and moral at tainments — men of learning, genius, elo quence and courage. At no time in our history, and perhaps never in the history of the world, did any nation possess at one time so great a number of men illustrious for public virtues and con spicuous as leaders of public opinion. "A glorious company The flower of men to serve As models for the mighty world And be the fair beginning Of a time." But in this group of gifted and illustrious men there were a few who, in addition to the gifts of the others, possessed to an un usual degree the constructive faculty — that of creative wisdom at work. It is the rarest of rare gifts. When we find it in combina tion with character, eloquence, courage, learning and ardor, we have before us a file leader in human progress. It is the highest gift of the gods. "To the souls of fire I, Pallas Athena, Give more fire, and to those Who are manful A might more than man's/'

The thoughtful student of his speeches,

In Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Ham ilton and Marshall we have a group of mighty men who, in constructive faculties, far outshone all of their contemporaries. Those were the real architects of this great and complex government, the real founders of a republic preserving liberty through law.1

1 Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Senator from Massachusetts.

1 Honorable Horace H. Lurton, United States Circuit Judge.