Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/28

2 every study of American statesmanship." The vitally important part, however, which that Court has played in the history of the country in preserving the Union, in maintaining National supremacy within the hmits of the Constitution, in upholding the doctrines of inter- national law and the sanctity of treaties, and in affect- ing the trend of the economic, social and political de- velopment of the United States, cannot be understood by a mere study of its decisions, as reported in the law books. The Court is not an organism dissociated from the conditions and history of the times in which it ex- ists. It does not formidate and deliver its opinions in a legal vacuum. Its Judges are not abstract and im- personal oracles, but are men whose views are neces- sarily, though by no conscious intent, aflFected by in- heritance, education and environment and by the im- pact of history past and present ; and as Judge Holmes has said : "The felt necessities of the time, the preva- lent moral and pohtical theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which Judges share with their fellow-men, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed." Appointments to the Court, moreover, have not been made from a cloister of juridical pedants, but from the mass of lawyers and Judges taking active parts in the life of the country. Presidents, in selecting Judges, have been necessarily affected by geographical and political considerations, since it has been desirable that the Court should be representative (so far as practicable) of the different sections of the country and of the leading political parties. The Senate, in rejecting for partisan