Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/30

4 its decisions. Recourse to such evidence of contemporary opinion and criticism of the Court is especially necessary for an understanding of the degree to which opposition to the Court and popular counter-movements have affected the history of the country at different periods. Of the great political revolution of 1800 which destroyed the Federalist Party, the public attitude to- wards the National Judiciary was no small cause. In bringing about the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, the antagonism caused in many States by John Marshall's decisions was a potent factor. The attitude of the Court on questions arising out of the slavery issue was closely connected with the outbreak of the Civil War. The violent Repubhcan onslaught on the Court for its courageous and notable opinions at the end of the War reacted on the whole unfortunate course of Recon- struction. Nothing in the Court's history is more strik- ing than the fact that, while its significant and neces- sary place in the Federal form of Government has always been recognized by thoughtful and patriotic men, nevertheless, no branch of the Government and no in- stitution under the Constitution has sustained more continuous attack or reached its present position after more vigorous opposition. It was, however, inevit- able from the outset that the Court's powers, its jurisdiction and its decisions should be the subject of constant challenge by one political party or the other ; for a tribunal whose chief duty was that of determining between conflicting jurisdictions in a Federal form of Government coidd not hope to escape criticism, invec- tive, opposition and even resistance.^ One interest-

1 See CeniralizaHon and the Law (1908), by Melville M. Bigelow, 55 ; William Tudor wrote in 1816 in North Amer, Rev.t III, 102 : ** Whenever any set of men shall enter- tain designs against the Constitution, either to overwhelm it in the anarchy of simple democracy, or to found on its ruins a usurpation of monarchical power, they will conunence their operations by open or insidious attadcs to weaken and overthrow the Judiciary.*'