Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/47

Rh of the Court, in the one hundred and twenty years which have since elapsed.^ "It is not for Judges to listen to the voice of persuasive eloquence or popular appeal," said Judge Story in the Dartmotdh College Case. "We have nothing to do but pronounce the law as we find it, and having done this, our justification must be left to the impartial judgment of our country." * Loose statements by some modern writers on law and sociology to the effect that the "Bench has always had an avowed partisan bias", are not sustained on examination of its history.' Thus, Judges appointed by JeflFerson and Madison did not hesitate to join with Marshall in sustaining and devel- oping the strongly Nationalistic interpretation of the Constitution so obnoxious to JeflFerson. Judges ap- pointed by Jackson joined with Marshall and Story

1 C<mn£eiieut Courant, Feb. 9, 16, 1801, account oi a dinner to Oliver Wolcott in Washington, Jan. 24, 1801.

'Paterson, J., in Fowler v. Lindsay (1799), 3 Dallas, 411: "No prejudice or paoBiofi, whether of a State or personal nature, should insinuate itself in the admin- istration of justice. ... It is the duty of Judges to declare, and not to make, the law." Moody, J., in Twining v. New Jersey (1908), 211 U. S. 106: "Under the guiae of interpreting the Constitution, we must take care that we do not import into the discussion our personal views of what would be wise, just and fitting rules of government to be adopted by a free people, and confound them with constitu- tkmal limitations.*'

> Brooks Adams m The Theory of Social RevduHons (1913), 47, says: "In fine, from the outset, the American bench, because it deab with the most fiercely con- tested of political issues, has been an instrument necessary to political success. Consequently, political parties have striven to control it, and therefore the bench has always had an avowed partisan bias.** See in answer to this. Judicial Inter" pretation of Political Theory; A Study in tht Relation of Courts to the American Party System (1914), by William B. Bizzell; Is Law the Expression of Class Self^ i^ness, by Francis M. Burdick, Harv. Law Rev. (1912), XXV ; see also Politi€9 and the Supreme Court, by Walter D. Coles, Amer. Law Rev. (1893), XXVII. Westel W. Willoughby, op. dt., 99, answering Von Holst*s charge in hb Con- sUtuHonal History of the United States that their views on slavery controlled the appointment of Judges prior to 1860, says : "That the judiciaiy committee (of the Senate) was, for some years, influenced in its action regarding nominations to the Supreme Court by the views of the nominees as to slavery is extremely prob- able. . . . That, however, the Justices acted in accordance with their conscien- tious interpretation of the Constitution, a study of the character of the Justices, of the histoiy of the cases, and of the several decisions rendered must, I think, convince the impartial."