John Marshall Quotes - Page 2

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• It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is...If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each...This is of the very essence of judicial duty.

  John Marshall

  Law, Essence, Two

  Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 178, 1803.

  36 Copy quote

• The most lively fancy aided by the strongest description cannot equal the reality of the opera.

  John Marshall

  Reality, Opera, Fancy

  John Marshall, Herbert Alan Johnson, Charles T. Cullen, Institute of Early American History and Culture (Williamsburg, Va.) (1974). “The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence and papers, January 1796-December 1798”, Chapel Hill, N.C : University of North Carolina Press

  4 Copy quote

• State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress. ... Inspection laws, quarantine laws, health laws of every description, as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c., are component parts of this mass. No direct general power over these objects is granted to Congress, and, consequently, they remain subject to State legislation.

  John Marshall

  Health, Law, Quarantine

  John Marshall, Joseph Potter Cotton (2000). “The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall”, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  6 Copy quote

• The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create.

  John Marshall

  Liberty, Useless, May

  McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

  24 Copy quote

• When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights.

  John Marshall

  Rights, Law, Contracts

  John Marshall (1974). “The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence, papers, and selected judicial opinions, April 1807-December 1813”, Chapel Hill, N.C : University of North Carolina Press

  23 Copy quote

• To obtain a just compromise, concession must not only mutual-it must be equal also....There can be no hope that either will yield more than it gets in return.

  John Marshall

  Yield, Return, Compromise

  30 Copy quote

• I have always believed that national character... depends more on the female part of society than is generally imagined. Precepts from the lips of a beloved mother... sink deep in the heart, and make an impression which is seldom entirely effaced.

  John Marshall

  Mother, Heart, Character

  John Marshall (2000). “The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence, papers, and selected judicial opinions, January 1824-March 1827”

  5 Copy quote

• That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis, on which the whole American fabric has been erected.... The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as the authority, from which they proceed, is supreme ... they are designed to be permanent.... The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written.

  John Marshall

  Government, People, Fabric

  4 Copy quote

• My gift of John Marshall to the people of the United States was the proudest act of my life. There is no act of my life on which I reflect with more pleasure. I have given to my country a judge equal to a Hole, Holt, or a Mansfield.

  John Marshall

  Country, People, Judging

  18 Copy quote

• Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.

  John Marshall

  Government, Law, Void

  Marbury v. Madison (1803)

  8 Copy quote

• Whether a law be void for its repugnancy to the Constitution, is, at all times, a question of much delicacy, which out seldom, if ever, to be decided in the affirmative, in doubtful case. ... But it is not on slight implication and vague conjecture that the legislature is to be pronounced to have transcended its powers, and its acts to be considered as void. The opposition between the Constitution and the law should be such that the judge feels a clear and strong conviction of their incompatibility with each other.

  John Marshall

  Strong, Law, Judging

  Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 128, 1810.

  6 Copy quote

• The institution of Masonry ought to be abandoned as one capable of much evil, and incapable of producing any good which might not be affected by safe and open means.

  John Marshall

  Mean, Evil, Safe

  4 Copy quote

• It is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society; the application of those rules to individuals in society would seem to be the duty of other departments.

  John Marshall

  Government, Peculiar, Individual

  John Marshall, Joseph Potter Cotton (2000). “The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall”, p.245, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  6 Copy quote

• Have no power, by taxation or otherwise, to retard, impede, burden or in any manner control the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress.

  John Marshall

  Law, Taxation, Burden

  Gerald Gunther, John Marshall (1969). “John Marshall's Defense of McCulloch V. Maryland”, p.50, Stanford University Press

  6 Copy quote

• No principle of general law is more universally acknowledged, than the perfect equality of nations. Russia and Geneva have equal rights. It results from this equality, that no one can rightfully impose a rule on another....As no nation can prescribe a rule for others, none can make a law of nations.

  John Marshall

  Law, Russia, Rights

  4 Copy quote

• The French Revolution will be found to have had great influence on the strength of parties, and on the subsequent political transactions of the United States.

  John Marshall

  Party, Political, United States

  John Marshall (1845). “The Life of George Washington: Commander in Chief of the American Forces, During the War which Established the Independence of His Country, and First President of the United States. Comp. Under the Inspection of the Honourable Bushrod Washington, from Original Papers Bequeathed to Him by His Deceased Relative”, p.252

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• Seldom has a battle, in which greater numbers were
  not engaged, been so important in its consequences as that of Cowpens.

  John Marshall

  Numbers, Important, Battle

  John Marshall, Bushrod Washington (1805). “The Life of George Washington: Commander in Chief of the American Forces, During the War which Established the Independence of His Country, and First President of the United States”, p.317

  4 Copy quote

• Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.

  John Marshall

  Mean, Letters, Spirit

  McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

  7 Copy quote

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