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important points, principles more favourable, as he conceives, to the power and stability of the National Government than those which seem to be entertained respectively by the learned authors of the Lectures on " American Law," and of the "View of the Constitution." He has not, however, differed from such distinguished jurists without being supported by the opinions of some of the most eminent statesmen of the present day, and of different parties;-by the doctrines officially proclaimed by the President of the United States, and sustained in the speeches of Mr. Webster; nor without being sanctioned, as he conceives, by the judicial authority of Chief Justice Marshall,-expressly, upon one of the points in question, and virtually, upon the other, by his affirmance of principles which are involved in its consideration, and must eventually govern its decision.

In referring to the venerable name of the present Chief Justice of the United States, the Author must be understood, on this and on all other occasions, as adopting his individual opinions, not less from deference to their official authority, than from the conviction wrought by the luminous and profound reasonings by which they are elucidated and

supported. As that eminent and revered Judge has himself declared it auspicious to the Constitution and to the country, that the new Government found such able advocates and interpreters as the iHustrious authors of "The Federalist," so it may be regarded as one of the most signal advantages attending its career, that its principles should have been developed and reduced to practice under a judicial administration so admirably qualified in every respect to expound them truly, and firmly to sustain them.

The nature and design of the present publication dispense with the necessity, if they do not exclude the propriety, of marginal references to authorities in support of the positions advanced in the text. But it is believed that none are assumed without either a direct adjudication upon the point, or that collateral support which is derived from analogical reasoning and precedents, to sustain it, or without being warranted by the practice of the Government and the acquiescence of the People. From the phraseology adopted, it may perhaps in every instance be perceived whether any point of regulation or construction be authoritatively laid down or argumentatively stated. In the former case,

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the nature of the authority may be gathered from the language of the proposition; and in the latter, the premises from which a corollary or an analogy is deduced, are distinctly designated.

In arranging the materials thus collected and derived, the form of consecutive and dependent propositions has been preferred, as recommended by Professor Dugald Stewart in reference to Moral Science.

This method had in substance been adopted by Sir W. Blackstone in the outlines of his original Lectures on the English Law, and has since been pursued by Mr. Justice Story in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. It is, indeed, peculiarly appropriate to a work intended both as a text to be enlarged on, explained and illustrated by a Lecturer, and as a class book to be used by Teachers who must necessarily exercise a discretion in selecting such parts for recitation as may be best adapted to the age and capacities of their pupils; whilst with the aid of a proper index, it will be found equally convenient for the purposes of immediate and general reference. As to the order and distribution of the matter, the Author has again to acknowledge his obliga

tions to "The Federalist;" whose plan in this respect he has followed with very little other alteration than that of transposing the two branches into which the subject is naturally divided.

One word more remains to be added in regard to the relation which the work may be supposed to bear to the politics of the day. That it may derive an additional interest, and, it is to be hoped, an additional value from its reference to topics which have of late so much occupied the public mind, and so much excited the passions of at least a portion of the community, will not be denied. But this arises unavoidably from the nature of the subject. It will be recollected that the adoption of the Constitution of the United States gave birth to the two great parties into which the country was divided for many years after it went into operation; and, that to this day, the different opinions prevailing in regard to its construction, as well as to the principles of interpretation applicable to it, are influenced, if not governed, by the different views originally taken of the nature of the compact. By those whose intention it had been to establish a Supreme National Government, operating upon the citizens of the

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several States as individuals receiving protection and owing allegiance to the Union, it was liberally and beneficially expounded in order to effect their end. By those who, in opposition to that design, had been anxious to maintain the full sovereignty of the States, and to render the new Constitution a mere league or treaty between them, similar in its character to the former Confederation, a strict interpretation was contended for. It is therefore impossible to adopt a particular construction of the Constitution upon any point involving these original principles of opposition, without conflicting with the opinions, awakening the jealousies, or offending the prejudices, of one or the other of these parties; or, what is more to be deprecated, without appearing to enter the lists in defence of party doctrines, or being considered as enrolled under the banners of party leaders, and hazarding the hostility of those zealots upon whom the mantles of the old parties are now claimed to have descended.

To which of these parties the Author was attached; what principles he originally professed, and has ever adhered to, he is far, very far from wishing, were it even possible, to conceal. But it must be remembered that

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