of the
people. So in administering law the Judge is to ask, Is the statute
constitutional? does it square with the Norm of law which the People
have laid down; or have the legislative servants exceeded their Power
of Attorney, and done matters and things which they were not empowered
to do? In deciding this question, the Judge is to consider not merely
the Provisional Means which the Constitution designates, but also the
Ultimate Purpose thereof, the Justice and Liberty which, as its
preamble declares, it expressly aims at, and which are also the ideal
End of all sound legislation.

There is no country in the world where a great man has so noble a
place and opportunity to serve mankind as in America.

But a wicked Judge, Gentlemen, may do great harm to mankind, as I have
already most abundantly shown. For we have inherited a great mass of
laws,--customary or statutory; the legislature repeals, modifies, or
adds to them; the Judge is to expound them, and suggest their
application to each special case. The Jury is to apply or refuse to
apply the Judge's "law." In all old countries, some of these laws have
come from a barbarous, perhaps even from a savage period; some are the
work of tyrants who wrought cruelly for their own advantage, not
justly, or for the good of mankind; some have been made in haste and
heat, the legislature intending to do an unjust thing. Now an unjust
Judge has great power to select wicked statutes, customs, or
decisions; and in no country has he more power for evil than in the
federal courts of the United States. For as in England, when the
King-power makes a wicked law, the Judge, who is himself made by that
same power, may declare it just, and execute the heinous thing; so in
America, when the Slave power enacts a wicked statute, contrary to the
purpose of the constitution and to the natural justice of God, the
Judge, who is the creature of that same power, may declare it
constitutional and binding on all the People who made the constitution
as their Power of Attorney. Thus all the value of the constitution to
check despotism is destroyed, and the Fortress of Freedom is betrayed
into the hands of the enemies of liberty!

But barbarous laws must not be applied in a civilized age; nor unjust
laws enforced by righteous men. While left unrepealed, a fair and
conscientious Jury will never do injustice, though a particular
statute or custom demand it, and a wicked Judge insist upon the wrong;
for