k some notice of that reply, but entirely
forgot to remember that part of it.

He renews his onslaught upon me, forgetting to remember that I have turned
the tables against himself on that very point. I renew the effort to draw
his attention to it. I wish to stand erect before the country, as well as
Judge Douglas, on this question of judicial authority; and therefore I
add something to the authority in favor of my own position. I wish to
show that I am sustained by authority, in addition to that heretofore
presented. I do not expect to convince the Judge. It is part of the plan
of his campaign, and he will cling to it with a desperate grip. Even turn
it upon him,--the sharp point against him, and gaff him through,--he will
still cling to it till he can invent some new dodge to take the place of
it.

In public speaking it is tedious reading from documents; but I must beg
to indulge the practice to a limited extent. I shall read from a letter
written by Mr. Jefferson in 1820, and now to be found in the seventh
volume of his correspondence, at page 177. It seems he had been presented
by a gentleman of the name of Jarvis with a book, or essay, or periodical,
called the Republican, and he was writing in acknowledgment of the
present, and noting some of its contents. After expressing the hope that
the work will produce a favorable effect upon the minds of the young, he
proceeds to say:

"That it will have this tendency may be expected, and for that reason I
feel an urgency to note what I deem an error in it, the more requiring
notice as your opinion is strengthened by that of many others. You seem,
in pages 84 and 148, to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of
all constitutional questions,--a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one
which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are
as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same
passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their
maxim is, 'Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem'; and their power is
the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and not responsible, as
the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has
erected no such single tribunal, knowing that, to whatever hands confided,
with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots.
It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign with
themselves."

Thus we see th