ambition, and he will have
the courts as the instruments of his vengeance. He uses the
legislature to remove the judges, that he may appoint creatures of
his own. In effect, the powers of the government will be
concentrated in the hands of one man, who will dare to act with more
boldness, because he will be sheltered from responsibility. The
independence of the judiciary was the felicity of our constitution.
It was this principle which was to curb the fury of party on sudden
changes. The first movements of power gained by a struggle are the
most vindictive and intemperate. Raised above the storm it was the
judiciary which was to control the fiery zeal, and to quell the
fierce passions of a victorious faction.

We are standing on the brink of that revolutionary torrent, which
deluged in blood one of the fairest countries of Europe.

France had her national assembly, more numerous than, and equally
popular with, our own. She had her tribunals of justice, and her
juries. But the legislature and her courts were but the instruments
of her destruction. Acts of proscription and sentences of banishment
and death were passed in the cabinet of a tyrant. Prostrate your
judges at the feet of party, and you break down the mounds which
defend you from this torrent.

I am done. I should have thanked my God for greater power to resist
a measure so destructive to the peace and happiness of the
country. My feeble efforts can avail nothing. But it was my duty to
make them. The meditated blow is mortal, and from the moment it is
struck, we may bid a final adieu to the constitution.

COMMERCE AND NAVAL POWER (United States Senate, February 12th, 1810)

God has decided that the people of this country should be commercial
people. You read that decree in the seacoast of seventeen hundred
miles which he has given you; in the numerous navigable waters which
penetrate the interior of the country; in the various ports and
harbors scattered alone your shores; in your fisheries; in the
redundant productions of your soil; and, more than all, in the
enterprising and adventurous spirit of your people. It is no more a
question whether the people of this country shall be allowed to
plough the ocean, than it is whether they shall be permitted to
plough the land. It is not in the power of this government, nor
would it be if it were as strong as the most despotic upon the
earth, to subdue the commercial spirit, or to destroy the commer