1870.] ' ^O [Strong. 



questions in every department of the law, that are 

 most intricate and difficult of solution. They are 

 model exhibitions of profound and accurate knowledge, 

 of extensive research, of nice discrimination, and of 

 wise conclusion. They have been generally accepted, 

 as of almost equal authority with judicial decision, and 

 not unfrequently, a claim set up with confidence has 

 been abandoned when it became known Mr. Binney 

 had given an opinion adverse to it. 



In the year 1835 he was invited by the Select and 

 Common Councils of the city, to deliver a discourse on 

 the life and character of Chief Justice Marshall. That 

 distinguished magistrate had shortly before gone down 

 to his grave, full of years and of honor, and had left 

 behind him a nation of mourners. He was appointed 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, by President Adams, in January, 1801, and he 

 continued to preside in that Court during the long 

 period of thirty-four years. 



Providence smiled upon our infant nation when he 

 was appointed. The Constitution was then an untried 

 experiment. It had no precedent. It remained to be 

 interpreted, and what principles of interpretation ought 

 to be applied to it, whether a strict or a liberal con- 

 struction should be adopted, or whether a more rational 

 view should be taken of it, one neither strict nor 

 liberal, but consonant with the paramount intent of 

 those who framed it, and necessary to secure the objects 

 for which it was designed, remained to be determined. It 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XVI. 97. D 



