The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 35 



citizenship, and the other to the merits and defects of a 

 written, and therefore inflexible constitution. From the 

 earliest times the term citizen has carried with it the notion 

 of privilege. During its early history, the citizens of Rome 

 constituted a real aristocracy. Following out the law of 

 her development, the rights of citizenship were at length 

 extended to the body of the people, to other communities 

 and even to distant towns and cities. We find the word 

 conveying a similar sense in modern times. It flashes out in 

 'the first French revolution, a name of such potential charm 

 that it ends, after a while, in a citizen king. ISTo one stops to 

 inquire precisely what rights belong to him as a citizen. 

 We all assume without debate, we have been educated up 

 to this point, that whoever has the right to vote and own 

 the soil he cultivates, is a citizen ; and yet we all know 

 that a woman and a child is compassed about with the 

 rights of citizenship. 



The consequences flowing from a written constitution 

 meet us every day. They assume the features of sharply 

 defined statute law ; and so we often find a great question 

 of public and state policy hinge upon the interpretation of 

 a single word or phrase. The court is under oath, sworn 

 to uphold the constitution ; it is not free to seek out the 

 path of reason ; it must 'go by the written law. Under an 

 unwritten constitution, like that of England, the courts, 

 and every branch of the government, have much greater 

 freedom ; reason, guided by precedent, plays a more import- 

 ant role ; the constitution is not amended by a positive act, 

 it is developed, like the common law, by the inspiring reason 

 which gives form and character to every growing people. 



The memoir of the chief justice is written, as its author 

 tells us, to vindicate the chief against the unjust aspersions, 

 hatred and calumny, which were provoked by this celebrated 

 decision. It reproduces the opinion, and aims at a reversal 

 of the public judgment ; unwisely, as we think, it attempts 



