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erected. The exercise of this original right is a very great exertion; nor can it nor ought it to be frequently repeated. The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as the authority from which they proceed is supreme, and can seldom act, they are designated to be permanent. This original and supreme will organizes the gov ernment, and assigns to different departments their respective powers. It may stop here or establish certain limits not to be transcended by those departments."

He did not reason after the manner of the philosophers, who deal alone with abstract principles. He did not express himself in the language of the poet. He did not attempt to show, nor did he believe that the maxim, vox populi vox Dei, is or ever was to be accepted as literally correct, but he always recognized that in free governments, sovereignty, in the most comprehensive sense, resides with and inheres in the people. Organized government embraces that portion of the original and illimitable power of the people they may choose to impart to the agencies they institute. Original sovereignty is one thing, delegated sovereignty another, and this distinction he never lost sight of. He realized to the fullest extent that:

"Power in the people is like light in the sun-native, original, inherent, and unlimited by anything human. In government it may be compared with the reflected light of the moon, for it is only borrowed, delegated, and limited by the intention of the people whose it is, and to whom governors are to consider themselves as responsible, while the people are responsible only to God; themselves being the losers if they pursue a false scheme of politics."

Constitutions do not create individual rights or impart them to those by whom constitutions are ordained. The rights of persons are original, not delegated.

Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Petition of Right and our State and Federal Constitutions, are intended to guarantee, preserve, and protect those attributes of men that are

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inherent and indefeasible. Government is a necessity with civilized man, but it emanates from the sovereignty of the people and remains at all times subject to such changes or modifications as that sovereignty may decree. The philosophy, I may say the framework, of our government, was thus epitomized by the great Chief Justice.

"When the American people created a national legislature, with certain enumerated powers, it was neither necessary nor proper to define the powers retained by the States. These powers proceeded not from the people of America, but from the people of the several States; and remain, after the adoption of the Constitution, what they were before, except so far as they may be abridged by that instrument."

He was a "States' rights" mao, in that he respected and on all occasions upheld the rights and powers reserved by the States and the people, but he undeviatingly advocated "the preservation of the General Government, in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad."

I am admonished by the hour, that I can not follow further the story of his great performances. Full of years and full of honors, he passed from life's labors to his eternal rest. His works live after him. They are the daily companion of every American lawyer and the vade mecum of every American court.

"His setting sun loomed out in cloudless splendor, as it sank below the horizon. The last light shot up with a soft and balmy transparency, as if the beams, while yet reflected back on this earth, were but ushering in the morn of his own immortality."

One further thought, and I shall have finished the task assigned me. Great as were the intellectual powers of John Marshall, and pre-eminent as were the services he rendered as the first judicial officer of the republic, he could scarcely have attained the commanding position conceded him by his own,

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and succeeding, generations without the loyal, generous, and earnest support of the profession which still delights to do him honor. The members of that profession have always taken an active part in the vicissitudes of society, and always exercised a dominating influence in public affairs. They do not constitute a class, privileged or otherwise. They come to the bar from every walk of life, and from every pursuit or avocation in which the people engage. They are always in touch with those from whom they spring. The advocates of order and regularity, they are the last to compromise with innovation. Revering precedent, they are naturally conservative. Believing in stable government, their conception of real freedom is subordination to the reasonable rules and regulations dictated by experience for the government of men, but they are also sticklers for the equal protection of the law, and for its due and regular administration.

With them the courts are the visible organs of legitimate authority, and the judges the personal representatives of the dignity and majesty of the law. Hence, it was not unnatural, it was to be expected, that from the beginning the eyes of the American bar should be turned to the high Court, whose jurisdiction and power exceeded that of any other judicial tribunal in the world. And when its decisions proved equal to the important questions it was called on to adjudicate, and its opinions spoke the language of exhaustive research, profound learning and exalted ability, the bar of the country took up the championship of the Court and the defense of its great leader against the attacks of political opponents, and against the hostile criticisms of those whose business it was to denounce without consideration and to condemn without reason.

Identified with the Court, as its officers and advisers, were such counsel as Webster, Tilghman, Rawle, Dexter, Wirt, Pinckney, Nicholas, Harper, Leigh, and a host of others, whose fame reached every section of the country, and whose

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names gave character and standing to the American bar of the earlier days of the nineteenth century. Those exalted characters added lustre to the Court in which they practiced their profession, and inspired the public with confidence and respect for that august tribunal.

As their successors, we are here to reassert the continued and unabated adherence of the bar to the Courts of our country, State and national, and to keep alive the memory of that great jurist, the purity of whose life, public and private, and the grandeur of whose judicial achievements portray, as they illustrate, all that is elevating and ennobling in the profession of which we are proud to be accounted members.

To the dignified, able and distinguished Court, in whose presence I stand, and at whose bar I have had the privilege and the honor to speak, to the Bar Association of Illinois, whose guest I am, and to all who have honored me by their presence today, I return, in the fullness of my heart, the thanks I find myself unable, fittingly and appropriately, to express in words.

RESPONSE OF CHIEF JUSTICE BOGGS.

On behalf of the Court, Chief Justice Carroll C. Boggs responded as follows:

It was a favorite expression of Mr. Carlyle that "the history of a nation is the biography of its great men."

The soldier who has carried the flag of his country to victory in the field of war, the sailor who has triumphed in battle on the sea, and the orator who correctly interprets and gives eloquent expression to the cherished ideas and beliefs of the people, have always aroused public enthusiasm, received ovations while living, and the anniversaries of the great events of their lives have been commemorated by their grateful countrymen.

The labors which ennoble the life and character of a great judge relate to and deal with the liberty, safety and security of life and person of the individual and the preservation of

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the rights of property of every person, natural or artificial, and in a court of review those labors, exacting and arduous, are performed in the seclusion of the conference room or the quiet of the chamber or library, and though in their nature wanting in that which so readily attracts the attention or wins the plaudits of the busy citizen, equally demand, if a judge has proven worthy, upright, truly great, just and im partial in his position, that his biography, with that of the soldier, the sailor and the orator, should be deemed a part of the history of his race and his country.

I do not, however, presume to attempt to add anything to what has been so eloquently and completely said of Chief Justice Marshall in the address of Senator Lindsay. Chief Justice Marshall knew how to be a great and dignified judge and at the same time a plain and unpretentious American citizen. He possessed a powerful mind and an incorruptible character, and to these qualities all parties and all beliefs can join in rendering tribute.

The thoughts which are brought uppermost in the mind by association of ideas connected with the theme of the address to which we have listened relate to the long, weary road along which mankind has traveled to attain, protect and secure that degree of freedom and happiness enjoyed under the institutions of our government. Other people than ours may have lived or may now live under just laws, equitably and fairly executed, but the safety of a free man is that he lives in a government where the power and authority to govern rests in the people upon whom the laws are to operate and where the law maker is restricted by constitutional limitations to the enactment of only just and equitable laws and where all who are or may be empowered to aid in the administration of those laws are also checked and guarded by the wise and wholesome limitation of a written constitution.

It is possible a wise and humane ruler, though possessed of despotic power, may grant his subjects wise and just laws.