...effect [of] following it ... can better be borne than could die evils of a different practice. At die same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of die Government upon vital questions affecting die whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions...

...1861, he denied that solely the Court could settle constitutional questions. If government policy on "vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed" by the Court, "the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned...

...obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the...affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisionsof the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties in...

...plausibly be imputed to prior courts," . . .) with the more democratic views of a more humble man: "[T]he candid citizen must confess that if the policy...fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, . . . the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government...

...Court, hut he did think it appropriate to quote a sentence from Lincoln's First Inaugural Address: "At the same time, the candid citizen must confess...vital questions affecting the whole people, is to he irrevocahly fixed hy decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation...

...Sandford decision and promised to defy it. Second, in his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln declared, "if the policy of the government upon vital questions...fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court . . . the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government...

...these presidents believed and acted on the sentiment best expressed by Lincoln, that "if the policy of government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court . . . the people will have ceased to be their own rulers."34 Lincoln...

...nothing less than the overturning, or conversion, of a republican government: For it would mean that "the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, [could] be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary...

...object of that suit." Although such a decision might be erroneous, "still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the...borne than could the evils of a different practice." In addition, judicial decisions were "also entitled to very high respect and consideration, in all...

...FORCE nor WILL but merely judgment." He also cites Lincoln's warning, in opposing Dred Scott (1857), that "if the policy of the Government upon vital questions...fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court . . . the people will have ceased to be their own rulers." 50 The plurality or majority reasoning about a constitutional...