This error takes from the Act all authority as an
interpretation of the Constitution. I dismiss it.
The decisions of the Supreme Court are entitled to great consideration,
and will not be mentioned by me except with respect. Among the memories
of my youth are happy days when I sat at the feet of this tribunal,
while MARSHALL presided, with STORY by his side. The pressure now
proceeds from the case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania (16 Peters, 539), where
is asserted the power of Congress. Without going into minute
criticism of this judgment, or considering the extent to which it is
extra-judicial, and therefore of no binding force,--all which has been
done at the bar in one State, and by an able court in another,--but
conceding to it a certain degree of weight as a rule to the judiciary on
this particular point, still it does not touch the grave question which
springs from the denial of Trial by Jury. This judgment was pronounced
by Mr. Justice Story. From the interesting biography of the great
jurist, recently published by his son, we learn that the question of
Trial by Jury was not considered as before the Court; so that, in the
estimation of the learned judge himself, it was still an open question.
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