ting the observation of Cato, "Leges enim ipsæ cupiunt ut jure regantur.”

The argument extended to an examination of the jurisdiction of the court, and to a minute investigation of the distinctions to be taken between citizens and British subjects, claiming the protection of the law of nations. It closed with a strong exposure of the criminality of the procedure, and with a vehement exhortation to preserve the confederation and the national faith; quoting the beautiful apothegm of Seneca, "Fides sanctificissimum humani pectoris bonum est."

Amidst all the refinements which have been resorted to in order to impair the powers of the constitution, and to construe it as a compact of states, revocable at the will of either of the contracting parties, it is deeply interesting to advert to this early exposition of the true principles of the American union.-An union formed indeed by compact, but by a compact between the people of these colonies with every individual colonist before the existence of states; recognised by the people of each state, in their state constitutions; confirmed by them as states, in the articles of confederation; and subsequently "perfected" in a constitution ordained and established by the people "for the United States of America."

The result of this argument was a triumph of right over usurpation. The decision indicates the difficulties with which the defendant contended; but the force of the treaty to overrule the inhibition against pleading a military order, was admitted. The court also declared-" Our union, as has been properly observed, is known, and legalized in our constitution, and adopted as a fundamental law in the first act of our legislature. The federal compact hath vested congress with full and exclusive powers

to make peace and war. and ratified, and rendered its obligation perpetual; and we are clearly of opinion, that no state in this union can alter or abridge, in a single point, the federal articles or the treaty."

This treaty they have made

This decision is the more meritorious, because made by judges holding by a temporary tenure, soon after the session of a legislature which had shown a fixed purpose to persevere in their odious and impolitic violence.

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A few days after this judgment was rendered, a large public meeting was convened, and an address to the people of the state was passed. This address,† after remark. ing on "the immense ability and learning" of the argument, exhorted the people, in their choice of senators, to elect men who would spurn any proposition that had a tendency to curtail the privileges of the people, and who would protect them from judicial tyranny. Having confined themselves," it stated, "to constitutional measures, and disapproving all others, they were free in sounding the alarm. If their independence was worth contending for against a powerful and enraged monarch, and at the expense of the best blood of America, surely its preservation was worth contending for against those among ourselves who might impiously hope to build their greatness upon the ruins of that fabric which was so dearly established."

The legislature assembled soon after this meeting. Without waiting the result of an appeal, which the constitution secured, this decision, made in due form of law, and with unimpeached fairness, was brought before the assembly. Resolutions were passed, declaring it to be subversive

* Sept. 13th, 1784.

It is related to have been from the pen of Melancton Smith.

of all law and good order, and the Council of Appointment were recommended, at their next session, “to appoint such persons Mayor and Recorder of New York, as will govern themselves by the known law of the land."

Judgments of courts ought to be the voice of the reason, of the virtue, of the justice of communities; and when such, they are the great landmarks and bulwarks of nations, rising far above the drifts and surges of temporary popular feeling. Such this was. And it was the first lofty stand taken in this country to carry into effect the policy Hamilton had recently reported to Congress, urging "that spirit of moderation and liberality which ought ever to characterize the deliberations and measures of a free and enlightened nation," in support of which, as has been stated, he stood alone.*

*This homage is paid him by a personal enemy. "The New York delegate, Colonel Hamilton, one of the Committee, distinguished himself by his firmness and consistency in giving it his single negative "—the motion to commit, instead of adopting and publishing the report.-Gordon's " American Revolution," iii. 376-22 to 1 negative.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE ability displayed by Hamilton on this occasion, his liberal views and distinguished probity, gathered around him the enthusiastic confidence and affection of the better part of his fellow-citizens; and at a time when the judicial character of the State was to be formed, and, from the disturbed situation of the community, professional trusts were of the most important and extensive influence, he was foremost in endeavouring to secure to the laws an honest and enlightened administration.

This was not an easy task. The general relaxation of morals, an usual and most lamentable concomitant of war, was attended with a prevailing disregard of, and disposition to question, the decisions of the courts. In the political speculations to which the revolution had given rise, the sovereignty of the popular will, which was recognised as the basis of every proceeding, was pushed to the utmost extremes in its application; and wherever the operations

of the laws bore hard, in the then unsettled relations of society, to recur to the elementary principles of government, and resolve every rule by its apparent adaptation to individual convenience, was the prevailing tendency of public opinion. The course of the contest, the means by which it had been conducted, the extravagant schemes it had engendered, gave every citizen a strong personal interest in its results, and, long before its termination, had divided the population into the opposite and hostile classes of debtors and creditors; each of which being compelled to unite, either for the common purpose of delaying or enforcing justice, acquired the dangerous, disorganizing, and formidable character of an intestine party.

The laxity of the national faith, as it sprung from, also confirmed this distinction. The loose opinions which had gradually led on to an unjust discrimination between the public creditors of different descriptions, soon took possession of the popular mind, induced preferences equally unjust in private affairs, and ultimately prostrated all respect for the obligations of contracts, and for the tribunals by which they were to be expounded and enforced. This lawless spirit which pervaded the country, was principally shown in questions growing out of the claims of two classes of creditors, whose situation, though totally different, it was sought to confound,-those of British merchants, for debts incurred previous to the revolution, and the claims of the tories, either for money due to them, or for lands of which possession had been taken as enemies' property.

The animosity natural to the combatants in a civil conflict; the enormities committed by the refugees, when the scale of war seemed to incline in their favour, or where they could continue their molestations with impunity; the harassing inroads and depredations which they had made