HON. JOHN MARSHALL BUTLER Ories of Such Individuals for Their Contribu and His Compatriots Were Concerned Not So of MARYLAND Tions
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4870 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-. HOUSE April 20 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS Address by the Chief Justice of the United . made contributions to it, and individuals of England; the other lived almost his entire have either evolved or formulated or syn life within a few miles of his beloved Vir States at the Marshall-Wythe-Black .. thesized principles of justice in a way that ginia. stone Commemoration Ceremonies has challenged the admiration and emula While Blackstone was writing his com tion of people in many lands-people who are mentaries on the law of England, Marshall interested· in that kind of government which was studying the great events of history EXTENSION OF REMARKS is premised upon freedom and the dignity of upon which the rights of Englishmen were OF the individual. We honor those nations for predicated in order to establish here a com their accomplishments and revere the mem parable system of justice. At that time, he HON. JOHN MARSHALL BUTLER ories of such individuals for their contribu and his compatriots were concerned not so OF MARYLAND tions. much with a better system of justice than As Americans, we are proud of our system the English system as they were with having IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES of government and our standards of justice, the same rights as Englishmen. A few years Wednesday, April 20, 1955 although we claim neither originality nor later he fought with Washington at Mon perfection for them. We, too, have had our mouth, Brandywine, and Valley Forge to es Mr. BUTLER. Mr. President, Sep .. great men who have made contributions to tablish here a Nation for that purpose. tember of this year has been designated the sum total of human knowledge in the Blackstone expounded the law of England as as John Marshall Bicentennial Month by field of justice. We do not deify them. Like it had developed by tradition, charter, stat the action of the 82d Congress, and ex the sages of other countries, they were peo utes, and judicial interpretation for a thou tensive ceremonies will commemorate ple, subject to all the limitations of human sand years. Marshall expounded our Consti beings. As a nation, we make no pretense tution, a document of 5,000 words, only a the 200th anniversary of the birth of the except to a passion for justice based upon the dozen years old, but which had been designed great Chief Justice, John Marshall. dignity and rights of the individual. We to establish for au times a more perfect Union Chief Justice ·Marshall firmly im stake everything we have on our belief that of States that had but recently achieved their planted the precepts of judicial review only through this kind of justice can there independence. That Constitution was an in our constitutional system. History be order and contentment within nations experiment in the science of government. records this commentary of 1833 which and peace between countries of the world. Many people believed it to be a dangerous has become a lasting tribute·and memo We believe this kind of justice is the rightful experiment. Many feared it and believed heritage of every human being and that it is it would become another instrument of op rial to his great wis.dom and genius: his right and duty to achieve it. pression. It was approved by the States Your expositions of constitutional law en For three and a half centuries Americans, only by the narrowest of margins. No one joy a rare.and extraordinary authority. They using the experience and wisdom of older was certain if or how it would stand the constitute a monument of fame far beyond countries from which we or our forebears test of time. One of the signers of the the ordinary memorials of political and mill-: came, have endeavored to develop in this sec Constitution said, "Constitutions are not tary glory. They are destined to enlighten, tion of the world a system of government the same on paper as in real life." It fell instruct, and convince future generations and a body of law that will accord justice to to the lot of John Marshall to translate our and can scarcely perish but with the memory everyone. We have made mistakes-many Constitution from paper into real life, to of the Constitution itself. of them. People have at times succeeded in enable it to meet the problems of a new, using our system for selfish and even op poor, war-tired, and divided country. To In this setting, and as a member of pressive ends. We have often been required say that it took wisdom, foresight, patience, the John Marshall Bicentennial Com to wipe some things from the slate and start and courage to do this task is trite. But it mission, I ask unanimous consent to have again. At times we have been close to f~ilure is nonetheless true, and he did it for 34 printed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD but we have never failed in our climb toward years during the most formative and politi an address by the Chief Justice of the the pinnacle of true justice. And we are cally turbulent period of our national his climbing today to meet the test of Thomas tory, leaving at his death a greater imprint United States, Earl Warren, delivered at on our legal ~nstitutions than any Ameri the College of William and Mary, at Jefferson that "The most sacred of the duties of a government is to do equal and impartial can to this day has ever made. We honor Williamsburg, Va., on September 25, justice to all its citizens." him today at the beginning of the 200tli 1954. We do not assume that justice is indige year since his birth in testimony of the last There being no objection, the address ing and universal veneration in which his nous only to our soil or in our own people. work is held. was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, Waves of passion, prejudice and even hatreds as follows: have on occasions swept over us and almost It is appropriate that this recognition engulfed us, as they have .the people of should be given him in his beloved Virginia ADDRESS BY EARL WARREN, CHIEF JUSTICE OF where he lived all his life and in whose THE UNITED STATES, AT MARSHALL-WYTHE• other lands. In our efforts to guard against these things, we have called upon the wis service he offered his life for the new Nation BLACKSTONE COMMEMORATION CEREMONIES, he envisioned, in whose legislature he la COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY, WILLIAMS dom of the ages. We have accepted un blushingly the contribution of tho$e intel bQred for the Constitutional Convention, BURG, VA., SEPTEMBER 25, 1954 lects of other nations and ages who, in ac where he worked for ratification of the Con It is our pleasure today to honor great men cordance with the circumstances under stitution, and which State he represented of another day, men who have contributed which they lived, have placed foundation in the Congress. It is also fitting that this much to our national life and to the civiliza stones in the temple of justice. ceremony should be held at beautiful and tion of which it is a part. We speak of them, Our own symbol of justice, the home of historic College of William and Mary where of course, in gratitude, but we have another the Supreme Court of the ·united States, he received his only formal education under reason, even more personal to present-day honors great nations of lawgivers. It is of the benign tutelage of George Wythe, then Americans and in keeping with the necessi- Grecian architecture of the Corinthian order occupying the first chair of law in this . ties of our time. We meet here to strengthen so loved by the Romans and used by them country. John Marshall was not an orthodox our own convictions concerning government in a countless number of their public build student. Born in the wilderness, he learned and law; to fortify 01¥" belief in a govern ings. In the courtroom itself, we give pub fr.om his parents and from an occasional ment of laws and not of .men. We seek re lic recognition to the lawgivers of all ages . tutor, but largely from the life of his time dedication to the cause of justice, between On the frieze of one wall are the figures of . and from the great men of Virginia in the individuals, between citizens and their sov ancients who made their contribution be causes for which men struggled in those ereign, and between the nations of the world. fore the birth of Christ: Menes, Hammu days. What men he encountered in his na We. reach for perfect justice, but we do not rabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, tive State-Washington, Jefferson, Madison, expect to grasp it, because history, both pro Confucius, and Octavian; and on the oppo Patrick Henry, Mason, Monroe, and a host fane and divine, teaches us that as long as site wall the figures of those who came after of others immortal in United States history. time and human nature exist there will be Him·: Justinian, Mohammed, Charlemagne, Whether these men agreed in politics or not, issues to decide, causes to adjust. We learn King John, St. Louis, Grotius, Blackstone, they all had great minds, were passionately from Holy Writ that even the angels quarreled Marshall, and Napoleon. The most signif devoted to their own political philosophy and that Satan and his angels were banished icant to us, of course, are the figures .