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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 399

reasons for declaring such a law unconstitutional and void, should be strong,
irresistible and absolutely conclusive.

"Inasmuch as the law in question is a law in favor of liberty and justice,
it ought to have had the benefit of any doubt which could arise as to its strict
constitutionality. This, I believe, will be the view taken of it, not only by
laymen like myself, but by eminent lawyers as well.

"All men who have given any thought to the machinery, structure and
practical operation of our Government, must have recognized the importance
of absolute harmony between its various departments and their respective
powers and duties. They must have seen clearly the mischievous tendency
and danger to the body politic of any antagonisms between any of its various
branches. To feel the force of this thought, we have only to remember the
history of the administration of President Johnson and the conflict which
then took place between the national Executive and the national Congress,
when the will of the people was again and again met by the Executive veto
and when the country seemed upon the verge of another revolution. No
patriot, however bold, can wish for his country a repetition of those gloomy
days.

"Now let me say here, before I go on a step or two further in this discussion,
that, if any man has come here to-night with his breast heaving with
passion, his heart flooding with acrimony, and wishing and expecting to hear
violent denunciation of the Supreme Court, on account of this decision, he
has mistaken the object of this meeting and the character of the men by
whom it is called.

"We neither come to bury Caesar, nor to praise him. The Supreme Court
is the autocratic point in our Government. No monarch in Europe has a
power more absolute over the laws, lives and liberties of his people, than that
Court has over our laws, lives and liberties. Its judges live, and ought to live,
an eagle's flight beyond the reach of fear or favor, praise or blame, profit or
loss. No vulgar prejudice should touch the members of that Court, anywhere.
Their decisions should come down to us like the calm, clear light of Infinite
justice. We should be able to think of them and to speak of them with profoundest
respect for their wisdom and deepest reverence for their virtue; for
what His Holiness the Pope is to the Roman Catholic Church, the Supreme
Court is to the American State. Its members are men, to be sure, and may
not, like the Pope, claim infallibility, and they are not infallible, but they are
the Supreme lawgiving power of the Nation, and their decisions are law until
changed by that Court.

"What will be said here to-night, will be spoken I trust, more in sorrow