8226. SUPREME COURT, Individual opinions.—[further continued] .
I must comfort myself
with the hope that the judges will see the
importance and the duty of giving their country
the only evidence they can give of fidelity
to its Constitution and integrity in the administration
of its laws; that is to say, by
every one's giving his opinion seriatim and
publicly on the cases he decides. Let him
prove by his reasoning that he has read the
papers, that he has considered the case, that
in the application of the law to it, he uses his
own judgment independently and unbiased
by party views and personal favor or disfavor.
Throw himself in every case on God
and his country; both will excuse him for
error and value him for his honesty. The
very idea of cooking up opinions in conclave,
begets suspicions that something passes
which fears the public ear, and this, spreading
by degrees, must produce at some time
abridgment of tenure, facility of removal, or
some other modification which may promise
a remedy. For, in truth, there is at this
time more hostility to the Federal Judiciary
than to any other organ of the government.—
To William Johnson. Washington ed. vii, 278.
Ford ed., x, 248.
(M.
1823)
