of the Constitution. And I venture to say that if the contention of the government shall be sustained, it will be upon the ground that under the power to make war Congress was entitled to adopt any and all means to carry that power into effect, including the right to conquer foreign territory and hold it as a conquered province in the way such things were done at the time the Constitution was adopted, for at that time the right to make war in all civilized countries carried with it the right to hold all captured territory as tributary provinces and to make it, so far as possible, pay the expenses which had been incurred in the war for its acquisition.

From this brief review you can easily see to how great an extent the doctrine first laid down in McCulloch v. Maryland has influenced and determined the whole development of this country into a strong centralized government.

On the other hand, the principle that the states can not tax in any way the operations of the United States government has been applied to prevent them from taxing either the bonds of the United States (Weston v. Charleston, 2 Pet. 449), or its real property (VanBrocklin v. Tennessee, 117 U. S. 151). Neither can the states tax the franchises of a national bank or any other corporation created by Congress (California v. Pacific R. R. Co., 127 U. S. 1; Owensboro National Bank v. Owensboro, 173 U. S. 664).

I have not time to consider the various criticisms that have been made of the Federal judiciary, but it is enough to say that if the Federal courts have usurped jurisdiction not rightfully theirs, the remedy is with Congress,

which can at any time abolish the inferior Federal courts or limit their jurisdiction in a manner which they can not overstep. The fact that Congress has not taken such action is abundant evidence that the people throughout the country generally are not impressed with the justice of these criticisms.

That case which of all others—except, perhaps, the income tax case-has excited the bitterest feeling on the part of a certain class of people, is the Debs case, in which the right of the government to use a writ of injunction to suppress the Chicago strike was sustained; and the first authority cited in the opinion of Justice Brewer to sustain the contention of the government was McCulloch v. Maryland, to the point that the government of the Union was a government of the people and in no wise dependent upon the states for the execution of the great powers assigned to it by the Constitution, and that it had the right to resort to all means adequate to attain its ends.

In Marshall's opinions there is a universal language pervading them all and having but one meaning, and that is that the United States is a nation with the powers of a nation, and is superior to the individual states; and I believe that at the beginning of the Civil War, had Marshall been living, he would have been upon the side of the Union instead of the Confederacy.

The story is told of General Lee that at the outbreak of the war he was offered the supreme command of the armies of the United States, and that he replied that although an officer in the army of the United States he could not draw his sword against Virginia, and, there

fore, he resigned his commission and became Commander in Chief of the Virginia forces. There is the great difference between Marshall and Lee. Lee believed that his first allegiance was to his state, but Marshall believed in the supremacy of the Union, which he did so much to mold; and I believe that, had he been living in 1861, you would have found him on the side that looked to the preservation of an indestructible Union.

TRIAL OF AARON BURR.

By Edward J. McDermott.

One of the most interesting incidents in the life of Chief Justice Marshall was the trial of Aaron Burr for treason. Jefferson and Burr, in 1796, and, again, in 1800, had been candidates for President and Vice President, respectively, on the Republican ticket; but when, in 1800, each received exactly the same number of votes in the Electoral College and the election was cast upon the House of Representatives, and the vote was very close there, thirty-six ballots being necessary to decide the issue, Burr sought, by a discreditable combination with the Federalists, to secure the first place for himself. In 1804, after his defeat as a candidate for governor of New York, on the Federalist ticket, and while he was still Vice President, he mortally wounded Hamilton in that odious duel, and thus became disfranchised, under the law of New York, and was indicted for murder in New Jersey. At the expiration of his term of office, in March, 1805, there was only a gloomy outlook for him in politics or law; and, being a brilliant, ambitious and bold man, he was ready for any desperate venture. As there had been much lawlessness and rebelliousness in our country for a long time after the Revolution, and as there was much discontent bordering on disloyalty in the territory along

the Ohio and the Mississippi, and even some eminent men there were open to suspicion, Burr believed that he could gather together a few thousand adventurers, and, by a bold stroke, carve out an empire along the Mississippi or the borders of Mexico.

He made a western tour to perfect his plans. Twice in the fall of 1806 he was arrested in Kentucky, at the instance of the district attorney of the United States, Col. J. H. Daviess; but, for want of proof, he was discharged by the grand jury on December 2, 1806. About thirty of his followers had been gathered at Blennerhassett's Island, in the Ohio river, and, on December 10, 1806, they proceeded south to join him at Cumberland river; but a previous proclamation of President Jefferson had aroused the people against him along his route; he and his few adherents were dispersed, and he was captured in Alabama, in February, and was hurried through the forests to Richmond for indictment and trial.

The indictment charged that, on December 10, 1806, at Blennerhassett's Island, which was then a part of Wood county, Virginia, Burr had levied war on the United States. Though Blennerhassett, a wealthy, cultivated and attractive gentleman from Ireland, who had a beautiful wife and several children in his exquisite home on the island, had been previously inveigled into Burr's scheme, and was finally made a bankrupt, Burr was not at the island at the time his men assembled there with a few weapons preparatory to their departure for New Orleans. He was then in the south, awaiting their coming and directing their movements.