The New Star Chamber Author:Edgar Lee Masters Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JOHN MARSHALL. Among the signs of the times which bode ill for the purity of republican principles is the much- vaunted plan of celebrating the memory of John... more » Marshall. This analysis of the movement is indisputably true—namely, if its patrons were devoted to the rights of men instead of the powers of government, if they were stirred by the principles of liberty instead of the glory of the state they would propose to celebrate by proper memorials the achievements and sacrifices of some one of the many men who pledged life and sacred honor in the cause of American liberty and who sought to bequeath it to posterity when it was attained. Those thinkers who place the state on a higher plane than men are usually engaged in defending unequal rights. When rights are unequal the state must be strong enough not only to make them so, but to keep them so. It ought to be a plain truth to everyone that the only justification for government is the preservation of equal rights. Men are endowed with the love of liberty and with an intuitive sense of its axiomatic truth. And when the constitution was adopted its climacteric end was stated in the preamble to be the preservation of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. But in proportion as the government becomes strong men become v/eak. In proportion asthe functions of government are multiplied individual liberty is decreased. Therefore as we must have both government and liberty what powers shall the government have? There is but one answer to this question. When the government is strong enough to protect each man in the enjoyment of equal freedom it has attained the full measure of legitimate power. One of the envious shadows that has fallen from the black cockade of federalism is the forgery of history against those who believed in libe...« less