No One Imagines That A Law Professing

Courts Are The Mere Instruments Of The Law, And Can Will Nothing. When They Are Said To Exercise A Discretion, It Is A Mere Legal Discretion, A Discretion To Be Exercised In Discerning The Course Prescribed By Law; And, When That Is Discerned, It Is The Duty Of The Court To Follow It. Judicial Power Is Never Exericised For The Purpose Of Giving Effect To The Will Of The Judge; Always For The Purpose Of Giving Effect To The Will Of The Legislature; Or, In Other Words, To The Will Of The Law.

It Is The Peculiar Province Of The Legislature To Prescribe General Rules For The Government Of Society; The Application Of Those Rules To Individuals In Society Would Seem To Be The Duty Of Other Departments.

The Institution Of Masonry Ought To Be Abandoned As One Capable Of Much Evil, And Incapable Of Producing Any Good Which Might Not Be Affected By Safe And Open Means.

No Political Dreamer Was Ever Wild Enough To Think Of Breaking Down The Lines Which Separate The States And Compounding The American People Into One Common Mass.

The Government Of The Union, Then, ... Is, Emphatically, And Truly, A Government Of The People. In Form And In Substance It Emanates From Them. Its Powers Are Granted By Them, And Are To Be Exercised Directly On Them, And For Their Benefit.