AMERICAN JUDICIARY


No government can live and flourish without having as part of its
system of administration of civil affairs some permanent human
force, invested with acknowledged and supreme authority, and
always in a position to exercise it promptly and efficiently, in
case of need, on any proper call. It must be permanent in its
character. Only what is permanent will have the confidence of
the people. It must always be ready to act on the instant. The
unexpected is continually happening, and it is emergencies that
put governments to the test.

The judiciary holds this position in the United States. The
institutions which underlie and characterize it, both of the
United States and of each of the States, considered by
itself,[Footnote: I do not except Louisiana, for trial by jury
and other institutions derived from the common law have
profoundly affected her whole judicial system.] are the outgrowth
of those of the thirteen English colonies on the Atlantic coast,
which declared their independence in 1776.

The colonial charters, whether of the proprietary, provincial or
republican type, were all equally charters for Englishmen, based
on the common law of the English people. So far as they granted
legislative power, it was generally declared that it should be
exercised in conformity, so far as might be practicable, with the
laws of England. The proviso to this effect in the roving patent
given by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh may be taken as a
type: "so always as the said statutes, lawes, and ordinances may