community at large, and their meaning must be determined once for
all from the language used, however inadequate it may have been
to express the real design of those who enacted them, unless that
design so clearly appears, notwithstanding an unfortunate choice
of words, as to compel an interpretation against the letter but
in obedience to the spirit of the enactment. A "declaratory
statute"--one declaring what a previous statute meant--is
therefore, if it gives it a meaning unwarranted by its terms when
so interpreted, only effectual as respects future transactions.
As to the past, the meaning is for the courts, and while such a
statute may aid, it cannot control them.

Are the courts to send such questions to a jury or shall the
judges decide them? The answer must be determined by
considerations applicable to every sort of written paper. If the
true construction of an ambiguous document be left to juries, it
is evident that there would be no certainty that different
results would not be reached in different cases, and probable
that unanimity would seldom be attainable. If left to judges, a
decision will certainly be reached and, it may be presumed, be
reasoned out with care, while if the matter be one of public
importance the grounds on which they proceed will be so expressed
as to furnish a guide to others toward the same conclusion. The
construction of all writings is therefore, by the Anglo-American
common law, as by the judicial system of most countries, deemed,
in case of a question affecting litigated rights, to belong of
right to the judges. Their possession of this power in the
United States is especially necessary in respect to written law.

In every government there must be some human voice speaking with