“The interest of the people is one thing: it is the public interest. And where the public interest governs, it is a government of laws and not of men.

“The interest of a king or of a party is another thing: it is a private interest. And where private interest governs, it is a nation of men and not of laws.”

– John Adams

“I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.”

– Thomas Jefferson, writing to Benjamin Rush

“I agree with you in your opinion of cities. Cowper the poet very happily expresses our ideas of them compared with the country. ‘God made the country; man made cities.’ I consider them in the same light that I do abscesses on the human body – as reservoirs of all the impurities of a community.”

– Benjamin Rush, writing back to Jefferson

– John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”¹

– John Adams

“A simple democracy is one of the greatest of evils. A democracy is a mobocracy.”²

– Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration

– Roger Sherman, Declaration of Independence and Constitution Signer

THE JUDICIARY OF THE UNITED STATES

– Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78

“Superficial observers take it for granted that the three departments of government are co-ordinate and independent of each other. It is to be observed that the words ‘co-ordinate,’ ‘independent,’ are not to be found in any part of the
Constitution. According to the Constitution, the establishment of the Judiciary department was entrusted to the Legislative department. Is the Judiciary department formed by the Constitution? It is not. It is only declared that there shall be such a department, and it is directed to be formed by the other two departments, who owe a responsibility to the people. The number of judges, the affirmation of duties, the fixing of compensations, the fixing the times when, and the places where, the courts shall exercise the functions, &c., are left to the entire discretion of Congress. Congress may postpone the sessions of the courts for eight to ten years and establish others to whom they could transfer all the powers of the existing courts. The spirit, as well as the words of the Constitution, are completely satisfied, provided one Supreme Court be established.”

– William Giles

“The provision of the act of 1867, affirming the appellate jurisdiction of this court in cases of habeas corpus is expressly repealed. It is hardly possible to imagine a plainer instance of positive exception. We are not at liberty to inquire into the motives of the legislature. We can only examine into its power under the Constitution; and the power to make exceptions to the appellate jurisdiction of this court is given by express words. Without jurisdiction the court cannot proceed at all in any cause… It is quite clear, therefore, that this court cannot proceed to pronounce judgment in this case, for it has no longer jurisdiction of the appeal; and judicial duty is not less fitly performed by declining ungranted jurisdiction than in exercising firmly that which the Constitution and the laws confer.”

– U.S. Supreme Court in Ex Parte McCardle³

Myth #2: Federal judges hold lifetime appointments.

Judges have been impeached for:

Each branch is furnished with constitutional arms for its own effectual powers of self-defense.

– Alexander Hamilton

Every government requires impeachment. Every man ought
to be accountable for his conduct… Impeachment will be not
only a means of punishing misconduct but will also prevent
misconduct. A man in public office who knows that there is
no tribunal to punish him may be ready to deviate from his
duty; but if he knows there is a tribunal for that purpose,
although he may be a man of no principle, the very terror of
punishment will perhaps deter him.

– James Iredell

…all powers residing originally in the people and being derived from them, the several magistrate and officers of government vested with authority – whether legislative, executive, or judicial – are their substitutes and agents and are at all times accountable to them.

– Sam Adams, John Hancock, John Adams in the Massachusetts State Constitution

Here, the people are masters of government; elsewhere, the government is master of the people.

– James Wilson

To review the other myths of the judiciary, take the full Constitution Alive! course at PatriotAcademy.com.

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