Alexandria Gazette

Well merited Praise.—In the course of the late argument in the case of the Union Bank vs. the Trustees of the Bank of Maryland, before the Court of Appeals of that State,—General Gibbs, a lawyer of the State of Tennessee, who appeared for the Union Bank, referring to the Judiciary of our country generally, and more particularly to the decisions of Chief Justice MARSHALL, paid a handsome and well merited tribute to the virtue of the man who so ably fills that department. We give below the substance without pretending to give the language used.

"Our Constitution, it appears to me, when it is destroyed, is to be destroyed by degrees; by little encroachments. This is the opinion also of the authors of that admirable work, the Federalist, who have expressed the same apprehension. As yet, of the independent course of the Judiciary every where in our country, and of their resistance to these encroachments, we have just reason to be proud. How gratified were we all to learn the late decision of the Court of Appeals in South Carolina! Even amid the ferment of party, and while some of the first men of the country have been riding over the fundamental principles of the Constitution, the Judiciary, the very moment it came before them, in the face of an infuriated majority, maintained the integrity of this country. This has been the course of the whole Judiciary, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court does in my opinion deserve more of his country than any one of her sons since the days of the Revolution.

Some have supposed that the Senate would be the last abiding place of the liberty of this nation; but, sir, I have always thought that the Judiciary was the column and the pillar which would at last sustain the country. I can recollect the day when I would have marched like the soldiers marshalled yesterday in the front of this house,* against the Chief Justice—when I would have been willing to have seen him executed. I have had time and opportunity to ascertain that I knew not the exalted character and worth of the man, or the value of his decision; I allude to the case of Burr. Sir, he has performed a great service to the country—he has cut off the whole system constructive treason, which had been, for the last few years getting ground. And should the occasion ever rise, then will the decision of this venerable patriot be the shield and the mantle thrown around the persecuted.

This is the founder and the establisher of this great principle which has been stated—this is the man, who in the cases of Ogden & Saunders; the Dartmouth College and the Crown; Peck, &c. and others, has clearly stated the law. In these cases the great principles of the question have been developed by this master mind: and these are the principles which we now seek to maintain. They are not obligatory it is true—the Court have a right to reject them—but they are so well sustained by the reasoning of the Chief Justice, that we do not suppose they will do so."

*Alluding to the detachment of our citizens, which marched against the Railroad rioters.

Maryland Republican.