Burkean on the Beach

Joseph Story and the American Constitution: A Study in Legal and Political Thought By James McClellan Oklahoma, 413 pp., $12.50 When, in 1811, President Madison nominated Joseph Story for the “New England seat” on the Supreme Court, two better-known men had declined and a third had been rejected by the Senate. Story was a mere 32, but he had a well-deserved reputation for legal learning, and he had paid his political dues: in the Federalist stronghold of Essex County, Massachusetts, he had endured beatings and ostracism for outspoken adherence to Mr. Jefferson’s party. Surprisingly, however, Story on the bench proved to be a Federalist of Federalists, the indefatigable ally of Marshall in the promotion of judicial power, federal supremacy and sanctity of contract.

Story sat until 1845, comforting Marshall’s last quarter century and outlasting him ten years. Marshall was as much Story’s ally as Story Marshall’s. As McClellan shows, Story outranked Marshall in intellect and was often his teacher. Nor was Story’s influence circumscribed by the courtroom. Not only his decisions, but his voluminous writings, including the Commentaries on the Constitution, made him a Constitutional interpreter of unrivaled significance and a still-supreme authority in half a dozen specialized areas of law. Add to this a Promethean influence on legal education from his sixteen-year stint at Harvard (contemporaneous with his judicial career) and we have the greatest of all our justices.

CW

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Clyde Wilson

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Joseph Story and the American Constitution: A Study in Legal and Political Thought By James McClellan Oklahoma, 413 pp., $12.50 When, in 1811, President Madison nominated Joseph Story for the “New England seat” on the Supreme Court, two better-known men had declined and a third had been rejected by the Senate. Story was a mere 32, but he had a well-deserved reputation for legal learning, and he had paid his political dues: in the Federalist stronghold of Essex County, Massachusetts, he had endured beatings and ostracism for outspoken adherence to Mr. Jefferson’s party. Surprisingly, however, Story on the bench proved to be a Federalist of Federalists, the indefatigable ally of Marshall in the promotion of judicial power, federal supremacy and sanctity of contract.

Story sat until 1845, comforting Marshall’s last quarter century and outlasting him ten years. Marshall was as much Story’s ally as Story Marshall’s. As McClellan shows, Story outranked Marshall in intellect and was often his teacher. Nor was Story’s influence circumscribed by the courtroom. Not only his decisions, but his voluminous writings, including the Commentaries on the Constitution, made him a Constitutional interpreter of unrivaled significance and a still-supreme authority in half a dozen specialized areas of law. Add to this a Promethean influence on legal education from his sixteen-year stint at Harvard (contemporaneous with his judicial career) and we have the greatest of all our justices.