John Marshall's Philosophy of Constitutional Republicanism

JohnMarshall was modest when he said in Cohens v. Virginia that The Federalist was “a complete commentary” on the American Constitution. His own ventures in constitutional exegesis—highlighted by his interpretations of the commerce and contract clauses and his liberal construction of the implied powers clause—secure his rank as a constitutional commentator and seriously rival the authors of The Federalist. Marshall was, however, operating at a distinct advantage over the influential Hamilton, Madison and Jay, who wrote commentaries on a constitution which was yet to be rendered workable; they composed pamphlets intended to secure acceptance of the proposed government by reluctant states. Such commentaries are bound to have more limited value than decisions meant to accomodate the constitutional instrument to the practical problems of government. Marshall's essential contribution lay in the fact that his expositions of the Constitution, as distinguished from the pamphleteering attempts of The Federalist, imparted momentum to those trends which were eventually responsible for the adjustment of our political institutions to the changing tempo of an industrial technology

Commerce Clause · Constitution · Constitutional theory · Federalism · Federalist · Government (linguistics · Jeffersonian democracy · Law and economics · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Value (mathematics · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Mathematics · Philosophy

• John Marshall's Constitutionalism

  Clyde Ray, Clyde H Ray•John Marshall's Constitutionalism•2019

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• The Commerce Clause under Marshall, Taney and Waite

  Theodore W Cousens, Felix Frankfurter•University of Toronto Law Journal•1938

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