Laws, The Law Quotes
This was America’s first Presidential impeachment which occurred just a few years after America’s greatest crisis—the Civil War. It was handled in an orderly, serious manner following the law throughout.
Plantng tobacco was a much more lucrative endeavour than fixing guns so many gunsmiths abandned that trade for tobacco farming.
See related quote.
Arguing against the relationship between Christianity and the common law as had been asserted by some English Jurists (see Matthew Hale and James Mansfield)
The most commonly cited part of this quote is in bold. The full quote is provided for context.
In addition to being a great writer, Kafka was a legal scholar and attorney who had earned a Juris Doctor degree.
Then, as now, there were some who claimed there should be a larger role for Christianity in American law and governance. One such view in the first half of the 19th century was that whatever was unspecified in the Constitution deferred to the common law. England had an official state Christian church and therefore Christianity must have been a part of English common law and hence should be a significant part of American law and governance. Jefferson was one of the many leaders who refuted the notion by pointing out that the common law in England predated Christianity.
This is a very important and fundamental quotation. Jefferson, John Adams, John Jay and many other Founding Fathers told us that the jury of peers was the final arbiter of a court case. However, many modern judges and legislatures have tried to erode that principle. In most states judges instructs juries that they are the final arbiter of the facts but he/she is the final arbiter of the law and how it should be applied in the case. But the founders wanted the jury to be the final arbiters of the law as well as the facts as is illustrated here and in {640588} and {640589}. For a more modern concurring view, see {640590}
See Jonathan Swift {35359} and William Shenstone {642165} for a later expression of this notion.
Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims. However, we see in Spinoza the observations and foundations of what would become American and then international views of human rights.
