The prompt action of the Executive Department, through its
Attorney-General, in directing the marshal to afford all necessary
protection against threatened danger, undoubtedly saved a justice
of the Supreme Court from assassination, and the Government from the
disgrace of having pusillanimously looked on while the deed was done.
The skill and learning of the lawyers who presented the case of Neagle
in the lower and in the appellate courts reflected honor on the legal
profession.
The exhaustive and convincing opinion of Circuit Judge Sawyer, when
ordering the release of Neagle, seemed to have made further argument
unnecessary.
The grand opinion of Justice Miller, in announcing the decision of
the Supreme Court affirming the order of the Circuit Court, was the
fitting climax of all. Its statement of the facts is the most graphic
and vivid of the many that have been written. Its vindication of
the constitutional right of the Federal Government to exist, and to
preserve itself alive in all its powers, and on every foot of its
territory, without leave of, or hindrance by, any other authority,
makes it one of the most important of all the utterances of that great
tribunal.
Its power is made the more apparent by the dissent, which rests rather
upon the assertion that Congress had not legislated in exact terms for
the case under consideration, than upon any denial of the power of
the Federal Government to protect its courts from violence.
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