the Legislative departments soon passed under his
control, and the popular will was on his side. The dif-
ference between Mr. Jefferson and Justice Marshall was
practically not as great as it seemed to be, and we, look-
ing back upon those days, can now see how nearly simi-
lar their acts became when they were called upon to act.
It is more than probable that if Marshall had been the
President he would have purchased the Louisiana Terri-
tory, and he certainly had clearer views of the Constitu-
tional power of the United States to acquire foreign ter-
ritory than did Mr. Jefferson, who doubted the Consti-
tutional power of this sovereign nation to acquire and
govern foreign territory, and this doubt never entered
the judicial mind of a great jurist like John Marshall.
It is not unlikely that if Mr. Jefferson had become the
Chief Justice that he would have construed the Constitu-
tion in a sense not very dissimilar to what is the Mar-
shall construction, when all the decisions by Justice Mar-
shall are carefully analyzed and reconciled. When Jef-
ferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, the perpetuity
and unity of the Government of the United States be-
came absolute. No act of governmental sovereignty
could be higher than the acquisition of such a territory,
for the purpose of being converted into equal states, which
states should enter the Union upon terms of absolute
equality with the older states. No dicta of John Mar-
shall, no opinion rendered by him is equal or can by any
possibility be made equal in its results to the consoli-
dating power of the acquisition of such a territory, for
such a purpose. When all of John Marshall's decisions
are reduced to their ultimate analysis, they merely mean
that the Constitution of the United States is to be con-
strued as an act of government, an organic statute giv-
ing vigor and power to the government. But Thomas
Jefferson went one step further and actually put into
operation all the powers of sovereignty, when he pur-
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