Samuel Freeman Miller Quotes

#1. Of the judicial department of the Government, the Supreme Court is the head and representative, and to it must come for final decision all the great legal questions which may arise under the Constitution, the laws, or the treaties of the United States.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#2. No branch of the law is of more importance to the counsellor, the statesman, or the citizen, than a thorough acquaintance with the Constitution and laws of the Federal Government, as they are administered and as they affect the rights of the people.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#3. A vile and overbearing temper becomes sometimes, in one long accustomed to the exercise of power, unendurable to those who are subject to its humors.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#4. Louisiana commenced her existence as a state under a code of laws differing from all the other states which were founded on the common law, in that its code, a new one, was founded mainly on the Civil Law and the Code Napoleon of France.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#5. Of the powers conferred upon the General Government by the Constitution of the United States much the most important are those given to the legislative body.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#6. No one familiar with the common law of England can read the Constitution of the United States without observing the great desire of the Convention which framed that instrument to make it conform as far as possible with that law.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#7. Of all the powers conferred upon government, that of taxation is most liable to abuse.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#8. As a general rule, governments are unlimited in their powers. All free governments, perhaps all other governments, are entitled in some shape or other to make laws and to repeal or amend them.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#9. It is a very great mistake, common to counsel, and especially to young counsel, to consider that a decision of any court must necessarily command the respect of another.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#10. Custody and guardianship by the parent of his child does not arise under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States and is not dependent on them.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#11. May it be long before the people of the United States shall cease to take a deep and pervading interest in the Fourth of July, as the birthday of our national life, or the event which then occurred shall be subordinated to any other of our national history.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#12. Man is essentially a selfish creature. The differences in the degree with which this developed are infinite.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#13. The United States being a limited form of government, one of the restrictions to which it is subject is in regard to its power to levy taxes. The States may levy them for a great many purposes for which Congress cannot, because to the States belong all of the powers not delegated to Congress.

Samuel Freeman Miller