Note 1425 — Chapter X
Reading edition
Marshall to Story, Dec. 3, 1834, Proceedings, Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d Series, xiv, 359.
The outspoken and irritable Kent expressed the conservatives' opinion of Jackson almost as forcibly as Ames stated their views of Jefferson: "I look upon Jackson as a detestable, ignorant, reckless, vain and malignant Tyrant.... This American Elective Monarchy frightens me. The Experiment, with its foundations laid on universal Suffrage and an unfettered and licentious Press is of too violent a nature for our excitable People. We have not in our large cities, if we have in our country, moral firmness enough to bear it. It racks the machine too much." (Kent to Story, April 11, 1834, Story MSS. Mass. Hist. Soc.) In this letter Kent perfectly states Marshall's convictions, which were shared by nearly every judge and lawyer in America who was not "in politics."