Gibbons v. Ogden · ¶95

The Court is aware that, in stating the train of reasoning by which we have been conducted to this result,, much time has. been consumed in the attempt to demonstrate propositions which may have been thought axioms. It is felt that the tediousness inseparable from the endeavour to prove that which is already clear] is imputable to a considerable part of this opinion. But it was unavoidable. The conclusion to which we have come, depends on a chain of principles which it was necessary to preserve unbroken;, and, although some of them were thought nearly self-evident, the magnitude of the question, the weight of character belonging to those from whose judgment we dissent, and the argument at the bar, demanded that we should assume nothing.

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 22, at 1 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
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