Mankind is constantly learning, getting new views of truth, seeing new values in social justice. Precedent clogs this advance. It fixes and perpetuates the wrongs of man as much as the rights of man.
Hence, while the many must trust to precedent, a few must always endeavor to break it, to make way for juster conclusions.
Precedent is the root, independent thinking is the branch of the human tree. Our decisions must conform to the sum of human experience, yet there must be also the fresh green leaf of present intelligence.
We cannot cut the root of the tree and expect it to live, neither can we lop off all the leafage of the tree and expect it to live.
The great jurist, such as Marshall, is one who not only knows what the law is, but what the law ought to be. That is, to his knowledge of precedent he adds his vision of right under present conditions.
Precedent is often the inertia of monstrous iniquity. War, for instance, is due to the evil custom of nations who go on in the habit of war-preparedness. The problem of the twentieth century is to batter down this precedent by the blows of reason, to overturn it by an upheaval of humanity.
Evil precedent also lurks in social conditions, in business, and in all relations of human rights. The past constantly operates to enslave the present.
We must correct the errors of our fathers if we would enable our children to correct ours.
Our reverence for the past must be continually qualified by our reverence for the future.
We are on our way to the Golden Age. The momentum of what has been must be supplemented by the steam of original conviction, and guided by the intelligence and courage of the present.