Andrew Napolitano on Abraham Lincoln

In order to increase his federalist vision of centralized power, 'Honest’ Abe misled the nation into an unnecessary war... With very little regard for honesty, Lincoln increased federal power and assaulted the Constitution. His actions were unconstitutional, and he knew it... Lincoln’s view was a far departure from the approach of Thomas Jefferson, who recognized states’ rights above those of the Union... Lincoln increased the power of the federal government at the expense of the rights of the states and civil liberties. This opened the door to more unconstitutional acts by the government in the 1900s through to today...

~ Judge Andrew Napolitano, The Constitution in Exile, Chapter 4: "Dishonest Abe: The Lincoln You Didn't Know"

Abraham Lincoln
1922-1925

Andrew Napolitano on Supreme Court laxity from 1937-1995

Between 1937 and 1995, not a single federal law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.  Not one piece of legislation was seen as exceeding the scope of Congress’s commerce power.

~ Judge Andrew Napolitano, The Constitution in Exile

Tom DiLorenzo on the men who destroyed the Constitution

After a lucid explanation of each section of the Constitution [Judge Napolitano, in his book The Constitution in Exile] discusses how the nationalist/mercantilist coalition, led by Alexander Hamilton and his accomplice Judge John Marshall, conspired to effectively rewrite (and undermine) the Constitution almost as soon as the ink was dry on the original copy. The "Federalists" (who would eventually morph into the Whigs, and then the Republicans) never accepted their defeat in the Constitutional convention (which created a federal, not a national government). Nor did they accept Jefferson’s election as president. Thus, two days before his term ended the Federalist President John Adams appointed dozens of "midnight federal judges" and appointed John Marshall to the Supreme Court on March 3, 1801, one day before he would leave office. Marshall "spent the remainder of his career finding clearly disingenuous, historically inaccurate, and highly questionable justifications for ruling that federal power is not limited," writes Judge Napolitano.

~ Tom DiLorenzo, "The Men Who Destroyed the Constitution," LewRockwell.com, August 26, 2006