It’s a whitish, ductile metal — No. 46 on the periodic table and part of the platinum group.
People use this material as a catalyst, mostly in reactions involving hydrogen. If you drive a diesel-powered car or truck, you’re sitting on some of it. And it’s a “buy.”
Where are we going with this? Let’s start over 200 years ago, with one of the men who founded the Harvard Law School.
Joseph Story (1779–1845) was born during the American Revolution, and came of age in the early years of the new United States of America. He was a scholar of the U.S. Constitution, and, as I mentioned, eventually helped found the Harvard Law School.
In 1811, Story was appointed to the Supreme Court by President James Madison — who knew a few things about the U.S. Constitution, in that he helped write it. Story was a contemporary of another famous member of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall (1755–1835).
In 1833, Justice Story published a study titled, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. In a discussion of the Second Amendment, Story stated:
The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.
These days the Second Amendment makes for another discussion. My point is that I like Story’s use of the word palladium.
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