My notice of 2026 annual dues for my Knights of Columbus council arrived in my inbox on December 31, 2025. I have been researching these days the meaning of “due” in connection with a writing project on the meaning of “justice” in the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble. This meaning, I contend, is best understood in light of the virtue justice, understood as the will to render to each their due. So dues have been on my mind.

According to Gregory E. Maggs, A Concise Guide to Using Dictionaries from the Founding Era to Determine the Original Meaning of the Constitution, 82 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 358, 386 (2014), members of the Supreme Court have cited Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary more than any other dictionary from the 1700s.

Here are some of Johnson’s definitions of “just” and “due” (from the 1773 edition):

JUST. adj. [juste, Fr. justus, Latin.]
1. Upright; incorrupt; equitable in the distribution of justice. Take it, while yet ’tis praise, before my rage Unsafely just, break loose on this bad age. Dryden. Men are commonly so just to virtue and goodness, as to praise it in others, even when they do not practise it themselves. Tillotson’s Sermons. 2. Honest; without crime in dealing with others. Just balances, just weights, and a just ephah. Lev. xix. 3. I know not whether just of has any other authority. Just of thy word, in ev’ry thought sincere, Who knew no wish but what the world might hear. Pope. 4. Exact; proper; accurate. Boileau’s numbers are excellent, his expressions noble, his thoughts just, his language pure, and his sense close. Dryden. These scenes were wrought, Embellish’d with good morals and just thought. Granville. Just precepts thus from great examples giv’n, She drew from them what they deriv’d from Heav’n. Pope. Just to the tale, as present at the fray, Or taught the labours of the dreadful way. Pope. Once on a time La Mancha’s knight, they say, A certain bard encount’ring on the way, Discours’d in terms as just, with looks as sage, As ere could Dennis of the laws o’ th’ stage. Pope. Though the syllogism be irregular, yet the inferences are just and true. Watts’s Logick. 5. Virtuous; innocent; pure. How should man be just with God? Job. A just man falleth seven times and riseth. Proverbs. He shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. ‡ Mat. The just th’ unjust to serve. Milton. 6. True; not forged. Crimes were laid to his charge too many, the least whereof being just, had bereaved him of estimation and credit. Hooker. 7. Grounded on principles of justice; rightful. Me though just right Did first create your leader. Milton. 8. Equally retributed. He received a just recompence of reward. Heb. ii. 2 Whose damnation is just. Rom. iii. 8. As Hesoid sings, spread water o’er thy fields, And a most just and glad increase it yields. Denham. 9. Complete without superfluity or defect. He was a comely personage, a little above just stature, well and strait limbed, but slender. Bacon’s Henry VII. 10. Regular; orderly. When all The war shall stand ranged in its just array, And dreadful pomp, then will I think on thee. Addison. 11. Exactly proportioned. The prince is here at hand: pleaseth your lordship To meet his grace, just distance ’tween our armies? Shakespeare. 12. Full; of full dimensions. His soldiers had skirmishes with the Numidians, so that once the skirmish was like to have come to a just battle. Knolles’s History. There is not any one particular above mentioned, but would take up the business of a just volume. Hale’s Orig. of Mank. There seldom appeared a just army in the civil wars. Dutchess of Newcastle.

Due. n.s. [from the adjective.] 1. That which belongs to one; that which may be justly claimed. My due from thee is this imperial crown, Which, as immediate from thy place and blood, Derives itself to me. Shakespeare. The son of Duncan, From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Lives in the English court. Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Thou better know’st Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude: Thy half o’ th’ kingdom thou hast not forgot, Wherein I thee endow’d. Shakespeare’s King Lear. The due of honour in no point omit. Shakesp. Cymbeline. I take this garland, not as given by you, But as my merit, and my beauty’s due. Dryden. No popular assembly ever knew, or proposed, or declared what share of power was their due. Swift. 2. Right; just title. The key of this infernal pit by due, And by command of heav’n’s all-powerful king, I keep. Milton’s Paradise Lost. 3. Whatever custom or law requires to be done. Befriend Us thy vow’d priests, ’till outmost end Of all thy dues be done, and none left out. Milton. They pay the dead his annual dues. Dryden. 4. Custom; tribute; exactions; legal or customary perquisites. In respect of the exorbitant dues that are paid at most other ports, this deservedly retains the name of free. Addison.