American government "has been emphatically a government of laws, and not of men" meant that no one was above the law and that the laws are not something to be manipulated based on the who has power.
This statement was not in favor of the English system of nobility. As by then, only direct orders from the king could lead to a noble being arrested. Also at that time, the laws were in the hands of the king as he got to decide which laws to be enforced and which not.