Nothing can be more absurd than to contend that there is a practical restraint upon a political body, who are answerable to none but themselves for the violation of the restraint, and who can derive, from the very act of violation, undeniable justification of their conduct.

If, Mr. Chairman, you mean to have a constitution, you must discover a power to which the acknowledged right is attached of pronouncing the invalidity of the acts of the legislature, which contravened the instrument.

Does the power reside in the States?  Has the legislature of a State a right to declare an act of Congress void?  This would be erring upon the opposite extreme.  It would be placing the general government at the feet of the State governments.  It would be allowing one member of the Union to control all the rest.  It would inevitably lead to civil dissension and a dissolution of the general government.  Will it be pretended that the State courts have the exclusive right of deciding upon the validity of our laws?

I admit they have the right to declare an act of Congress void.  But this right they enjoy in practice, and it ever essentially must exist, subject to the revision and control of the courts of the United States.  If the State courts definitely possessed the right of declaring the invalidity of the laws of this government, it would bring us in subjection to the States.  The judges of those courts, being bound by the laws of the State, if a State declared an act of Congress unconstitutional, the law of the State would oblige its courts to determine the law invalid.  This principle would also destroy the uniformity of obligation upon all the States, which should attend every law of this government.  If a law were declared void in one State, it would exempt the citizens of that State from its operation, whilst obedience was yielded to it in the other States.  I go further, and say, if the States or State courts had a final power of annulling the acts of this government, its miserable and precarious existence would not be worth the trouble of a moment to preserve.  It would endure but a short time, as a subject of derision, and, wasting into an empty shadow, would quickly vanish from our sight.

Let me now ask, if the power to decide upon the validity of our laws resides with the people.  Gentlemen cannot deny this right to the people.  I admit they possess it.  But if, at the same time, it does not belong to the courts of the United States, where does it lead the people?  It leads them to the gallows.  Let us suppose that Congress, forgetful of the limits of their authority, pass an unconstitutional law.  They lay a direct tax upon one State and impose none upon the others.  The people of the State taxed contest the validity of the law.  They forcibly resist its execution.  They are brought by the executive authority before the courts upon charges of treason.  The law is unconstitutional, the people have done right, but