Whereas, Such assumption of power and authority by the Supreme Court of the United States to become the final arbiter of the liberty of the citizens and to override and nullify the judgment of the State Courts declarative thereof is, in distinct conflict with that provision of the Constitution of the United States which secures to the people the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; therefore,
Resolved, (the Senate concurring), That we regard the action of the Supreme Court of the United States in assuming jurisdiction in the case before mentioned as an arbitrary act of power unauthorized by the Constitution and virtually superseding the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus and prostrating the rights and liberties of the people at the foot of an unlimited power.
Resolved, That this assumption of jurisdiction by the federal judiciary in the said case and without process is an act of undelegated power and therefore without authority and void and of no force;
Resolved, That the government formed by the Constitution of the United States was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; but that as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.
Resolved, That the principle and construction contended for by the party which now rules in the councils of the nation that the general government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing short of despotism; since the discretion of those who administer the government, and not the constitution would be the measure of their powers; that the several states which formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction, and that a positive defiance by these sovereignties of all unauthorized acts done or attempted to be done under color of that instrument is the right remedy."
The Governor promptly approved these resolutions; so that all the departments of the state government were thoroughly committed to this attitude of hostility to and defiance of the Federal Government. This is, indeed, a singular chapter in our country's history.
