of the general government on the reserved rights of the states, he would by no means admit, because if a state regarded a law as unconstitutional and could effectively interpose its veto, the very tribunal authorized by the Constitution to decide finally whether a law was constitutional would be ousted from its jurisdiction, and the judicial power of the United States would be nugatory where it was most essential.[1]
Furthermore, he could not understand how the supporters of the Exposition could, with it, admit that the Supreme Court had an indispensable and constitutional power to nullify the acts of state legislatures which, in its opinion, conflicted with the powers delegated to the general government, and yet claim, with the Exposition, that a state had a constitutional right to "control the action of the general government on contested points of authority," whenever, in the opinion of the state, the action of the general government conflicted with the powers delegated to it. The sovereign states entered into a compact, which was the
- ↑ There was a tendency on the part of most of the Union men to ascribe to the Exposition the assertion that nullification was provided for in the Constitution, and to ascribe to the Constitution the statement that the federal courts were to settle all questions of constitutionality.
