Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/240

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Nullification Adopted
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empowered the sheriff to resist any attempt to recapture the goods after he had delivered them to the merchant. The fifth authorized any person who should pay any duties to recover the amount with interest from the collector by an action of assumpsit. This action would take the usual course of an action on account or note of hand, and the merchant, after having received his goods and sold them, if he chose this remedy, would be sure of receiving the amount of duties and interest on them within a year at the most. If the sheriff should not be able to get the money, the collector himself might be seized.

The sixth clause entitled any person arrested or imprisoned by process of the federal court to immediate release by writ of habeas corpus on application to any judge of the state. It also entitled any such person to an action against the federal officer for unlawful arrest or imprisonment. The seventh clause provided that no title should be good if given by any federal officer for property sold for duties. The eighth endeavored to prevent appeal to a federal court by providing a fine and imprisonment for any official who should furnish any record which related in any manner to