Supreme Court of a State, and that the act of Congress purporting to authorize such a proceeding was unconstitutional. This was going a step further than before. By the previous action, the Court had only asserted its power to inquire into and decide for itself the question of the jurisdiction of a Federal Court, and the validity of its judgment; by this latter act it asserted in legal effect that its decision was final and supreme and could not be reviewed by any Court on earth. The refusal to return the record in obedience to the writ could not prevent the consideration of the case by the United States Supreme Court, but it did delay such consideration.
The Attorney General of the United States (Jeremiah S. Black) had procured a certified copy of the record, and when it finally appeared that no return would be made to the writ, the Court ordered that this copy be filed with the same effect as if returned by the clerk, and the cases were finally reached in January, 1859. Mr. Black appeared and argued the case for the United States, but no counsel appeared on the other side. Booth sent to the Court a copy of the pamphlet argument of Mr. Paine with copies of the opinions of the justices of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and submitted his case on these without argument. The cases were decided and the judgments reversed March 7, 1859, in an opinion by Chief Justice Taney.[1] The issue was of supreme importance, and the opinion was one worthy of the issue and of the distinguished jurist who wrote it.
It has been the fashion to belittle and blacken the memory of Chief Justice Taney by falsely attributing to him the statement that a negro had no rights which white men were
- ↑ 21 How. (62 U. S.) 506.
