3, p. 17; Ames, Amendments to the
Const., in Am. Hist. Assoc., Report 1896, II., 161; Niles' Register,
XVII., 289, 311, 447.] Judge Roane, chief-justice of Virginia, in a
series of papers in the Richmond Enquirer, challenging the
nationalistic reasoning of the court, asserted that the Constitution
resulted from a compact between the states, [Footnote 2: Randolph-
Macon College, John P. Branch Hist. Papers, II., 106-121.] and in
this attack he was heartily supported by Jefferson. [Footnote 3:
Jefferson, Writings (Ford's ed.), X., 140, 189, 229.] Justice
Marshall, in Cohens vs. Virginia [Footnote 4: 6 Wheaton, 264.]
(1821), decided that the supreme court had appellate jurisdiction in
a case decided by the state court where the Constitution and the
laws of the United States were involved, even though a state was a
party.
Virginia's attorneys maintained, on the contrary, that the final
construction of the Constitution might be given by the courts of
every state in the Union; and Judge Roane, whose own decision had
been overturned, again appealed to his fellow-citizens in a strong
series of articles.
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