Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/788

 778 William E. Dodd court of Mrginia for Shenandoah County. The district court gave judgment for Fairfax and appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Virginia. ]Meanwhile Fairfax died and bequeathed his claims and rights to Philip Martin. The case was argued before the supreme court of which Roane was one of the justices in May, 1796, in October, 1809, and in April, 1810, when decision was finally given against the Fairfax claim and in support of the act of confis- cation of 1782. Appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court on the ground that rights guaranteed by the Treaty of 1783 were denied. The United States Supreme Court in accordance with Jeft'erson's wishes had become Republican, that is, a majority of its members had been followers of Jefferson at the time of their appointment. Jefferson and Virginians in general hoped that constitutional ques- tions would henceforth be decided contrary to Marshall's views. The " Fairfax " case was one of great importance, involving the title to many thousand acres of the best land in Virginia and threatening the authority of the state to dispose of those lands. The validity of an act of the legislature passed before the close of the Revolutionary War was in question. The United States Supreme Court reviewed the decision of the Virginia court in 1813 and a mandamus issued by Marshall the "first Monday" in August following was served on- the latter re- quiring the execution of judgment as given by the local court in favor of the Fairfax heirs. The Judges of the Virginia Supreme Court took up the matter in the summer of 1815, each one preparing his own opinion independently of the others. Roane spent a part of the summer at the White Sulphur Springs, where he talked over his forthcoming opinion with ]Ionroe, who neither endorsed nor opposed its contentions. On his return he visited Jefferson,^ who also hesitated to express a view without first examining the argument that might be offered on the other side." On December 16, 181 5,' the Supreme Court of Virginia formally announced that the mandamus of the United States Supreme Court would not be obeyed and that so far as Virginia was concerned its former de- cision would stand, /. c, the Fairfax heirs would lose what was claimed under the treaty of 1783. In February following, the opinions of the Virginia justices were published in the Richmond Enquirer. There was not a dissenting voice. They stood on the ground that the United States courts could not constitutionally 'Jefferson, Writings. IX. 530-531 ; Branch Historical Papers, II. i, 131. 'Jefferson, Writings, IX. 531. ^Virginia Rcf'Orts, 4 Munford, iz.