Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/796

 786 William E. Dodd not only the decisions of the state courts, but the states themselves."' The message closes with an almost too emphatic assertion that none but peaceful means of redress will be resorted to. Meanwhile R. M. Johnson of Kentucky introduced resolutions into the United States Senate looking to the correction of the abuse. ^ From Johnson's speech it will be seen that a plan of co-operation between Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio had been arranged.^ The Virginia agitation found ready ears in Kentucky and Ohio where ambitious banking schemes were likely to be, or already had been, upset by the Supreme Court. Roane now drafted an amendment to the national constitution, as he said to strengthen the proposed re- form ; but which was to pass the Virginia assembly and then to be sent to the other states for endorsement. A letter to Archibald Thweatt, December ii, 1821, gives us a suggestive hint as to how things used to be done in legislative bodies : " With a view to aid them, or rather to lead on this important subject, I have prepared some amendments to the constitution to be adopted by our assembly. They are very mild, but go the full length of the wishes of the republicans on this subject. They will be copied by another hand and circulated among the members. I would not wish to injure the great cause by being known as the author." * The following prospective amendment was endorsed almost without opposition : " That the judicial power of the United States shall not be con- strued to extend to any case in which a state shall be a party, except in controversies between two or more states, nor to any other controversies involving the rights of a state and to which such state shall claim to become a party. That no appeal shall be construed to lie to any court of the United States from any decision rendered in the courts of a state." ° But neither Johnson's resolutions in the Senate nor those of the Virginia Assembly ever reached the heart of the North ; and Congress never once seriously considered the proposition to remove the great chief justice. Such was the outcome of Marshall's long conflict with 'irginia. There had been much of bitterness and there was even to the last a resolute and large party ready to take revolutionary steps against the Supreme Court. But Jefferson thought the political constellation unpropitious ; indeed Roane charged both him and Madison with " hanging back too much in this great crisis ". The old statesmen ^Virginia House Journals, December 3, 1821. ^Annals, 17 Cong., I. 28, 68-123. ^H. V. Ames, Proposed Amendmcnis to the Constitution (A. H. .*l. 1896, II.), p. 161. ' Branch Historical Papers. II. i, 140. 5 I'irginia House Journals. February 2, 1822.