Page:Rison v. Farr.pdf/4

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Rh

that he has not committed an act, which would be a crime against the state, and for which he can only be punished by the laws of the state by a criminal prosecution in her court.

That the act under which the justification is relied on, is palpably in conflict with the constitution of the state and null and void, and should have been so treated by the judges of election, we most respectfully submit, does not admit of a doubt.

An act of the legislature in contravention of the constitution is no law at all, and furnishes no justification to any officer or individual for his conduct. 1 Cranch., 175; 2 Dallas, 309.

Mr. Chief Justice Y delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action on the case, brought by the defendant in error against the plaintiffs in error in the Pulaski circuit court, at the September term, A. D. 1865. The declaration alleges that John W. Rison, Richard Bragg and Gilbert Knapp were, on the 9th day of October, A. D. 1865, at the county of Pulaski, duly appointed, qualified and acting judges of an election held according to law, at the market-house precinct, in the city of Little Rock, in the county of Pulaski, on said 9th day of October, A. D. 1865, for a member of the 39th congress of the United States, in and for the second congressional district of Arkansas: and that, after the polls had been duly opened for the reception of votes, Farr, the plaintiff below, being a free white male citizen of the United States, and a citizen of the state of Arkansas, more than six months next before said election, over the age of twenty-one years, and a resident of the county of Pulaski aforesaid, and having taken and subscribed the amnesty oath prescribed in and by the proclamation of Andrew Johnson, president of the United States, bearing date the 29th day of May, A. D. 1865, presented himself before the defendants below, while acting as such judges of election as aforesaid, and offered to vote for Lorenzo Gibson, one of the candidates for representative, from the second congressional district; but that the defendants below wilfully and contrary to law,