Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/103

Rh embolden the States and their Courts to make many claims of power, which, otherwise they would not have thought of." Nevertheless, another equally strong Federalist, Edmund Randolph, the Attorney-General, took the opposite view, and in a letter to President Washington expressed the hope that the Judges would continue even firmer in denouncing infractions of the Constitution:

In order to obtain a decision from the full Court, reducing its views to "precise principles", Randolph, acting officially as Attorney-General, filed a motion for a mandamus to the Circuit Court in Pennsylvania to command them to proceed on the petition of the invalid pensioner, Hayburn. The case was reported in Dallas Reports very briefly, but the contemporary newspapers give a far more complete account of this earliest of American constitutional cases, and describe it as follows: