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Rh quated, opprobrious system of feudal vassalage", and termed the Chief Justice "a foe to republican principles and an advocate for monarchical principles … a sateUite of ambitious administration. . . . From the moment of your exaltation, we have seen the funda- mental principles of our government, the operation of its checks and balances disregarded and Judiciary independence exchanged for a timid servility. . • in an ebullition of gratitude for your late appointment." And he concluded by saying that : "Every real Ameri- can will execrate your name and all recording Truth shall enroll your vices in the annals of futurity. . . amid the applause of pollution from a degraded party com- posed of the refuse of British slaves and Tories." ^ Another Virginia paper said : * * The natural right formerly secured to the citizens of this State by law to expatriate themselves is abrogated ; by what ? Not by the Consti- tution of the United States, not by laws made under it, but by the judgment of a Federal Court. An obsolete principle, applicable only to the personal right of the former feudal sovereigns of England, is enforced by a free republic founded on a total denial of all such rights. . . . This odious principle is now revived here after its abolition throughout modern Europe by the practice of near two centuries. . • . By the Chief Justice^s opinion, we are still the subjects of Great Britain ; we are so by this principle, her common law." * No decision by any Federal Judge had ever aroused so great and widespread resentment. Not only did the Anti- Federalists fear on general principles the spread of this doctrine of the English common law ; but they pointed

^ Aurora^ Oct. 80, 1799. See also pamphlet entitled Correipondenee hehoeen Oeorge Niehdson, Esq., and Robert 0. Harper (1799); Virginia Argus, Oct. 22, 1799.


 * See Oeniue cf Liberty (F^^deriduburg, Va.)» quoted in The Bee (New London, Conn.)» Oct. 80» 1799.