Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/246

218 "null and void, if gentlemen dislike those terms, but to be no law." John Bacon, a strong Republican from Massachusetts, said that he "must frankly acknowl- edge the right of judicial officers of every grade to judge for themselves of the constitutionality of every statute on which they are called to act in their respec- tive spheres. This is not only their right but it is their indispensable duty thus to do." ^ James A. Bayard of Delaware defended the Supreme Court and its powers with great vigor in the ablest speech of the debate — a speech well worth reading in its entirety. He pointed out that *'it was once thought by gentlemen who now deny the principle, that the safety of the citizen and of the States rested upon the power of the Judges to declare an unconstitutional law void. • • • Of what importance," he asked, "is it to say that Congress are prohibited from doing certain acts, if no legitimate authority exists in the country to decide whether an act done is a prohibited act?" Congress on this theory becomes "absolute and omnipotent" and may "trample the Constitution under foot. ..." So, too, "if the States or the State Courts had a final power of annulling the acts of this government," he said, "its miserable and precarious existence would not be worth the trouble of a moment to preserve. ... K you mean to have a Constitution, you must discover a power to which the acknowledged right is attached of pronoimcing the invalidity of the acts of the Legislature which contravenes the instrument."

It has been very generally assumed by historians and jurists, writing mostly ex cathedra^ that the opposition

^ National IrUeUigencer, March 19, July 88, publishing in full this pOTtioo of Bacon's speech which was not reported or published in AnnaU rf CongrtM, 7th Cong,, l8t SesB, A Washington correspondent in Salem Oasutte, March 2, 1802, said : '*This concession exceedingly nettled the leaders of hb party and occasioned him a severe scolding as soon as the committee rose*'* See also Und., March SO.