he light of reason. "There, Story," he would say to his associate, "is
the law. Now you must find the authorities." In a peculiar sense it is
true to say that Marshall both laid the foundations of constitutional
law and reared the superstructure, as one of his biographers remarks.
But Marshall was ably supported by his colleagues; and he owed much, as
he freely admitted, to the arguments of a remarkable body of lawyers of
the federal bar. Wirt, Pinkney, and Webster were as truly creators of
American constitutional law as the learned justices.

The constitutional importance of the decision of the Supreme Court in
_Marbury_ v. _Madison_ has already been pointed out. In the development
of the idea of national sovereignty, the significance of the decision
lies in the emphatic assertion that the Supreme Court is the tribunal of
last resort in cases involving the constitutionality of acts of
Congress.

The first open resistance of a State to federal authority, as asserted
by the Supreme Court, occurred in 1809, when the legislature of
Pennsylvania interposed its authority to prevent the payment of prize
money which had been awarded by a federal district court to Gideon
Olmstead and others for their capture of the sloop Active during the
Revolution. All efforts to secure a peaceful settlement of this
controversy having failed, the Attorney-General, in behalf of Olmstead,
applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of _mandamus_, directing Judge
Peters of the district court to enforce his judgment. In granting the
writ, Chief Justice Marshall pointed out the gravity of the issue. "If
the legislatures of the several States," said he, "may at will annul the
judgment of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights
acquired under those judgments, the Constitution becomes a solemn
mockery, and the nation is deprived of the means of enforcing its laws
by the instrumentality of its own tribunals." Such a conclusion he
emphatically repudiated. Reviewing the history of the case with all its
details, he reached the uncompromising conclusion that "the State of
Pennsylvania can possess no constitutional right to resist the legal
process which may be directed in this cause.... A peremptory _mandamus_
must be awarded."

Judge Peters issued the writ, but all efforts of the marshal to serve
the writ were thwarted by the state militia. The marshal then summoned a
_posse comitatus_ of two thousand men. Bloodshed seemed imminent; but
af