ter an ineffectual appeal to the President, the Pennsylvania
authorities gave way and paid over the money. Subsequently the officer
commanding the militia and others were indicted, tried, convicted, and
sentenced to fine and imprisonment, for resisting the writ of a federal
court; but they were pardoned by the President because "they had acted
under a mistaken sense of duty."

In this conflict of authority the National Government won at every
point. Even the resolution which the legislature adopted in the heat of
the controversy, calling for an amendment to the Constitution which
should establish "an impartial tribunal to determine disputes between
the General and State Governments," met with no approval from other
States. Virginia, soon to be of a very different mind, responded that "a
tribunal is already provided ... to wit: the Supreme Court, more
eminently qualified from their habits and duties, from the mode of their
selection, and from the tenure of their offices, to decide the disputes
aforesaid in an enlightened and impartial manner, than any other
tribunal which could be erected."

In two notable cases, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality
of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and asserted its authority to review and
reverse decisions of the state courts when those decisions were adverse
to alleged federal rights. The opinion in the first case, that of
_Martin_ v. _Hunter's Lessee_, in 1816, was written by Joseph Story, of
Massachusetts, who had been appointed to a vacancy on the bench by
President Madison. Story was reputed to be a Republican, but he
disappointed all expectations by becoming a stanch supporter of
nationalist doctrines and only second to Marshall in his influence upon
the development of American constitutional law.

The case of _Martin_ v. _Hunter's Lessee_ grew out of the old Fairfax
claims which Marshall had represented as counsel before his appointment
to the bench. In 1815, the Supreme Court had reversed the decision of
the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and ordered the state court to execute
the judgment rendered in the lower state court. The judges of the Court
of Appeals, headed by Judge Spencer Roane, a bitter opponent of
Marshall, formally announced that they would not obey the _mandamus_,
holding that the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789--that
extending the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over state
tribunals--was unconstitutional. The state-rights ele