tion not
only overlooks the obvious effort of the authors of the "Federalist"
to allay the apprehensions of state jealousy but it also conveniently
ignores Madison's part in its composition. Indeed, the enfant terrible
of State Rights, the Madison of 1787-88, Roane would fain conceal behind
the Madison of ten years later; and the Virginia Resolutions of 1798
and the Report of 1799 he regards the earliest "just exposition of the
principles of the Constitution."

To the question whether the Constitution gave "any power to the Supreme
Court of the United States to reverse the judgment of the supreme court
of a State," Roane returned an emphatic negative. His argument may be
summarized thus: The language of Article III of the Constitution
does not regard the state courts as composing a part of the judicial
organization of the General Government; and the States, being sovereign,
cannot be stripped of their power merely by implication. Conversely,
the General Government is a government over individuals and is therefore
expected to exercise its powers solely through its own organs. To be
sure, the judicial power of the United States extends to "all cases
arising" under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. But
in order to come within this description, a case must not merely involve
the construction of the Constitution or laws of the United States; it
must have been instituted in the United States courts, and not in
those of another Government. Further, the Constitution and the acts of
Congress "in pursuance thereof" are "the supreme law of the land,"
and "the judges in every State" are "bound thereby, anything in the
Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."
But they are bound as state judges and only as such; and what the
Constitution is, or what acts of Congress are "in pursuance" of it, is
for them to declare without any correction or interference by the courts
of another jurisdiction. Indeed, it is through the power of its courts
to say finally what acts of Congress are constitutional and what are
not, that the State is able to exercise its right of arresting within
its boundaries unconstitutional measures of the General Government. For
the legislative nullification of such measures proposed by the Virginia
and Kentucky resolutions is thus substituted judicial nullification by
the local judiciaries.

In Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee, * which was decided in February, 1816,
Story, speak