8236. SUPREME COURT, State rights and.—
There are two measures which if not
taken, we are undone. First, [471]
to check these
unconstitutional invasions of State rights by
the Federal judiciary. How? Not by impeachment,
in the first instance, but by a
strong protestation of both houses of Congress
that such and such doctrines, advanced
by the Supreme Court, are contrary to the
Constitution; and if afterwards they relapse
into the same heresies, impeach and set the
whole adrift. For what was the government
divided into three branches, but that each
should watch over the others and oppose their
usurpations?—
To Nathaniel Macon.
Ford ed., x, 192.
(M.
Aug. 1821)
