University of Virginia Library

TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.

Dear Sir I have this moment only recd. yours
of the 22d.[147] I regret the delay as you wished an

earlier answer than you can now have, tho' I shall
send this immediately to the P. O. My correspondence
with Judge Roane originated in his request that
I wd. take up the pen on the subject he was discussing
or about to discuss. Altho' I concurred
much in his views of it, I differed as you will see
with regard to the power of the Supreme Court of the
U. S. in relation to the State Court. This was in
my last letter which being an answer did not require
one, and none was recd. My view of the supremacy
of the Fedl. Court when the Constn. was under
discussion will be found in the Federalist. Perhaps
I may, as cd. not be improper, have alluded to Cases
(of which all Courts must judge) within the scope of
its functions. Mr. Pendleton's opinion that there
ought to be an appeal from the Supreme Court
of a State to the Supreme Court of the U. S. contained
in his letter to me, was I find avowed in the Convention
of Va., and so stated by his Nephew latterly
in Congs. I send you a copy of Col. J. Taylor's argt.
on the Carriage tax: if I understand the beginning
Pages he is not only high-toned as to Judl. power,
but regards the Fedl. Courts as the paramount
Authy. Is it possible to resist the nullifying inference
from the doctrine that makes the State Courts
uncontrollable by the Supr. Ct. of the U. S.?

I cannot lay my hand on my letter to Judge Roane.
The word omitted, I presume, is argt. It is a common
Compt. among the French as you know to say you
have given all its lustre &c. Will it not suffice for
you to say, You had formerly a sight of the letter or

of a Copy of it. Shd. the fact be denied, meet it
as you please.

My letter was not written to A. Everett, but
to his brother in Congs. in answer to one from
him. It was his Act in handing it to the Review.
As his motives were good, I wd. not wish his feelings
to be touched by anything sd. on the occasion.
What is sd. in that letter, as to the origin of the
Constn. I considered as squaring with the account
given in the Fedlist. of the mixture of Natl. & Federal
features in the Constitution. That view of it was
well recd. at the time by its friends, and I believe has
not been controverted by the Repn. party. A marked
& distinctive feature in the Resoln. of 98 is that the
plural no. is invariably used in them & not the singular,
and the course of the reasoning, required it.

As to my change of opinion abt. the Bank, it was
in conformity to an unchanged opinion that a certain
course of practice required it.

The tariff is unconnected with the resos. of 98.
In the first Congs. of 89 I sustained & have in every
situation since adhered to it. I had flattered myself,
in vain it seems, that whatever my political errors
may have been, I was as little chargeable with inconsistencies,
as any of my fellow laborers thro' so
long a period of political life. Please return me
Taylor's pamphlet, and the letter also wch. I observe
is not fit to be preserved; and I will if you think
it worth while, send a copy. I have written it
with sore eyes & at night as well as In much haste.
Yours with cordial regards