e commencement of Mr. Webster's argument.
The event out of which the cases arose is known in popular language as
the _Dorr Rebellion_. The first case (that of Martin Luther against
Luther M. Borden and others) came up by writ of error from the Circuit
Court of Rhode Island, in which the jury, under the rulings of the court
(Mr. Justice Story), found a verdict for the defendants; the second case
(that of Rachel Luther against the same defendants) came up by a
certificate of a division of opinion. The allegations, evidence, and
arguments were the same in both cases.

The first case was argued by Mr. Hallet and Mr. Clifford
(Attorney-General) for the plaintiffs in error, and by Mr. Whipple and
Mr. Webster for the defendants in error. Mr. Justice Catron, Mr. Justice
Daniel, and Mr. Justice McKinley were absent from the court, in
consequence of ill health. Chief Justice Taney delivered the opinion of
the court, affirming the judgment of the court below in the first case,
and dismissing the second for want of jurisdiction. Mr. Justice Woodbury
dissented, and delivered a very elaborate opinion in support of his view
of the subject.]

There is something novel and extraordinary in the case now before the
court. All will admit that it is not such a one as is usually presented
for judicial consideration.

It is well known, that in the years 1841 and 1842 political agitation
existed in Rhode Island. Some of the citizens of that State undertook to
form a new constitution of government, beginning their proceedings
towards that end by meetings of the people, held without authority of
law, and conducting those proceedings through such forms as led them, in
1842, to say that they had established a new constitution and form of
government, and placed Mr. Thomas W. Dorr at its head. The previously
existing, and then existing, government of Rhode Island treated these
proceedings as nugatory, so far as they went to establish a new
constitution; and criminal, so far as they proposed to confer authority
upon any persons to interfere with the acts of the existing government,
or to exercise powers of legislation, or administration of the laws. All
will remember that the state of things approached, if not actual
conflict between men in arms, at least the "perilous edge of battle."
Arms were resorted to, force was used, and greater force threatened. In
June, 1842, this agitation subsided. The new government, as it called
itself, disappeared fro