nd know nothing of the "People's Constitution." Is it
possible, then, for this court, or for the court below, to know any
thing of it?

It appears to me that, if there were nothing else in the case, the
proceedings of Rhode Island herself must close everybody's mouth, in the
court and out of it. Rhode Island is competent to decide the question
herself, and everybody else ought to be bound by her decision. And she
has decided it.

And it is but a branch of this to say, according to my second
proposition,--

2. That if every thing offered had been proved, if in the nature of the
case these facts and proceedings could have been received as proof, the
court could not have listened to them, because every one of them is
regarded by the State in which they took place as a _criminal_ act. Who
can derive any authority from acts declared to be criminal? The very
proceedings which are now set up here show that this pretended
constitution was founded upon acts which the legislature of the State
had provided punishment for, and which the courts of the State have
punished. All, therefore, which the plaintiff has attempted to prove,
are acts which he was not allowed to prove, because they were criminal
in themselves, and have been so treated and punished, so far as the
State government, in its discretion, has thought proper to punish them.

3. Thirdly, and lastly, I say that there is no evidence offered, nor has
any distinct allegation been made, that there was an actual government
established and put in operation to displace the Charter government,
even for a single day. That is evident enough. You find the whole
embraced in those two days, the 3d and 4th of May. The French revolution
was thought to be somewhat rapid. That took _three_ days. But this work
was accomplished in two. It is all there, and what is it? Its birth, its
whole life, and its death were accomplished in forty-eight hours. What
does it appear that the members of this government did? Why, they voted
that A should be treasurer, and C, secretary, and Mr. Dorr, governor;
and chose officers of the Supreme Court. But did ever any man under that
authority attempt to exercise a particle of official power? Did any man
ever bring a suit? Did ever an officer make an arrest? Did any act
proceed from any member of this government, or from any agent of it, to
touch a citizen of Rhode Island in his person, his safety, or his
property, so as to make the party answerable upon a