her answer to the said bill of indictment, or further to try and
punish this defendant for the said supposed offence or offences alleged
in the bill of indictment, or any of them: And, therefore, this
defendant prays judgment whether he shall be held bound to answer
further to said indictment."

This plea was overruled by the Court. And the prisoner, being
arraigned, pleaded not guilty. The jury found a verdict against him,
and the Court sentenced him to hard labor, in the penitentiary, for the
term of four years.

By overruling this plea, the Court decided that the matter it contained
was not a bar to the action. The plea, therefore, must be examined, for
the purpose of determining whether it makes a case which brings the
party within the provisions of the 25th section of the "Act to
establish the judicial courts of the United States."

The plea avers that the residence, charged in the indictment, was under
the authority of the President of the United States, and with the
permission and approval of the Cherokee nation. That the treaties,
subsisting between the United States and the Cherokees, acknowledge
their right as a sovereign nation to govern themselves and all persons
who have settled within their territory, free from any right of
legislative interference by the several States composing the United
States of America. That the act under which the prosecution was
instituted is repugnant to the said treaties, and is, therefore,
unconstitutional and void. That the said act is, also, unconstitutional;
because it interferes with, and attempts to regulate and control, the
intercourse with the Cherokee nation, which belongs, exclusively, to
Congress; and, because, also, it is repugnant to the statute of the
United States, entitled "An act to regulate trade and intercourse with
the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers."

Let the averments of this plea be compared with the 25th section of the
Judicial act.

That section enumerates the cases in which the final judgment or decree
of a State Court may be revised in the Supreme Court of the United
States. These are, "where is drawn in question the validity of a
treaty, or statute of, or an authority exercised under, the United
States, and the decision is against their validity; or where is drawn
in question the validity of a statute of, or an authority exercised
under, any State, on the ground of their being repugnant to the
constitution, treaties, or law