t would endure but a short time, as a subject of
derision, and, wasting into an empty shadow, would quickly vanish
from our sight.

Let me now ask, if the power to decide upon the validity of our laws
resides with the people. Gentlemen cannot deny this right to the
people. I admit they possess it. But if, at the same time, it does
not belong to the courts of the United States, where does it lead
the people? It leads them to the gallows. Let us suppose that
Congress, forgetful of the limits of their authority, pass an
unconstitutional law. They lay a direct tax upon one State and
impose none upon the others. The people of the State taxed contest
the validity of the law. They forcibly resist its execution. They
are brought by the executive authority before the courts upon
charges of treason. The law is unconstitutional, the people have
done right, but the court are bound by the law, and obliged to
pronounce upon them the sentence which it inflicts. Deny to the
courts of the United States the power of judging upon the
constitutionality of our laws, and it is vain to talk of its
existing elsewhere. The infractors of the laws are brought before
these courts, and if the courts are implicitly bound, the invalidity
of the laws can be no defense. There is, however, Mr. Chairman,
still a stronger ground of argument upon this subject. I shall
select one or two cases to illustrate it. Congress are prohibited
from passing a bill of attainder; it is also declared in the
constitution, that "no attainder of treason shall work corruption of
blood or forfeiture, except during the life of the party attainted."
Let us suppose that Congress pass a bill of attainder, or they
enact, that any one attainted of treason shall forfeit, to the use
of the United States, all the estate which he held in any lands or
tenements.

The party attainted is seized and brought before a federal court,
and an award of execution passed against him. He opens the
constitution and points to this line, "no bill of attainder or _ex_
_post_ _facto_ law shall be passed." The attorney for the United
States reads the bill of attainder.

The courts are bound to decide, but they have only the alternative
of pronouncing the law or the constitution invalid. It is left to
them only to say that the law vacates the constitution, or the
constitution voids the law. So, in the other case stated, the heir
after the death of his ancestor, brings his ejectment