s views,
lifting them onto heights from which they had never before surveyed
their political rights.

In the debate in the Assembly on the indorsement of the Kentucky
resolutions Root maintained with great force the right of the people's
representatives in the Legislature to express an opinion upon an act
of Congress, however solemn, and he ridiculed the argument that
questions limited to the judiciary were beyond the jurisdiction of
any other body of men to criticise and condemn. This touched a popular
chord, and if the mere expression of an opinion by the Assembly had
been the real question at issue, young Root might have carried his
point as he did the fight against the amendments proposed by
Massachusetts. But there was one question Root did not successfully
meet. Although Jefferson's eighth and ninth resolutions--declaring
that whenever the general government assumed powers not delegated, "a
nullification of the act is the rightful remedy" of every State--had
been stricken out, the dangerous doctrine was still present in the
preamble, making it apparent to the friends of the Constitution that
the promulgation of such a monstrous heresy would be worse than the
acts sought to be annulled. It is not clear that Root's understanding
of these resolutions went so far; for the question discussed by him
concerned only the right of the Legislature to express an opinion
respecting the wisdom or unwisdom of an act of Congress. Nor does it
appear that he favoured what afterward became known as "nullification;"
for it is certain that when, thirty-four years later, the doctrine
came up again under John C. Calhoun's leadership, Erastus Root, then
in Congress, struck at it as he would at the head of a viper, becoming
the fearless expounder of principles which civil war permanently
established.

While young Root was leading the debate in the Assembly, Ambrose
Spencer led it in the Senate. Spencer's apostacy produced a profound
sensation in political circles. He had given no intimation of a change
of political principles. Although still a young man, barely
thirty-three, he had ranked among the foremost leaders of the
Federalist party, having been honoured as an assistant attorney-general,
a state senator, a member of the Council of Appointment, a friend of
Hamilton, and the confidential adviser of Jay. The latter's heart
might well sink within him to be abandoned by such a colleague at a
time when the stability of the Union was in