pbell et
al. _v._ Mississippi Union Bank (6 Howard 625 to 683). In this case it
was pleaded 'that the charter of the Mississippi Union Bank was not
enacted and passed by the Legislature in compliance with the provisions
of the Constitution of the State, in this, that the supplemental act of
15th February, 1838, the same being a law to raise a loan of money on
the credit of the State, was not published and submitted to the
succeeding Legislature, according to the provisions of the Constitution
in 9th section, 7th article.' Here the direct constitutional question
was presented, requiring the decision of the Court. The case was most
elaborately argued on both sides. The able and upright circuit judge,
Hon. B. Harris, had decided that the supplemental act was
constitutional, and the bonds valid, and the High Court of Errors and
Appeals of Mississippi, after full argument on both sides, unanimously
affirmed that decision. In delivering the opinion of this highest
judicial tribunal of the State, and the one designated by the
Legislature in 1833, under the _mandatory_ clause of the Constitution,
Chief Justice Sharkey said:

'The second plea is, in substance, that the act supplemental to
the charter of the Union Bank, was not agreed to by a majority
of each House of the Legislature, and entered on the journals
with the yeas and nays, and referred to the next succeeding
Legislature, after publication in the newspapers, according to
the provisions of the 9th section of the 7th article of the
Constitution; but the said supplemental act made material
alterations in the original act, and was only passed by one
Legislature, and that no loan of money can be made on the faith
of the State without the assent of two Legislatures, given in
the manner prescribed by the Constitution.'--'I shall then
proceed to notice the constitutional provision, and to inquire,
by an application of it to the bank charter, whether the
position can be sustained. The 9th section of the 7th article
(of the Constitution) is in these words: 'No law shall ever be
passed to raise a loan of money on the credit of the State, for
the payment or redemption of any loan or debt, unless such law
be proposed in the Senate or House of Representatives, and be
agreed to by a majority of the members of each House, and
entered on their journals, with the yeas and nays taken