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trenchant logic and perspicacity of expression, he demonstrates that the federal union, while composed of indestructible states, is itself indestructible and paramount.

In 1857 the extraordinary and popularly unknown cases of Ableman v. Booth, and United States v. Ableman,^[1] arose. We are wont to refer to the Hartford Convention and the action of South Carolina over the tariff law as the prominent examples of the expression of the doctrine of the right of a state to secede or to nullify the federal law. In the state of Wisconsin an effort had been made to inforce the obnoxious fugitive slave law, and the Supreme Court of the state promptly declared the act of Congress unconstitutional, while the state resisted to the utmost the inforcement of the statute. Booth had aided in the escape of a fugitive slave from the United States deputy marshal, who held him under process issued by the United States District Court. He was arrested for this offense, tried, convicted, and sentenced in that court. Upon his application the Supreme Court of Wisconsin discharged him upon habeas corpus. A writ of error was then issued by the United States Supreme Court upon application of the Attorney-General, Jeremiah S. Black, to which the Supreme Court of Wisconsin directed its clerk to make no return, and to make no entry upon its record concerning it. The Supreme Court of the United States then ordered a copy of the proceedings, which the Attorney-General had before procured, to be entered upon its docket with the same legal effect as if the clerk had made the proper return, and the case thus stood upon the docket for argument. Judgment in favor of the United States, reversing the judgment of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, was pronounced March 7, 1859, upholding the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal over the state courts. Thereupon the state legislature, in joint resolution adopted March 9, 1859, solemnly declared that the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States was "without authority, void and of no force," and "that a positive defiance of all unauthorized acts done under color of the Constitution is the rightful remedy." Like his predecessor, in the case of The Cherokee Nation v. The State of Georgia,^[2] the Court was powerless to carry out its mandate. Only the executive by use of military power could inforce the judgment. Happily no state has since followed this unwise example, although Wendell Phillips said: "Some of us had hoped that our beloved commonwealth would have placed that crown of oak on her own brow. Her youngest daughter has earned it first." This decision has been often cited in support of the paramountcy of federal jurisdiction over state, where jurisdiction is conferred by the federal Constitution.

March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, and for the seventh time the Chief Justice administered the oath of office to a President of the United States. Not only were physical infirmities increasing, but the throes of civil war were more and more felt. Washington was becoming an armed camp, and even Baltimore, his own home, shared in the passions of the impending conflict. May 25, 1861, John Merryman, a resident of Baltimore and a citizen of Maryland, was arrested by the military authorities and committed to the custody of the commandant of Fort McHenry. He petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was held in duress

"without any process or color of law