Horace Gray

“ Fourth, An act of the legislature of a State, which has been held by its highest court not to be a statute of the State, because never passed as its Constitution requires, cannot be held by the courts of the United States, upon the same evidence, to be a law of the State.
Fifth, That which is not a law can give no validity to bonds purporting to be issued under it, even in the hands of those who take them for value and in the belief that they have been lawfully issued. ”

“ By the statute of Feb. 12, 1849, the secretary of state was required, before the meeting of the General Assembly, to publish an advertisement 'inviting proposals for copying the laws, joint resolutions, and journals of the General Assembly,' and to 'give the contract to the lowest competent responsible bidder,' and was also required 'to furnish a well-bound book, in which the journals shall be copied,' and, in case the person contracting for the copying should fail to perform his contract, to cause the same to be done by some competent person. ”