John Marshall

“ It will not, I think, be denied that acts of congress passed in pursuance of the constitution, when in conflict with state laws, must prevail. It has never been doubted that the law under consideration is constitutional. ”

“ That the defendants have no right to add the amount of mortgaged debt together, and then say the aggregate exceeds the debt due to the government: as, for instance, one man has a mortgage for 15,000 dollars, and the property mortgaged sold for only 10,000 dollars; another has a mortgage for 10,000 dollars, and the property sold for 15,000 dollars: on this supposition the aggregate of mortgages would be 25,000 dollars, and the total amount of sales would also be 25,000 dollars. ”

“ And to the rest, other pleas, such as might have suggested themselves to the minds of ingenious counsel, might have been put in.
'If it had been the wish of the defendants' counsel to diminish the costs, he ought to have applied to the court to consolidate the suits before he added to the costs so much himself, by filing twenty-seven answers instead of one, and even when the suits were consolidated, the record shows that it was done on motion of the district attorney ”

“ Without this evidence, there seems to be enough in the record to show that the syndics had full notice of the debts due to the United States. They do not even set up in their answers any want of notice, as a defence. ”

“ On the 15th of July 1829, he mortgaged houses and lots in Canal street to J. H. Field & Co. to secure the payment of the sum of 5359 dollars and 76 cents; on the 12th of February 1829 he executed another mortgage to J. H. Field & Co. for 5000 dollars on the same property, with interest on both at the rate of ten per centum per annum; on the 15th of March 1830, he gave another mortgage to said Field for 745 dollars and 16 cents, on the same property, with the same rate of interest; on the 10th of March 1830, he mortgaged said property and the rest of his real estate to R. Ball & Co. ”