John Marshall

“ The counsel for the plaintiffs in error has argued the cause, as if the process under which the sale was made had been the usual execution awarded on a judgment rendered against a person brought into court by regular process. ”

“ The sheriff does not take possession of the land against which the process of execution issues, and under a writ of venditioni exponas, he sells no more than the right and interest of the defendant in the same. He cannot deliver possession of the property he sells to the purchaser. This shows that the sheriff has but a naked power to sell, under the lien of the plaintiff, which he has acquired by his judgment; and that it is co-extensive, and no more, with the limits of the county in which he can exercise the authority of a sheriff. ”

“ To decide that he must have resorted to new proceedings, would be to say, that he could be deprived of the rights thus obtained, by a law passed after they had been acquired and completed. Such a law would impair rights protected by the constitution of the United States, and that of the state of Tennessee. ”