Roger B. Taney

“ If the judicial power extends so far, the guarantee contained in the Constitution of the United States is a guarantee of anarchy, and not of order. Yet if this right does not reside in the courts when the conflict is raging, if the judicial power is at that time bound to follow the decision of the political, it must be equally bound when the contest is over. ”

“ And how long must the people of Rhode Island have waited to learn from this court under what form of government they were living during the year in controversy?
But this is not all. The question as to the majority is a question of fact. It depends upon the testimony of witnesses, and if the testimony offered by the plaintiff had been received, the defendants had the right to offer evidence to rebut it; and there might, and probably would, have been conflicting testimony as to the number of voters in the State, and as to the legal qualifications of many of the individuals who had voted. ”

“ Under this article of the Constitution it rests with Congress to decide what government is the established one in a State. For as the United States guarantee to each State a republican government, Congress must necessarily decide what government is established in the State before it can determine whether it is republican or not. And when the senators and representatives of a State are admitted into the councils of the Union, the authority of the government under which they are appointed, as well as its republican character, is recognized by the proper constitutional authority. ”

“ In relation to the act of the legislature declaring martial law, it is not necessary in the case before us to inquire to what extent, nor under what circumstances, that power may be exercised by a State. Unquestionably a military government, established a the permanent government of the State, would not be a republican government, and it would be the duty of Congress to overthrow it. But the law of Rhode Island evidently contemplated no such government. ”

“ No one, we believe, has ever doubted the proposition, that, according to the institutions of this country, the sovereignty in every State resides in the people of the State, and that they may alter and change their form of government at their own pleasure. ”

“ If it was a natural right, it would appertain to every human being, females and minors. Even the Dorr men excluded all under twenty-one, and those who had not resided within the State during a year. But if the State has the power to affix any limit at all to the enjoyment of this right, then the State must be the sole judge of the extent of such restriction. It can confine the right of voting to freeholders, as well as adults or residents for a year. The boasted power of majorities can only show itself under the law, and not against the law, in any government of laws. ”

“ There is no such thing as a natural right to vote. There are three classes of rights: natural, such as those recognized in the Declaration of Independence; civil, such as the rights of property; and political rights. Society has nothing to do with natural rights except to protect them. Civil rights belong equally to all. Every one has the right to acquire property, and even in infants the laws of all governments preserve this. ”

“ They can be traced through the Confederation and the present Constitution, and our principles of liberty have now become exclusively American. They are distinctly marked. We changed the government where it required change; where we found a good one, we left it. Conservatism is visible throughout. Let me state what I understand these principles to be.
The first is, that the people are the source of all political power. Every one believes this. Where else is there any power? There is no hereditary legislature, no large property, no throne, no primogeniture. Every body may buy and sell. ”

“ It was because the people could not act in mass, and the right to choose a representative is every man's portion of sovereign power. Suffrage is a delegation of political power to some individual. Hence the right must be guarded and protected against force or fraud. That is one principle. Another is, that the qualification which entitles a man to vote must be prescribed by previous laws, directing how it is to be exercised, and also that the results shall be certified to some central power so that the vote may tell. We know no other principle. ”

“ And as a verdict is not evidence in a suit between different parties, if the courts of the United States have been jurisdiction contended for by the plaintiff, the question whether the acts done under the charter government during the period in contest are valid or not must always remain unsettled and open to dispute. The authority and security of the State governments do not rest on such unstable foundations. ”

“ All qualifications which persons are required to possess before they can be elected are, in fact, limitations upon the power of the electors; and so are rules requiring them to vote only at particular times and places. Our American mode of government does not draw any power from tumultuous assemblages. ”

“ I say that the will of the people must prevail, but that there must be some mode of finding out that will. The people here are as sovereign as the crowned heads at Laybach, but their will is not so easily discovered. ”

“ All the American political writers, &c., use the term people to express the entire numerical aggregate of the community, whether state or national, in contradistinction to the government or legislature.
Mr. Burke, in his Report, cited above, says, that 'the (political) people include all free white male persons of the age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the state, are of sound mind, and have not forfeited their right by some crime against the society of which they are members.'
3d. Where resides the ultimate power or sovereignty? ”

“ The charter and laws of Rhode Island were liberal and even radical. It was eminently a government of the people. (Mr. Whipple here went into a particular examination of the charter and laws to illustrate this point.) The usage has been always for the legislature to receive and act upon petitions for extension of the right of suffrage, and this usage constitutes the law. All changes must originate with the legislature. ”

“ The legislature passed laws for the punishment of offenders, and declared martial law. The grand jury indicted Dorr for treason. His trial came on in 1844, when he was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Here is a suit in which the opposite counsel say that a great mistake has happened in the courts of Rhode Island; that Governor King should have been indicted. They wish the governor and the rebel to change places. If the court can take cognizance of this question, which I do not think, it is not to be regretted that it has been brought here. ”

“ It was a revolution, not because there was a change in the person of the sovereign, but because there was a hiatus which must be filled. It has been said by the opposing counsel, that the people can get together, call themselves so many thousands, and establish whatever government they please. ”

“ The excitement of the times forms an exception.
4. It was made a political question, and not a judicial construction, as far as it entered into the case.
Mr. Whipple, for the defendant in error, said that the question to be decided was, whether a portion of the voters of a State, either the majority or minority, whenever they choose, assembling in mass meeting without any law, or by voting where there is no opportunity of challenging votes, may overthrow the constitution and set up a new one? ”

“ That this conclusion also follows from one of the foregoing fundamental principles of the American system of government, which is, that government is instituted by the people, and for the benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community. ”

“ And many cases in which, like the present one, the whole case was certified, have been dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The same disposition must be made of this. The material points, however, have been decided in the case of Martin Luther against the same defendants, in which the opinion of this court has been just delivered, and which was regularly brought up by writ of error upon the judgment of the Circuit Court. The case before us depends mainly upon the same principles, and, indeed, grew out of the same transaction ”

“ He is to act upon the application of the legislature or of the executive, and consequently he must determine what body of men constitute the legislature, and who is the governor, before he can act. The fact that both parties claim the right to the government cannot alter the case, for both cannot be entitled to it. ”

“ This constitution was adopted in convention, May 11, 1835, ratified by the people on the first Monday of October,-a legislature elected in the same month,-held a session in November,-organized their judiciary, March, 1836, but were not admitted into the Union until January 26, 1837. Validity has been given to her legislative acts passed in March 1836; therefore her constitution took effect as the supreme law, upon its ratification by the vote of the people, on the first Monday of October, 1835. ”

“ The plaintiff offered to prove that meetings were held in the several towns, and wards of the city of Providence aforesaid, and on the days aforesaid, for the purposes aforesaid, in pursuance of the requirements of said constitution ”