Roger B. Taney

“ The plaintiffs in error thereupon filed their bill in the circuit court of the state, praying that the county of St. Clair and the said commissioners should be enjoined from further proceedings under the act of assembly last above mentioned. The respondents, the present defendants in error, appeared and demurred generally to the bill; and upon final hearing of the cause, the demurrer was sustained by the court, and the bill dismissed. From this decision, the complainants appealed to the supreme court of the state, where the decree of the circuit court was affirmed. ”

“ It is true, that the plaintiffs and defendants in error have both waived all objections to jurisdiction, and have pressed the court for a decision on the principal points. But consent will not give jurisdiction. ”

“ And we have heretofore, on several occasions, said, that when the act of congress has so carefully and cautiously restricted the jurisdiction conferred upon this court, over the judgments and decrees of the state tribunals, it would ill become the court to exercise it in a different spirit. ”