by John Marshall Harlan

“ But I am unwilling to give my assent to the doctrine that the Constitution of the United States imposed upon the lawful government of Tennessee an obligation, which this court must enforce, to cripple its own revenue, by receiving for its taxes bank-notes issued and used, under the authority of the usurping government, for the double purpose of maintaining itself and of defeating the restoration of that lawful government to its proper relations in the Union. Lawful government should not be required to pay the expenses incurred in effecting and maintaining its overthrow. ”

“ If the issue of such notes imposed obligations upon any State government, it was upon the insurgent State government, whose official agents had directed them to be issued. In the very nature of things, and so long as the duty exists to discourage revolution, by maintaining lawfully constituted authority, no obligation could arise against the State government which had been wrongfully displaced, and whose right to control and manage the bank, by directors of its appointment, was not only denied and repudiated, but was forcibly, and for some time successfully, resisted. ”

“ The argument upon this branch of the case necessarily rests upon the assumption that the notes of the bank issued, under usurping authority, after May 6, 1861, were not issued, or do not appear to have been issued, for the purpose of aiding the insurrection or in hostility to the Union. This assumption, however, cannot be successfully maintained without excluding from consideration well-known historical facts. ”