which constituted the cause of action, it is legal or illegal
according as this statute is or is not law. It cannot be law if
its provisions contravene rules laid down by the Constitution of
the State to restrict the legislative power. The court which
tries the cause must meet this question whenever it arises like
any other and decide it. A court of law must be governed by law.
What has the form of law is not law, in a country governed by a
written constitution, unless it is consistent with all which that
instrument provides.

The first decision of an American court bottomed on these
principles was probably rendered as early as 1780, and in New
Jersey.[Footnote: Holmes _v._ Walton, IV _American
Historical Review_, 456.] One of her greatest statesmen, who
after taking a distinguished part in framing the federal
Constitution became a justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States, vigorously enforced the same doctrine on the circuit
fifteen years later in trying a cause turning on the
unconstitutionally of a confirming act passed by the legislature
of Pennsylvania. "I take it," Justice Patterson said in charging
the jury, "to be a clear position that if a legislative act
oppugns a constitutional principle the former must give way and
be rejected on the score of repugnance. I hold it to be a
position equally clear and sound that in such case it will be the
duty of the court to adhere to the Constitution, and to declare
the act null and void."[Footnote: Vanhorne's Lessee _v._
Dorrance, 2 Dallas' Reports, 304, 309, 316.]

The accession of the Republicans to power in 1801, only to find
the courts of the country controlled by judges appointed from the