proceedings, and the Supreme Court of the United States in 1842
had pronounced the "Fugitive Slave law" of 1793 to be valid in
all respects.[Footnote: Prigg _v._ Pennsylvania, 16 Peters'
Reports, 539.] The principle of this decision plainly covered
the later Act of 1850, but as public sentiment in the North
became more and more uncompromising in its hostility to the
existence of slavery under the flag of the United States, the
State courts were not always strong enough to withstand the
pressure to disregard precedents and let the Constitution give
place to what the phrase of the time called a "higher law."

In 1859, a citizen of Ohio was convicted in the District Court of
the United States and sentenced to jail for rescuing a fugitive
slave who had been recaptured in Ohio by an agent of his master,
to whom he had been committed in proceedings under the Act of
Congress. He was imprisoned in an Ohio jail, the United States
then having none of their own, but placing all their convicts in
State jails or prisons under a contract with the State to keep
them for a certain price. His counsel applied to the judges of
the Supreme Court at chambers for a writ of _habeas corpus_
against the Ohio jailer. He produced his prisoner and submitted
a copy of the warrant of commitment from the District Court. The
public were extremely interested in the outcome of the
proceedings. The Attorney-General of the State assisted in
presenting the petitioner's case. The Governor was one of the
multitude present in the crowded court room. The
Attorney-General declared that the position that the Supreme
Court of the United States had the power to decide conclusively
as to the constitutionality of the laws of the United States and
so tie the hands of the State authority was untenable and