Constitution a practical system, this pretended power
of the Courts to annul the laws of Congress cannot
possibly exist/' said Senator Breckenridge. " Let gentle-
men consider well, before they insist on a power in the
Judiciary which places the Legislature at their feet. • • •
The Legislature have the exclusive right to interpret
the Constitution in what regards the law-making
power, and the Judges are bound to execute the laws
they make/' By thus insisting that final supremacy
resided in Congress, Breckenridge now asserted the
exact reverse of the doctrine maintained by him in
introducing the Resolution of 1798 in the Kentucky
Legislature; for then he had expressly denied that
Congress was the final authority on the constitution-
ality of a law enacted by it. That this denial of the
power of the Judiciary was an unexpected and unaccepted doctrine, now, in 1802, was very clearly shown by the fact that the Administration organ, the National Intelligencer^ stated that it thought it important to publish Breckenridge's speech, as it presented "views in some measure new and certainly deeply interesting." ^ Its novelty was also pointed out by many speakers in the debate. Henderson of North Carolina termed it "the monstrous and unheard-of doctrine which has lately been advanced " ; Hemphill of Pennsylvania said that "a doctrine new and dangerous has begun to imfold itself'*; and Dayton of New Jersey spoke of "those newly professed although secretly harbored doctrines which exhibit in their true colors their deformity and dangerous tendencies." Possession of the power by the Courts was eloquently supported by Gouvemeur Morris of New York, who said : "When
T. Davis of Kentucky and Robert Williams of Nortli Carolina in the House, Feb. 16. 17. 20, 1802.
1 NaHonal IrUeiUgencer, Feb. 12, 1802; Salem OaaetU, Blaich 2, 1802.
