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of the case of Trevitt v. Weedon, decided denied by the justice, because he deemed by the Superior Court of Rhode Island in the law unconstitutional, and so'declared it. 1786,' which was the first case in which an The question was thereafter brought before act of the Legislature was declared void, the Supreme Court in Hoist v. Roe, 39 O.S. because it conflicted with the provisions of 340, where the law imposing a per capita the state Constitution. These two cases are tax on dogs was held to be an exercise of police power, and not of the taxing power

the only ones in the history of the Ameri can judiciary, where attempts were made to vested in the General Assembly, so the jus impeach judges as criminals for refusing to tice was about half right. It may be pre sumed that if the jus enforce unconstitu tice had been educat tional enactments. ed in the elastic doc The right of the judi ciary to declare legis trine of police power, lative enactments un he would have de constitutional is not cided the case differ based upon the su ently. periority of the for "The judicial his mer; but because tory of Ohio is they are required to marked by four im declare what the law portant and interest is, and when the ing epochs : — Legislature tran 1st. The rude pro scends the limits pre vision for protecting scribed by the Con life and property be stitution, it is then fore the territorial their duty to indi courts were organ rectly overrule the ized. action of the co-or 2d. The period of dinate department. territorial courts. (Marbury v. Madi 3d. That under son, 1 Cranch 170.) the first Constitution of the state, adopted It may now be said that in our license in 1802. of construing the 4th. That under ETHAN ALLEN BROWN. Constitution, and in the present Constitu the disposition of public opinion, there is no tion, adopted in 1.851. anchor save the Constitution itself. The First Epoch. — The first permanent set tlement by white persons in that part of the power of declaring an act of the Legisla ture invalid because in conflict with the Northwest Territory now embraced in the Constitution has even been exercised by a State of Ohio was made at Marietta, Wash justice of the peace. An instance of this kind ington County, April 7, 1788, by forty-seven once occurred in Washington County, Ohio, men, mostly officers and soldiers of the where suit was brought before a magistrate Revolutionary War, and was led by General for the recovery of a tax assessed upon a dog Rufus Putnam. The spot selected at the under a statute which was passed by the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers Legislature authorizing it. Recovery was was a beautiful one, although then covered by a heavy forest. It had the additional 1 Arnold's History of Rhode Island, Vol. 2, c. 24.