ber 27, 1793, urged upon Congress "the adoption of such Amendments to the Constitution as will remove any clause or Article of the said Constitution which can be construed to imply or justify a decision that a State is compellable to answer in any suit by an individual or individuals in any Court of the United States,"[1] The Legislature of Virginia adopted similar resolutions,
stating that the Court's decision was "incompatible
with and dangerous to the sovereignty and independence of the individual States, as the same tends to a
general consohdation of these confederated republics."
The State of Georgia took the most violent action;
after the first continuance of the case in 1792, a resolution had been introduced into the Georgia Legislature,
December 14, 1792, which, though not adopted, expressed the sentiment of the State, to the effect that it would not be bound by the decision of the Court and would regard it as "unconstitutional and extra-judicial." After the decision rendered by the Court and the default entered at the February Term of 1793, judgment for the plaintiff was entered and a writ of inquiry of damages awarded at the February Term in 1794, The writ, however, was never sued out or executed. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives in Georgia passed a bill, on November 21, 1793, providing that any Federal marshal or other person who executed any process issued by the Court in this case should be declared " guilty of felony and shall suffer death, without benefit of clergy, by being hanged." The bill, however,
- ↑ As early as March, 1793, a Committee had been appointed by the Massachusetts Legislature to consider how far the State was directly or indirectly affected by the decision, "in order that our true situation may be known and understood, and such measures adopted on this occasion by the Commonwealth as its honour and interest may demand and the peace and safety of the Union require." See Columbian Centinal, March 23, 1793.
tered property of a refugee. ... If he should obtain what he has sued for, what a wide extended door will it open for every dirty Tory traitor to his country's liberties to enter." Massachusetts Mercury, July 23, 1793.
