CHAPTER FIVE
THE MANDAMUS CASE
1803
When the Republicans enacted their legislation in 1802 forcing a year's adjournment upon the Court, they little anticipated that its first action upon its convening thereafter would consist in the rendering of decisions in two important cases then pending, the effect of which would be to support the policies of the Republican Administration. Yet such was the surprising outcome of the February Term of 1803, when, in Marbury v. Madison, the Court denied the constitutionality of the Act of Congress under which mandamus had been issued against Cabinet officials, and in Stuart v. Laird, the Court sustained the constitutionality of the Repubhcan Circuit Court Act of 1802.
While the main facts regarding the first of these cases, as given in the official report, are very familiar to the legal profession, a more complete study than has hitherto been made of contemporary writings portraying the details of the argimient and the manner in which the decision was received throws much new light upon the actual reasons for the opposition which the decision evoked. The perspective of history is often enlightening, but it is also often misleading. The temptation is often strong to project the present aspect of a case back to the date of its decision, and thus to obtain an erroneous view of its contemporary importance. A decision gathers accretions with the passage of time, and frequently that portion of the
