The country
and the parties had a right to expect that it would receive
the immediate and solemn attention of this Court. By the
postponement of the case we shall subject ourselves, whether
justly or unjustly, to the imputation that we have evaded the
performance of a duty imposed on us by the Constitution, and
waited for legislation to interpose to supersede our action
and relieve us from our responsibility. I am not willing to be
a partaker either of the eulogy or opprobrium that may follow;
and can only say:
"Pudet haec opprobria nobis,
Et dici potuisse; et non potuisse repelli."[4]
R.C. GRIER.
I am of the same opinion with my brother Grier, and unite in
his protest.
FIELD, J.
After the passage of the repealing act, the case was continued; and
at the ensuing term the appeal was dismissed for want of
jurisdiction.--(7 Wall., 506.)
The record had been filed early in the term, and, as the case involved
the liberty of the citizen, it was advanced on the calendar on motion
of the appellant. From that time until its final disposition the Judges
were subjected to close observation, and most of them to unfriendly
comment. Their every action and word were watched and canvassed as
though national interests depended upon them. I was myself the subject
of a most extraordinary exhibition of feeling on the part of members
of the lower house of Congress, the immediate cause of which was a
circumstance calculated to provoke merriment.
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