Chief Justice Marshall was succeeded by Chief Justice Taney. As he and a majority of his associates had belonged to the 'strict construction school,' many prophesied a complete reversal of prior rulings, but the court still affirmed the nationality of the United States.

 Thus in Pennsylvania v. Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, decided in 1849, 9 How. 647, and 1851, 13 How. 518, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was affirmed over a case brought by a State to restrain the obstruction of a navigable river within the limits of other States. In Abelman v. Booth, decided in 1858, 21 How.506, a prisoner in custody of the United States authorities was held not to be subject to discharge by State process. And in the famous 'Dred Scott Case,' decided in 1856, 19 How. 393, the nationality of the United States was asserted, though in a way not satisfactory to the friends of human freedom, in that it decided that the recognition by the Constitution of slave property carried with it the protection of that property in all the territories of the nation.

When the Civil War ended and Chief Justice Taney had been succeeded by Chief Justice Chase a new series of cases arose. Naturally bitter feelings were excited by the war, and stringent laws were passed by Congress and by some of the States against those who had participated in the rebellion. Test oaths were prescribed which prevented ministers and lawyers who had taken part with the South from pursuing their respective professions, but in Cummings v. Missouri, and ex parte Garland, decided in 1866, 4 Wall. 277 and 333, such test oaths were adjudged invalid as ex post facto acts. At the same time, in ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall. 2, it was held that a military tribunal, sitting in Indiana, a State in which there had been no rebellion, had no jurisdiction to punish a citizen, in no way connected with the army, for an offense against the Government. In Texas v. White, 7 Wall. 700, decided in 1868, it was held that States in rebellion did not lose their existence or identity, and in the opinion Chief Justice Chase made the memorable declaration that this was "an indestructible union composed of indestructible States."

Soon after the war the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution was adopted, which prohibited the States from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and from denying to any one the equal protection of the law. It was claimed by many that this operated to prevent the grant by a State of any special privileges, but in the Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wall. 36 (1872), a charter given by the State of Louisiana, which secured to the corporation a monopoly of the butchering business within certain limits of New Orleans, was held to be valid, and thus the right of each State to determine for itself, in the grant of privileges, that which was best for its citizens was sustained. In 1890 came Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U.S., 100, in which it was held that the grant by the Federal Constitution to Congress of the power to regulate commerce between the States invalidated the legislation of one State which sought to prevent a citizen of another from selling and shipping liquors into it.

 In 1895, in the Income Tax Cases, 82 U.S., 429, it was held that the constitutional provision requiring direct taxes to be apportioned among the States according to their population rendered invalid a tax which was not so apportioned on incomes derived from real estate and as the direct product of personal property. And only recently were decided the Insular Cases, 128 U.S., 1, cases arising out of the conquest of Porto Rico and the Philippines, in which was considered the power of Congress to govern territories acquired by war or treaty, and in which was affirmed to the largest extent the national power of the Republic. This list might be greatly increased, but enough have been cited to show the general character of the cases considered and determined by that court in upholding the idea of nationality. It has always strongly upheld the powers given by the Constitution to the nation and at the same time protected the States in the powers reserved by that instrument to them.

At first the amount of business in the Supreme Court was small; now it is large. In 1801, the first year of Chief Justice Marshall's term, only ten cases were filed; from 1875 to 1880 there were 1953, or an average of about 390 a year. While the act of 1891 diminished the number of cases that could come to the court, yet during the year 1900 401 cases were filed, and during the year 1901 383.

As heretofore stated, the court at first consisted of six members; it never has had at any time over ten, and now has but nine. The following is a list of the Chief Justices and also of the associate justices, as well as the States from which they were appointed:

Chief Justices

John Jay, New York; John Rutledge, South Carolina; Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut; John Marshall, Virginia; Roger B. Taney, Maryland; Salmon P. Chase, Ohio; Morrison R. Waite, Ohio; Melville W. Fuller, Illinois.

Associate Justices

William Cushing, Massachusetts; James Wilson, Pennsylvania; John Blair, Virginia; James Iredell, North Carolina; Thomas Johnson, Maryland; William Paterson, New Jersey; Samuel Chase, Maryland; Bushrod Washington, Virginia; Alfred Moore, North Carolina; William Johnson, South Carolina; Brockholst Livingston, New York; Thomas Todd, Kentucky; Joseph Story, Massachusetts; Gabriel Duval, Maryland; Smith Thompson, New York; Robert Trimble, Kentucky; John McLean, Ohio; Henry Baldwin, Pennsylvania; James M. Wayne, Georgia; Philip P. Barbour, Virginia; John Catron, Tennessee; John McKinley, Alabama; Peter V. Daniel, Virginia; Samuel Nelson, New York; Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire; Robert C. Grier, Pennsylvania; Benjamin R. Curtis, Massachusetts; John A. Campbell, Alabama; Nathan Clifford, Maine; Noah H. Swayne, Ohio; Samuel F. Miller, Iowa; David Davis, Illinois; Stephen J. Field, California; William Strong, Pennsylvania; Joseph P. Bradley, New Jersey; Ward Hunt, New York; John M. Harlan, Kentucky; William B. Woods, Georgia; Stanley Matthews, Ohio; Horace Gray, Massachusetts; Samuel Blatchford, New York; Lucius Q. C. Lamar, Mississippi; David J. Brewer, Kansas; Henry B. Brown, Michigan; George Shiras, Jr., Pennsylvania; Howell E. Jackson, Tennessee; Edward D. White, Louisiana; Rufus W. Peckham, New York; Joseph McKenna, California; Oliver W. Holmes, Massachusetts; William R. Day, Ohio. They hold office for life, and yet up to 1903 the average term of office of the Chief Justices had been 13 5-12 years, and of the associates 15 9-12 years.

That the work of the court has not only developed a national idea, but also has done much to give stability to republican institutions is now conceded by all. Consult: Curtis, Jurisdiction of the United States Courts.

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