The Project Gutenberg eBook, Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, at January Term, 1832, Delivered by Mr. Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of Samuel A. Worcester, Plaintiff in Error, versus the State of Georgia, by John Marshall

Title: Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, at January Term, 1832, Delivered by Mr. Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of Samuel A. Worcester, Plaintiff in Error, versus the State of Georgia

With a Statement of the Case, Extracted from the Records of the Supreme Court of the United States

Author: John Marshall

Release Date: July 26, 2009 [eBook #29513]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OPINION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, AT JANUARY TERM, 1832, DELIVERED BY MR. CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL IN THE CASE OF SAMUEL A. WORCESTER, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR, VERSUS THE STATE OF GEORGIA***

OPINION

OF THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,

AT JANUARY TERM, 1832,

DELIVERED BY MR. CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL.

IN THE CASE OF

SAMUEL A. WORCESTER, Plaintiff in Error,

versus

THE STATE OF GEORGIA

With a statement of the case, extracted from the Records of
the Supreme Court of the United States.

PRINTED FROM AUTHENTICATED COPIES.

WASHINGTON:
PRINTED BY GALES AND SEATON.
1852.

OPINION, &c.

Samuel A. Worcester, Plaintiff in Error,
vs.
The State of Georgia.

A writ of error was issued from the Supreme Court of the United States, directed to "the honorable the Judges of the Superior Court for the County of Gwinnett, in the State of Georgia," commanding them to "send to the said Supreme Court of the United States, the record and proceedings in the said Superior Court of the County of Gwinnett, between the State of Georgia, Plaintiff, and Samuel A. Worcester, Defendant, on an indictment in that Court."

This writ of error was returnable on the second Monday of January, 1832, and was attested by the Honorable Henry Baldwin, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.

A citation was issued, directed to "the State of Georgia," dated October 27, 1831, and signed by the Honorable Henry Baldwin, by which the said State was cited to show cause why the error in the judgment against Samuel A. Worcester, in the writ of error mentioned, if there was any error, should not be arrested, and why speedy justice should not be done to the parties in that behalf.

The citation was served on his Excellency Wilson Lumpkin, Governor of the State of Georgia, on the 24th November, 1831, and on Charles J. Jenkins, Esq. Attorney General of the said State, on the 22d November, 1831.

The writ of error was returned to the Supreme Court of the United States, with the record of the proceedings in the Court for the County of Gwinnett annexed thereto, and with the following certificate, under the seal of the Court:

Georgia, Gwinnett County, ss.

I, John G. Park, Clerk of the Superior Court for the County of Gwinnett, and State aforesaid, do certify that the annexed and foregoing is a full and complete exemplification of the proceedings and judgment had in said Court, against Samuel A. Worcester, one of the Defendants in the case therein mentioned as of record in the said Superior Court.

Given under my hand, and the seal of the Court, this 28th day of November, 1831.

JOHN G. PARK, Clerk.

The following is a copy of the Record:

"Georgia, Gwinnett county:

The grand jurors, sworn, chosen, and selected for the county of Gwinnett, to wit: John S. Wilson, Isaac Gilbert, James Wells, Jr., Benjamin S. Smith, James W. Moore, Robert Craig, John M. Thompson, Hamilton Garmany, Amos Wellborn, William Green, Buckner Harris, William Rakestraw, Jones Douglass, Wiley Brogdon, B. F. Johnson, Wilson Strickland, Richard J. Watts, and John White—

In the name and behalf of the citizens of Georgia, charge and accuse Elizur Butler, Samuel A. Worcester, James Trott, Samuel Mays, Surry Eaton, Austin Copeland, and Edward D. Losure, white persons of said county, with the offence of 'residing within the limits of the Cherokee nation, without a licence:' For that the said Elizur Butler, Samuel A. Worcester, James Trott, Samuel Mays, Surry Eaton, Austin Copeland, and Edward D. Losure, white persons as aforesaid, on the fifteenth day of July, eighteen hundred and thirty one, did reside in that part of the Cherokee nation attached by the laws of said State to the said county, and in the county aforesaid, without a licence or permit from his Excellency the Governor of said State, or from any agent authorized by his Excellency the Governor aforesaid to grant such permit or licence, and without having taken the oath to support and defend the constitution and laws of the State of Georgia, and uprightly to demean themselves as citizens thereof, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace, and dignity, thereof.

TURNER H. TRIPPE, Sol. Gen'l.
JNO. W. A. SANFORD, Pros'r.

September, 1831.
True bill:—John S. Wilson, Foreman.

Witnesses Sworn.—John W. A. Sanford, Charles H. Nelson, Moses Cantrell, William Wood, Jacob R. Brooks, Jno. F. Cox, William Tippins, Hubbard Barker.

GWINNETT SUPERIOR COURT, September Term, 1831.

And the said Samuel A. Worcester, in his own proper person, comes and says, that this Court ought not to take further cognizance of the action and prosecution aforesaid, because, he says, that, on the 15th day of July, in the year 1831, he was, and still is, a resident in the Cherokee nation; and that the said supposed crime, or crimes, and each of them, were committed, if committed at all, at the town of New Echota, in the said Cherokee nation, out of the jurisdiction of this court, and not in the county Gwinnett, or elsewhere within the jurisdiction of this Court. And this defendant saith, that he is a citizen of the State of Vermont, one of the United States of America, and that he entered the aforesaid Cherokee nation in the capacity of a duly authorized missionary of the American