Iredell and that it was the responsibility of the courts to check its execution. His most notable opinions, however, were written in dissent. That in Wil- son vs. Darnel (3 Dallas, 401) dealing with the question of the court's jurisdiction over a writ of error, was later sustained by a reversal. His opinion handed down in the circuit court in Ware vs. Hylton (3 Dallas, 199) was later filed as a dissent. His most famous opinion was that in Chisholm vs. Georgia (2 Dallas, 419) where, in holding that a state could not be "haled" into court by a citizen of another state, he enunciated, either directly or by implication, all the leading principles of the state-rights doctrine. It is also a splendid legal argument, closely reasoned, and confined to the question before the court, whether an action of assumpsit could lie against a state. He thus expressed his belief in liberal construc- tion: "If, upon a fair construction of the Con- stitution of the United States, the power con- tended for really exists, it undoubtedly may be exercised, though it be a power of first impres- sion___If it does not exist, upon that authority, ten thousand examples of similar powers would not warrant its assumption." Recalling that such an action could not lie against the Crown of England, he argued that it could lie against a state only by authority of the Constitution and declared that in his judgment it could not be found there. He opposed Jay's corporation argu- ment by holding that, while corporations were creatures of sovereignty, the states were sover- eigns themselves, not owing their origin to the government of the United States, since they were in existence before the national government was established. The opinion gives an excellent idea of Iredell's political views as a state-rights Federalist. His dissent not only met with the people's approval, as evidenced by the passage of the Eleventh Amendment, but received the al- most unanimous indorsement of the Supreme Court in the case of Hans vs. Louisiana nearly a century later (134 17. S1., i). The exhausting labor and weary travel on the circuits undermined Iredell's health, and within less than ten years after he had taken his seat on the bench, he died at his home in Edenton. [Griffith J. McRee, Life and Correspondence of Jos. Iredell (2 vols., 1857); the N. C. Booklet, Apr. 1912; Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in U. S. Hist. (1922), vol. I; H. L. Carson, The Supreme Court of the U. S.: Its Hist. (1892), vol. I; Junius Davis, Al- fred Moore and Jos. Iredell, . , . An Address . . . Apr. 29, 1899; Jonathan Elliott, The Debates, Reso- lutions, and other Proceedings . . . on the Adoption of the Fed. Constitution, vol. Ill (1830) ; George Van Santvoord, Sketches of the Lives and Judicial Services of the Chief-Justices . . . of the U. S. (1854).] J.G.deR.H. Ireland IRELAND, JOHN (Jan. i, i82;-Mar. 15, 1896), lawyer, Confederate soldier, governor of Texas, was born near Millerstown, Ky., the son of Patrick and Rachel (Newton) Ireland. He received limited formal education at an old-field school in Hart County. In 1851, after having occupied the positions of constable and deputy sheriff, he entered the law office of Murray & Wood at Mumfordsville, Ky., and in less than a year was admitted to the bar. He soon moved to Texas, settling in the town of Seguin in April 1853. He was elected first mayor of Seguin in 1858 and in 1861 was sent as a delegate to the convention which abrogated the articles of an- nexation between Texas and the United States, where he strongly advocated secession. In the spring of 1862 he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army. During the war he saw serv- ice only along the Texas coast, but rose, never- theless, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Before 1861 he had probably been a Know-Nothing, but in his post-war activities he was consistently a stern Democrat. His prominence in political conventions of 1871 brought, in 1872, his elec- tion to the state House of Representatives. In 1873 he was elected to the Texas Senate, wherein he opposed vigorously the payment of money subsidies to railroads. Two years later he was appointed an associate justice of the Texas su- preme court, and served very competently until 1876, when a reduction in the number of justices necessitated his retirement This same year he was a candidate for the United States Senate but was defeated by Richard Coke [