The State of Pennsylvania did resist and did pass laws and make military preparations to enforce them. Here was a clear case of conflict between a State and the United States as to the powers the State had given, and where, according to the Kentucky resolutions, and according to Jefferson, if he were the author, the State, as a party to the compact of government, there being no umpire, could lawfully resist and insist on the construction it gave to the case. While this conflict was pending, the Republican party, which was predominant in the United States Congress, both House and Senate, in order to enforce the authority of the United States and the decision of its Court, passed an act authorizing the President, in cases of insurrection or obstruction to the law, to employ such part of the land and naval force of the United States as shall be judged necessary. Jefferson signed this act in 1807, thus sanctioning the compelling of the obedience of a State to the General Government. It is to be observed that this took place in a case where the dispute was as to the jurisdiction of the United States in a case between a State court and the authority of the old Confederate Government. The party of which Jefferson was the chief could have refused to enforce the decision of the Supreme Court on what seems a plausible ground, that the Constitution gave no power to the United States over the disputes between the old Confederacy and the States; but neither Congress, nor Jefferson by a veto, did this. They enforced the nationality of the Confederacy and of the United States Government as its successor. The carrying out of the decree of the United States Court was resisted by the Pennsylvania State militia under General Bright, who had been called out by the Governor under the sanction of the Legislature; the United States marshal summoned a posse of two thousand men, and war was imminent. Madison had now become President, and the Governor appealed to him to discriminate between a factious opposition to the laws of the United States and resistance to a decree founded on a usurpation of power; but Madison replied that he was specially enjoined by statute to enforce the decrees of the Supreme Court. The State yielded, and also paid the money necessary to carry out the decree of the United States Court. General Bright and his men were brought to trial for forcibly obstructing the United States process, and were convicted and sentenced to fine and imprisonment. Madison pardoned those convicted, and remitted the fines on the ground that they had acted under a mistaken sense of duty.[83]