In the _Dartmouth College case_[1] the doctrine of the inviolability of contracts against attack by state legislation was further developed. An act of the state legislature of New Hampshire had sought to alter the charter of Dartmouth College, and the New Hampshire courts had upheld the legislature. The Supreme Court reversed the state court and declared the statute unconstitutional under the clause of the Constitution which declares that no state shall make any law impairing the obligation of contracts. [Footnote 1: _Dartmouth College v. Woodward_, 4 Wheat., 518 (1819).] In the great case of _Gibbons v. Ogden_[1] the Court asserted the paramount jurisdiction of the National Government over interstate commerce. This was one of the most important and far-reaching of all Marshall's decisions. An injunction had been granted by Chancellor Kent and unanimously sustained by the Court of Errors of New York, restraining Gibbons from navigating the Hudson River by steamboats licensed by Congress for the coasting trade on the ground that he was thereby infringing the exclusive right, granted by the legislature of New York, to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton to navigate the waters of the state with vessels moved by steam. The Supreme Court reversed the state courts and held the New York legislation void as an interference with the right of Congress, under the Constitution, to regulate interstate commerce. [Footnote 1: 9 Wheat., 1 (1824).] These were only a few of that series of great decisions which stand out like mountain peaks on the horizon of our national life. Marshall's judgments transformed a governmental experiment into something assured and permanent. They confirmed the national supremacy and made the Constitution workable. Marshall is known to history for his work in vindicating the national power under the Constitution. That was the need in his day and he met it with superlative wisdom and skill. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that he favored federal encroachment upon the powers reserved to the states. On the contrary, he rendered decisions in favor of state rights which would be notable were they not overshadowed by the greater fame of the decisions which went to the building of the nation.