(ACT of May 15th, 1820.)

the same; and shall receive, for the services performed by them, the same fees to which the clerk of the Kentucky district is enti tled for similar services.

SEC. III. All causes, actions, indictments, libels, pleas, processes, and proceedings whatsoever, returnable, commenced, depending, or in any manner existing, in the general court, established by an act, entitled "An act to establish a separate territorial government for the eastern part of the Mississippi territory," by virtue of the federal jurisdiction by that act granted, are hereby transferred to the said district court, and may be proceeded in, shall exist, and have like incidents and effects, as if they had been originated, and been proceeded in, in the said district court.

SEC. IV. The dockets, books, records, and papers, belonging to the said general court, arising out of, and appertaining to, its federal jurisdiction, shall be transferred to, and become the dockets, books, records, and papers, of the said district court.

SEC. v. There shall be allowed to the judge of the said district court the annual compensation of fifteen hundred dollars, to commence from the date of his appointment, to be paid quarter year y, at the treasury of the United States.

SEC. VI. There shall be appointed, in the said district, a person learned in the law, to act as attorney for the United States; who sal, in addition to his stated fees, be paid by the United States two hundred dollars annually, as a full compensation for all extra services.

SEC. VII. A marshal shall be appointed for the said district who shall perform the same duties, be subject to the same regulations and penalties, and be entitled to the same fees, as are prescribed to marshals in other districts; and shall moreover, be entitled to the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars annually, as a compensation for all extra services.

ACT of May 15, 1820.

Pamphlet edit. 99.

133.SEC. I. The terms of the district court for the western district of Pennsylvania, which are now directed by law to be holden on the first Mondays of the months of June and December, in each year, shall hereafter be holden, for the said district, on the first Monday in May, and second Monday in October, in each year.

SEC. 11. All actions, suits, process, pleadings, and other proceedings, commenced or pending in the said district court, shall be as good and valid to the said first Monday in May, and second Monday in October, in each year, as if this change had not been made, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 11. Appeals and writs of error shall lie from decisions in the said district court for the western district of Pennsylvania, when exercising the powers of a circuit court, to the supreme court of the United States, in the same manner as from circuit

courts.

(ACT of May 15th, 1820.)

SEC. IV. There shall be allowed to the district attorney, and to the marshal of the said western district of Pennsylvania, and the northern district of New York, the yearly sum of two hundred dollars each, to commence from the twentieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, to be paid quarterly at the treasury of the United States.

ACT of May 15, 1820. Pamphlet edit. 114.

The act, entitled "An act to provide for reports of decisions of the supreme court," approved the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, is hereby continued in force for three years and no longer.

NOTES.

The district courts are courts of admiralty, and proceed according to the general rules of the admiralty. 4 Cranch, 24.

Judges of the supreme court may sit as circuit judges under an act of congress, without having distinct commissions. ib. 309.

Courts of the United States, have no jurisdiction of cases between aliens. ib. 46.

Circuit courts have not power to enjoin proceedings in state courts. ib. 179. Circuit courts consist of two judges, any one of whom is capable of performing judicial duties. ib. 382.

It is the place of seizure, not of committing the offence, that decides the jurisdiction. ib. 452.

The courts of the United States, are of limited jurisdiction, and their proceedings are erroneous, if jurisdiction be not shown. 5 Cranch, 185.

After the expiration or repeal of a law, no penalty can be enforced for violations of the law while it was in force, unless some special provision be made for that purpose by statute. ib. 283.

A seizure of a vessel, on waters navigable from the sea, for vessels of ten and more tons burthen, for breach of a law of the United States, is a civil case of admiralty and not to be tried by a jury. 7 Cranch, 112.

The circuit courts of the United States, cannot exercise a common law jurisdiction in criminal cases. ib. 32.

Of all the courts which the United States may, under their general powers, constitute, one only, the supreme court, possesses jurisdiction derived immediately from the constitution, and of which the legislature cannot deprive it. ib. 33. To fine for contempt, imprison for contumacy, enforce the observance of order, &c. are powers which cannot be dispensed with in courts, because they are necessary to the exercise of all others. b. 34.

The supreme court cannot take jurisdiction by writ of error in a civil action, which had been carried up by writ of error from the district court to the circuit court. ib. 108.

A state court has no jurisdiction to enjoin a judgment of the circuit court of the United States. ib. 279.

The power of circuit courts to issue writs of mandamus, is confined exclusively to those cases in which it may be necessary to the exercise of their jurisdiction. ib. 504.

The jurisdiction of the circuit court in a writ of right attaches when the property demanded exceeds five hundred dollars in value, and if upon the trial the demandant recover less, he is not allowed his costs, but at the discretion of the court may be adjudged to pay costs. 8 Cranch, 242.

In deciding a question of the law of nations, the courts of the United States will respect the decisions of foreign courts. 9 Cranch, 191.

NOTES.

If a cause has been once remanded before, and the state court decline or refuse to carry into effect the mandate of the supreme court, thereon, the supreme court will proceed to a final decision of the same, and award execution thereon. 1 Wheaton, 304.

If the validity or construction of a treaty of the United States, is drawn in question, and the decision is against its validity, or against the title specially set up by either party under the treaty, the supreme court has jurisdiction to ascertain that title, and determine its legal validity, and is not confined to the abstract construction of the treaty itself id. ib.

The admiralty jurisdiction embraces all questions of prize and salvage, all maritime torts, contracts or offences in which the principles of the law and comity of nations, often form an essential inquiry. id. ib. 335.

The courts of this country have no jurisdiction to redress any supposed torts committed on the high seas, upon the property of its citizens by a cruiser regularly commissioned by a foreign and friendly power; except where such cruiser has been fitted out in violation of our neutrality. ib. 238.

A citizen of a territory cannot sue a citizen of a state in the courts of the United States, nor can those courts take jurisdiction by other parties being joined who are capable of suing; all the parties, on each side, must be subject to the jurisdiction, or the suit will be dismissed. ib. 91.

The jurisdiction of the circuit court having once vested between citizens of different states cannot be devested by a change of domicil of one of the parties, and his removal into the same state with the adverse party pendente tite. 2 Wheaton, 290.

The remedies in the courts of the United States, at common law and in equity are to be not according to the practice of the state courts, but according to the principles of common law and equity as distinguished and defined in that country from which we derive our knowledge of those principles. 3 Wheaton, 221.

Remedies in respect to real property, are to be pursued according to the lex loci rei sito. id. 219.

The grant to the United States, in the constitution, of all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, does not extend to a cession of the waters in which those cases may arise, or of general jurisdiction over the same; congress may pass all laws which are necessary, for giving the most complete effect to the exercise of the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction granted to the government of the union; but the general jurisdiction over the place, subject to this grant, adheres to the territory as a portion of territory not yet given away; and the residuary powers of legislation still remain in the state. id 389.

The circuit courts have chancery jurisdiction in every state. They have the same chancery powers, and the same rules of decision in all the states. 4 Wheaton, 115.

Since the adoption of the constitution of the United States, a state has authority to pass a bankrupt law, provided such law does not impair the obligation of contracts within the meaning of the constitution. ART. 1. S. 10. And provided, there be no act of congress in force to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy conflicting with such law. ib. 122.

The act of New York passed April 3, 1811, (which not only liberates the person of the debtor, but discharges him from all liability to any debt contracted previous to his discharge) so far as it attempts to discharge the contract is a law impairing the obligation of contracts within the meaning of the constitution of the United States. id. 197.

It makes no difference in the application of this principle, whether the law was passed before, or after the debt was contracted. ib. 209.

In the absence of any act of congress on the subject, the courts of the United States, would have authority under the general law of nations, to decree restitution of property captured in violation of their neutrality, under a commission issued within the United States, or under an armament or augmentation of that armament, or crew of the capturing vessel, within the same. id. 311.

(ACT of February 4th, 1791.).

War having been recognized to exist between Spain and her colonies, by the government of the United States, it is the duty of the courts of the United States, when a capture is made by either of the belligerent parties without any violation of our neutrality, and the captured prize is brought innocently within our jurisdiction, to leave things in the same state they find them, and restore them to the state from which they had been forcibly removed by the act of our own citizens. id. 502.

KENTUCKY,

ACT of February 4, 1791. 2 Bioren, 191.

An act declaring the consent of congress, that a new state be formed within the jurisdiction of the commonwealth of Virginia, and admitted into this union, by the name of the state of Kentucky.

Whereas the legislature of the commonwealth of Virginia, by an act, entitled "An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentucky, into an independent state," passed the eighteenth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, have consented that the district of Kentucky, within the jurisdiction of the said commonwealth, and according to its actual boundaries at the time of passing the act aforesaid, should be formed into a new state: And whereas a convention of delegates, chosen by the people of the said district of Kentucky, have petitioned congress to consent, that, on the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the said district should be formed into a new state, and received into the union, by the name of "the state of Kentucky:"

SEC. 1. The congress doth consent that the said district of Kentucky, within the jurisdiction of the commonwealth of Virginia, and according to its actual boundaries on the eighteenth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, shall, upon the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, be formed into a new state, separate from, and independent of, the said commonwealth of Virginia.

SEC. II. Upon the aforesaid first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the said new state, by the name and style of the state of Kentucky, shall be received and admitted into this union, as a new and entire member of the United States of America.

An act to authorize the sale and conveyance of lands, in certain cases, by the marshals of the United States, and to confirm for ner sales.

1. SEC. 1. Where the United States shall have obtained judgment in civil actions, brought in those states wherein, by the laws and practice of such states, lands or other real estate belonging to the debtor are delivered to the creditor in satisfaction of such judgment, and shall have received seisin and possession of lands so delivered; it shall be lawful for the marshal of the district wherein such lands or other real estate are situated, under the directions of the secretary of the treasury, to expose the same to sale at public auction, and to execute a grant thereof to the highest bidder, on receiving payment of the full purchase money; which grant, so made, shall vest in such purchaser all the right, estate, and interest of the United States, in and to such lands, or other real estate. [Infra, 3.]

2. SEC. II. The sales heretofore made by collectors of certain districts of the United States, of lands, or other real estate, delivered as aforesaid to the United States, shall be, and are hereby, confirmed: Provided, That this confirmation shall not extend to any sale, unless the condition of such sale has been complied with by the purchaser.

3. SEC. III. Whenever a marshal shall sell any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, by virtue of process from a court of the United States, and shall die, or be removed from office, or the term of his commission expire, before a deed shall be executed for the same by him to the purchaser; in every such case, the purchaser or plaintiff at whose suit the sale was made, may apply to the court from which the process issued, and set forth the case, assigning the reason why the title was not perfected by the marshal who sold the same; and thereupon the court may order the marshal for the time being to perfect the title, and execute a deed to the purchaser, he paying the purchase money and costs remaining unpaid, and where a marshal shall take in execution any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, and shall die or be removed from office, or the term of his commission expire before sale, or