CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



141 



State, and the cause is removed to the Federal 

 court. 



" One of the essential elements in the ad- 

 ministration of justice in all free countries, Mr. 

 Speaker, is that at all times the citizen shall 

 have the right to be tried", not only for criminal 

 offenses but in respect to his civil rights, by a 

 jury of the vicinage, where he resides, near his 

 home. The construction which has been given 

 to the judiciary act of 1789, however, and the 

 subsequent amendatory acts, has absolutely 

 had the effect to abrogate that sacred right ot 

 the citizen, and has placed in the hands of 

 these corporations, and others, powers and 

 privileges never contemplated by the framers 

 of our Government. At the organization ot 

 our Government, our fathers had the political 

 chart of the world before them. They under- 

 took to lay broad and deep the foundations of 

 a republic where the power should reside sub- 

 stantially with the great body of the people. 



" To accomplish that they threw around the 

 cradle of the young republic certain safe- 

 guards. One of these safeguards was that there 

 should be no titles of nobility in this country ; 

 another that the right of primogeniture should 

 not obtain here, that there should be no en- 

 tailed estates, so that the wealth of the country 

 should diffuse itself among the people accord- 

 ing to natural and beneficent laws. They did 

 not contemplate the creation of these corpora- 

 tions that are as real entities as are individuals 

 ideal persons that never die, and yet possess 

 the power to acquire and hold property equally 

 with real persons. They did not, I say, con- 

 template the rise and progress of these legal 

 Goliaths. Had they foreseen their coming, 

 they doubtless would have made ample pro- 

 vision for their restraint. . 



" Sir, their influence in this country to-day 

 is tremendous. They are Briarean monsters, 

 and exceed in ferocity and power any or all ot 

 the beasts that John saw in his apocalyptic vi- 

 sion. The republic itself will have to struggle 

 with them, and no man can now foresee the 

 result of that struggle. The existence of such 

 corporations seems to be necessary to the prog- 

 ress of our civilization ; they are inseparable 

 from it ; but they should not be clothed by 

 legislation with exclusive privileges over the 

 citizen. The people must put hooks into the 

 jaws of these leviathans, and control them. 



" The accumulation of capital in the hands 

 of these corporations of itself gives them im- 

 mense power and tremendous advantage over 

 individuals. But if you, in addition to that, 

 load them with exclusive privileges by law 

 the privilege of shirking and shunning the or- 

 dinary tribunals in which the common people 

 have to litigate their rights and if you allow 

 them the power and the privilege of dragging 

 the citizen to remote tribunals, then, indeed, 

 you more than double or treble their power. 

 The corporation should seek no exclusive privi- 

 leges, and the citizen should be just to the 

 corporation. Then all will be harmony." 



Mr. New, of Indiana : " The first change pro- 

 posed to be made by this bill in the act of 1875 

 is to require the sum or value of the matter in 

 dispute to exceed, exclusive of interest and 

 costs, the sum of $2,000 instead of $500 ex- 

 clusive of costs. I believe this increase of the 

 sum or value in dispute to be one of the best 

 provisions in the bill. No good reason in my 

 iudgment can be urged against it. The in- 

 crease from five hundred to two thousand dol- 

 lars should be made for the same reason that 

 caused the same Congress that passed the act 

 of 1875 to pass another act at the same ses- 

 sion, which provided that an appeal should not 

 be had from the circuit to the Supreme Court, 

 unless the amount involved exceeded $5,000. 

 The minimum amount before that was $2,000. 



" The change from five hundred to two thou- 

 sand dollars is not out of proportion to the 

 growth of our population and wealth since 

 1789. Within the last two decades the history 

 of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts has 

 been one of constant and rapid growth ; so 

 much so, that you hear from judges of all those 

 courts the opinion expressed that the districts, 

 circuits, and judicial force must be multiplied, 

 and an intermediate appellate court created, 

 unless something can be done to check the 

 surging tide of litigation with which these 

 courts are being overflowed. 



"Although our population has increased 

 more perhaps than fifteen-fold since 1789, our 

 wealth still more, and litigation in even greater 

 proportion, yet the three circuits of 1789 have 

 been added to by only six. It is true that the 

 districts and district courts have been increased 

 in a larger proportion. But those courts have 

 had all they could do, the district judges doing 

 largely circuit court duty in addition to holding 

 their own courts. This has come from the 

 overloaded condition of the circuit court dock- 

 ets, and also from the strong desire on the part 

 of the people and Congress not to enlarge the 

 Federal judicial force beyond the strictest ne- 

 cessity. 



"It has also come from the fact that the 

 large litigations of the country have been in 

 the circuit courts of the United States, and the 

 judges of those courts have had their time 

 mostly occupied in the trial of those causes. 

 I know that the number of cases on the cir- 

 cuit court dockets have been reduced by the 

 repeal of the bankrupt law. But the actual 

 work of the judges has not been lightened in 

 anything like the same ratio, for, as we all 

 know, most of the bankrupt work was done by 

 the registers in bankruptcy. 



" This bill further provides as follows : 



" That the circuit courts of the United States shall 

 not take original cognizance of any suit of a civil 

 nature, either at common law or in equity, between a 

 corporation created or organized by or under the laws 

 of any State and a citizen of any State in which such 

 corporation, at the time the cause of action accrued, 

 may have been carrying on any business authorized 

 by 'the law creating it, except in like cases in which 

 said courts are authorized by this act to take original 



