493 



COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



f the L'nited States is required by the constitution t<> preside. 

 An to the modes of trial : In cases of impeachment, as has been 

 already stated, the trial is before the senate, without any jury. 

 The trial of all crimes, in other cares, is required by the consti- 

 tution to be by jury. So is the trial of all civil suits at common 

 law. where the value in controversy exceeds *0 dollars. And, 

 in all cases where the facti are tried by a jury, their verdict, 

 at to the facts, has the ronclusivenets given it by the common 

 law ol England. In admiralty and prize causes, and in equity 

 causes, the questions of fact, as well as of law, are decided by 

 the court, as they are decided in the English courts. The ge- 

 neral practice, in the trials by jury, is the name ax in England. 

 The mode of appointing ana selecting the jurors is not uni. 

 form. In tome of the states, the marshal or sheriff selects 

 them ; in others, they are drawn out of ballot boxes, which 

 contain the names of all the persons whom the municipal au- 

 thorities deem qualified to sit as jurors. The selections thus 

 made usually embrace a very large proportion of the voters ; 

 and as many are selected and returned tor a particular session 

 of the court as the court deems the occasion to require. In 

 some states, the same jurors sit in all causes tried at the same 

 term ; in others, a distinct jury is, or may be, returned for 

 each cause. The courts of the United States, sitting in any 

 particular district, follow the local practice as to the selection 

 of juries. In all criminal trials, the constitution guarantees to 

 the party accused a public trial, upon a written indictment or 

 accusation, a right t be confronted with the witnesses brought 

 against him, and to have compulsive process for the attendance 

 of his own witnesses, and a right to have the assistance of 

 counsel or lawyers in his defence. The statutes of the United 

 States generally secure to him, in civil cases, the same privi- 

 leges, except that depositions of witnesses may be used tin rein. 

 in certain cases, where the witnesses cannot attend by reason 

 of infirmity, or distance of place, &r. The power of pardon is 

 exclusively confided to the president of the United States. The 

 judges have no express authority to recommend any person, 

 4fter conviction, for a pardon ; but, where the case requires it, 

 it is not unfrequently done by them, as private persons, upon 

 their own responsibility and sense of justice. 



It may be asked, Who determine finally what causes do or 

 do not belong to the jurisdiction of the courts of the United 

 States y The general answer should be, that the court, before 

 which the suit is brought, most, in the first instance, decide 

 that question for itself ; and it is finally to be decided by the 

 highest court to which an appeal lies from that court If it de- 

 pend on matter of fact, the fact is ascertained in the usual way 

 in which other facts are ascertained in cases of a like nature ; 

 if it depend on matter of law, then the court primarily decides 

 on its own view of the law. In general, the judgments and 

 decrees of courts of competent jurisdiction are held conclusive 

 in the United States, as they are in England. Few conflicts, as 

 to jurisdiction, arise in the American courts, as, for the most 

 part, the jurisdiction of the state courts is concurrent with that 

 of the United States' courts in civil cases ; and where it is not, 

 the line of exclusive jurisdiction is broadly marked out. For 

 instance, the admiralty and prize jurisdiction is.exclusive in the 

 courts of the United States ; but in controversies between citi- 

 zens of different states, the jurisdiction is coi current. One 

 state cannot sue another in its own courts. The suit must be 

 in the supreme court of the United States. The courts of the 

 United States, like the courts in England, have general autho- 

 rity to make rules for the orderly course of their business, to 

 issue writs and executions, to take bail, to grant injunctions, 

 to permit amendments, to punish for contempts, c., in the same 

 way as the courts in England. Writs and executions do not 

 run, that is to say, cannot be executed, beyond the limits of the 

 particular district in which the court sits, with a few excep- 

 tions, among which are subpoenas for witnesses and executions 

 on judgments in suits in favour of the United States. There are 

 various sorts of process to compel the performance of judg- 

 ments, as in England. Snch are writs of fieri facial, on which 

 the goods and chattels of the debtor or defendant may be taken 

 or sold ; wriis of lerari facias, on which his lands may be taken 

 for a term ; writs of capias, on which his person may be ar- 

 rested and imprisoned ; and other writs, on which his lands 

 may be taken and set off to the creditor, at an appraised value, 

 or sold at public auction. In criminal cases, the courts of the 

 United States direct the punishment against the party accord- 

 ing to the rules prescribed by the law. If the punishment is 

 death, the court, before which the trial is had, declares the 

 time and place when and where the execution of it shall take 



prisonmeni not exceeding a certain period 01 lime, me court 

 fixes the fine, or imprisonment, or both, in its sentence, accord- 

 ing to the circumstances of each particular case. As all trials, 

 both civil and criminal, are public, and reports are printed, 

 from time to time, of those which are most interesting either 

 as to law or facts ; as the opinion of the court is always public. 

 ly given, and, generally, the reasons of that opinion, it is not 

 easy for any court to trespass upon the known principles of law 

 or the rights of the parties. In the United Slates, as in Eng- 

 land, the citizens at large watch with jealousy the proceedings 

 of courts of justice. The very great number of lawyers engag- 

 ed in the profession also furnishes an additional security. The 

 rules of admission to the bar are not very strict ; and usually, 

 after three years' preparatory study, any citizen of good educa- 

 tion and character is admissible to the inferior courts, and, after 

 two or three years' practice there, is admissible to the highest 

 courts. Generally speaking, lawyers are entitled to the same 

 privileges, upon the same terms, in the United States' courts, as 

 in the state courts. Few but eminent lawyers, in fact, practise 

 in the supreme court of the United States, although the admia- 



sion to It Is quite easy. Throughout the United States, the l.i r 

 of the highest courts is characterized by learning and talent, a 

 spirit of independence and integrity, and a manliness of conduct, 

 which give it great weight and popularity. Lawyers, moi 

 tliHii any other class, are the favourite candidates for seats in 

 the legislative and executive departments of the government. 



COURTS OF THE M M HAI. STATICS IN THB UNITED STATES 

 The limits of this work will not permit a particular account of 

 all the courts of the several states of the Union. In some re 

 spects, their judicial systems correspond with each other. The 

 oflice of justice of the peace is very similar in all, the general 

 police of the counties being confided mostly to the-e magis- 

 trates. They generally have authority to cause offenders and 

 criminals, and all disturbers of the PIMCC, to be arre.-ted, and, if 

 the cllcnce is small, to fix its punishment ; if it tails without 

 their jurisdiction, they commit the offenders to prison, to be 

 detained for trial before the proper tribunals. But for all con- 

 siderable offences, the parties are liable to be put upon trial on- 

 ly on a bill being found against them by a grand jury. In the 

 county courts of sessions, the assembled justices, or a select 

 number of them, in many of the states, have a pretty exten- 

 sive jurisdiction in mutters of police, in the regulation of the 

 affairs of the county, such as building court-houses, assessing 

 county taxes, laying out roads, licensing taverns and victualling 

 hou-cs, and, in some states, granting the right to erect mills, 

 and settling the questions of damages thereby occasioned. In 

 Virginia, the county sessions have u still more extensive juris- 

 diction, both civil and criminal, the civil jurisdiction extending 

 to suits in which an amount not exceeding 300 dollars is in dis- 

 pute ; and, though a vast amount of the business of both de. 

 scriptions comes into these courts, the justices discharge all 

 their duties without fees, and this paternal, friendly superin- 

 tendence ol the ifcncral interests of the county is supposed to 

 have a very salutary influence upon the community. Besides 

 this 'general superintendence of the police, and maintenance 

 of the peace and good order of the community, exercised 

 by the justices individually or collectively, they have, in most 

 of the states, a jurisdiction of civil actions lo amounts varying 

 from 13 to 100 dollars, reserving to the parties aright to appeal, 

 and have a new trial before the county sessions or county 

 courts of common pleas, or some other superior tribunals, in 

 cases where the sum in dispute exceeds a certain amount In 

 some states, there is a right of appeal in case the amount of four 

 dollars or more is in dispute : in others, the final jurisdiction of 

 the justices extends to a greater sum ; in Massachusetts, to 20 

 dollars ; and there is a distinction in some states, in the local 

 extent of the civil and criminal jurisdiction of justices, the for- 

 mer extending only to the town in which the magistrate re. 

 sides, the latter to the whole county. In some of the capitals, 

 and more considerable towns, special courts are established, to 

 which is assigned the jurisdiction of many of the offences and 

 suits, w hich, ill the counties, generally come under the cogniz- 

 ance of the justices, individually or collectively. In all the 

 states, another class of county courts is established, variously 

 denominated, courts of common pleas, county, district, or cir- 

 cuit courts, which have original jurisdiction of the great mass 

 of civil actions at law, or indictments for crimes not capital ; 

 and over these are established the superior or supreme courts, 

 or courts of errors or appeals. In some states, the county 

 courts for trials by jury are held by one of the judges of the su- 

 preme court, and all questions of law are reserved for the de. 

 termination of all the judges. In others, the judge of the su- 

 preme court, who presides in trials by jury, in the counties, is 

 assisted by associate justices : this is the case in Maryland. In 

 other states, trials by jury are held in the counties by a court ol 

 which the jurisdiction is limited to the county ; and, in case of 

 the amount in dispute exceeding a certain sum, varying, in the 

 different states, from 100 to 300 dollars, or in cases involving 

 laud titles, and some others, either party may appeal, and have 

 another trial of the same facts, by jury, before a judge of the su- 

 perior court. This trial of the same facts a second time, by jury, 

 without the allegation of any error or misdirection on the first 

 trial, or any surprise on the part of either of the litigants, orany 

 discovery of new evidence, or, indeed, any other reason than to 

 give the parties opportunity for another contest, upon precise- 

 ly the same footing as the first, is an anomaly. It is, in effect, an 

 appeal from one jury to another, for which there might be more 

 reason, il juries were, like courts, differently constituted, so that 

 one should be considered superior to the other j but this is not the 

 case, the juries in both courts being selected upon the sam 

 principles. This is a feature of some of the state courts, by 

 which they are distinguished from the English courts, and also 

 from those of the United States. A similar practice prevails, in 

 some of the states, in criminal trials, except for felonies or ihe 

 more heinous offences, of which the superior court has original 

 and exclusive cognizance. This right to two trials of the same 

 case, in the same state of it, though theoretically an irregular, 

 ity not easily reconciled to any principle, is yet not the cause 

 ot any very serious inconvenience in practice, for very few of 

 those acti' us in which the parties have a right to two trials 

 are, in fact, tried more than once. The equity jurisdiction is 

 in a distinct court in some of the states, as New York, Mary, 

 land, Virginia ; in others, the same courts act as courts of law 

 and equity, as in Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina; arid 

 there is a great diversity in the extent of equity jurisdiction 

 possessed by the courts, those of Pennsylvania, for instance, 

 having very circumscribed powers ; and in the New England 

 states, excepting Connecticut, the prejudices against equity 

 courts and proceedings derived from some of the old common 

 law writers, particularly lord Ccke, have taken deep root, and 

 are the more difficult to eradicate, as they have no definite 

 foundation, but rest upon a vague notion of the delays suppos- 

 ed to be necessarily attendant upon chancery proceedings, and 



