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In January, 1780, Congress resolved to establish a Court for the trial of all appeals from the Courts of Admiralty of the States in cases of capture, to consist of three Judges with salaries, appointed and commissioned by Congress, two of whom should constitute a quorum. The Court was empowered to appoint a register. The trials therein were to be according to the usages of nations, and not by jury; and they fixed the place of their first session at Philadelphia, and afterwards at such times and places as the Court should judge most conducive to the public good, so that they did not at any time sit further eastward than Hartford, in Connecticut, or southward than Williamsburg, in Virginia. On the 22d January, they elected the Judges by ballot.* The style of the Court it was subsequently resolved, should be the Court of Appeals in cases of capture; and regulations were made as to the oaths of the Judges and Register, the time of entering and lodging appeals, and giv ing security; and the causes depending, and the papers, were ordered to be transferred to this Court t

Applications were sometimes made to Congress to order this Court to receive appeals. In September, 1781, we find an application to Congress, and instructions by them to the Court, to receive an appeal, where, by the indisposition and death

• Mr. Wythe, Mr. Paca, and Mr. Hosmer, were elected. Mr. Wythe afterwards declined, and Mr. Cyrus Griffin was elected in his place. † 6 Journ. Cong. 156.

of the Register of the Court of Admiralty of Pennsylvania, the stipulations were not executed in due form, and in due time.* In February, 1782. a resolution was adopted in another case, authorising the appeal. On the other hand, they refused to interfere after the decision of the Court, or in favour of a suitor in the Court of appeals when a loss was occasioned by such suitor or his friend.§

In February 1786, Congress resolved, that as the war was at an end, and the business of the Court of appeals in a great measure done away, the salaries of the Judges should cease. In June 1786, they were authorised to grant re-hearings or new trials, and a per diem allowance was ordered during the sitting of the Court and the time employed in travelling to and from the same. T

In several instances applications were made to Congress, in relation to controversies between States concerning the rights of soil and jurisdiction. In December 1779, they resolved, that as it appeared, from the representation of the delegates of the State of Pennsylvania, that disputes had arisen between the States of Pennsylvania and Virginia, relative to the extent of their boundaries, which might be productive of serious evils to both States, and tend to lessen their exertions in the common cause, it be * 7 Journ. Cong, 180. † Ib. 277. § lb. 271. 11 Journ. Cong. 35.

Ib. 250.

16. 123. By the act of Congress of the 8th May, 1792, sec.12, the records and proceedings of this Court are ordered to be deposited in the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States, who is authorised to give copies; and such copies are to have like faith and credit as all other proceedings of said Court.

recommended to the contending parties, not to grant any part of the disputed land, or to disturb the possession of any persons living thereon, and to avoid any appearance of force, until the dispute could be amicably settled by both States, or brought to a just decision by the intervention of Congress; that possessions forcibly taken be restored to the original possessors, and things placed in the situations in which they were at the commencement of the war, without prejudice to the claims of either party.*

So, the disputes existing between the States of New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, and the people inhabiting the present State of Vermont, then styled the New Hampshire grants, were brought before Congress by their applications, and Congress recommended laws to be passed by the respective States, expressly authorising Congress to hear and determine all differences between them, relative to their respective boundaries, in the mode prescribed by the articles of confederation, (which had then been agreed to in Congress, but were not ratified by all the States). New York and New Hampshire passed such laws, and a hearing before Congress took place.

A controversy subsisting between the States of Virginia and New Jersey, respecting a tract of land called Indiana, lying on the river Ohio, was, in consequence of instructions from the Legislature of New Jersey, to their delegates in Congress, and

*5 Journ. Cong. 456.

the petitions of Indiana proprietors, heard before a committee of Congress, who reported in May 1782, that the purchase of the Indiana company was made bona fide, &c.*

During this period there existed nothing resembling the appellate authority from the tribunals of the respective colonies, previously exercised by the King in council.

III. Of the government of the Union under the articles of confederation.

The declaration of independence in July 1776, necessarily operated as a permanent transfer from the crown of England of the high national powers lately exercised by Congress, and was naturally followed by the establishment of a regular government, amongst whose different departments these powers might be distributed. Accordingly, the day after that on which the declaration of independence was resolved upon by Congress in a committee of the whole, (June 11th 1776,) a proposition was made, and a committee appointed, to prepare and digest the form of a confederation, to be entered into between the colonies.† The articles of confederation were agreed to in Congress on the 15th November 1777, but were not to be conclusive until they were approved by the Legislatures of all the States.§ Eleven of the States ratified them in 1778, and one in 1779, and one State, the last of the thirteen, on the 1st March 1781. The completion of the ratification was announced by Cón

†2 Journ. Cong. 207. § Article 13.

7 Journ. Cong. 364. 9 Journ. Cong. 64.
3 Journ. Cong. 502.

gress on the 23d March, and the government commenced ts operations.

By the article of confederation, the judicial power of the United States was defined and somewhat extended, though it was still restricted to very narrow limits. The ninth article provided, that the United States in Congress assembled, should have the sole and exclusive right and power, 1st. Of appointing Courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas. 2d. Of establishing Courts for receiving and determining appeals in all cases of captures: provided, that no member of Congress should be appointed a Judge of any of the said Courts. 3d. The United States in Congress assembled were also to be, by the same article, the last resort on appeal, in all disputes and differences then subsisting, or that thereafter might arise, between two or more States, concerning boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever, which authority was to be exercised by Judges, or commissioners, to be appointed in the manner therein particularly described, their judgment to be final; provided, that no State should be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States. 4th. And all controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdictions, as they might respect such lands and the States which passed such grants, were adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, were, on the petition of either party to Con

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