District (3.) The district as well as the circuit courts are derived from the power granted to Congress by the courts. constitution, of constituting tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court. (a) The United States are at present divided into thirtyfive districts, which generally consist of an entire state; but in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, there are more districts than one. A court is established in each district, with some exceptions, consisting of one judge, who holds annually, in most of them, four stated terms, and in some of them only three, or two, or one; and he holds, also, special courts in his discretion. There are at present only twenty-nine district judges; and it seems to be practically settled, since the Act of 1801, that Congress may, in their discretion, abolish the inferior courts, and create new ones under a different organization. * The district courts have, exclusive of the state courts, *cognizance of all lesser crimes and offences, cognizable 304 under the authority of the United States, and committed within their respective districts, or upon the high seas, and which are punishable by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or when corporal punish ized to issue writs of mandamus, except when necessary for the exercise of their acknowledged jurisdiction. M'Intire v. Wood, 7 Cranch, 504. It will therefore lie to a district court refusing to proceed to judgment in a case subject to the appellate jurisdiction of the Circuit Court. Smith v. Jackson, 1 Paine, 453. It is a general principle of the common law, that where a limited authority is given, if the party to whom it is given extends his jurisdiction to objects not within it, his warrant will be no protection to the officers who act under it. Morrell v. Martin, 3 Manning & Granger, 581. (a) Art. 1, sec. 8. within the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States. Burr v. Gregory, 2 Paine, C. C. 426. Goodyear v. Day, 1 Blatchf. C. C. 565. The jurisdiction of the circuit courts extends to cases arising under the patent laws irrespective of the citizenship of the parties or of the amount involved. Allen v. Blunt, 1 Blatchf. C. C. 480. But the Act giving jurisdiction to circuit courts in patent cases, without regard to citizenship, has not changed the provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789, providing that no civil suit shall be brought in a circuit or district court, against an inhabitant of the United States, in any other district than that of which he is an inhabitant or in which he shall be found at the time of serving the writ. Chaffee v. Hayward, 20 How. U. S. 208. ment, not exceeding thirty stripes, is to be inflicted. (a) They have also exclusive original cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, including all seizures under imposts, navigation, or trade laws of the United States, where the seizures are made upon the high seas, or on waters within their districts navigable from the sea with vessels of ten or more tons burden; (b) and also of all other seizures made under the laws of the United States; and also of all suits for penalties and forfeitures incurred under those laws. They have also cognizance, concurrent with the circuit courts and the state courts, of causes where an alien sues for a tort committed in violation of the law of nations, or of a treaty of the United States; and of all suits at common law, in which the United States are plaintiffs, and the matter in dispute amounts, exclusive of costs, to two hundred dollars. They have jurisdiction, likewise, exclusive of the courts of the several states, of all suits against consuls or vice-consuls, except for offences above the magnitude which has been mentioned. (c) They have also cognizance of complaints by whomsoever instituted, in cases of captures made within the waters of the United States, or within a marine league of its coast; (d) and to repeal patents unduly obtained. (e) (a) By the Acts of Congress of August 23d, 1842, c. 188, and of August 8th, 1846, c. 98, the district courts were declared to have concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit courts, of all crimes and offences against the United States, the punishment of which is not capital. (b) The exclusive original cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction is understood to be exclusive as between the district and circuit courts, and that the jurisdiction may be concurrent with courts of common law, in cases in which a common-law remedy may be adequate and proper, inasmuch as the Judiciary Act of 1789, sec. 9, when on this very point, "saves to suitors, in all cases, the right of a common-law remedy, where the common law is competent to give it." (c) Act of Congress of September 24th, 1789, c. 20, sec. 9. By Act of Congress of August 8th, 1846, c. 105, the district and circuit courts, and the commissioners to take affidavits, &c., have jurisdiction, as justices of the peace, against offenders against the United States, and, on the application of foreign consuls and commercial agents, to enforce their awards and decrees by arrest and imprisonment, &c. (d) Act of April 20th, 1818, c. 88, sec. 7. (e) Act of February 21st, 1793, c. 49, sec. 10. By the Act of Congress of August 23d, 1842, c. 188, the district courts, as courts of admiralty, and the circuits courts, as courts of equity, are to be deemed always open for the purpose of filing pleadings and issuing processes, and for interlocutory motions and orders. The judges of the district courts have, also, in cases where the party has not had a reasonable time to apply to the Circuit Court, as full power to grant writs of injunction to operate within their respective districts, as is exercised by the judges of the Supreme Court, and to continue until the next *305 Circuit Court. (a) They may also grant injunctions, in particular cases, under the Act for the better organization of the treasury department. (b) In addition to these general powers vested in the district courts, they have, in those cases where the districts are so situated as not to permit conveniently the presence of a judge of the Supreme Court, the powers of a circuit court superadded to their ordinary powers of a district court. (c) To guard against the inconvenience of a difference of opinion between the circuit judge and the district judge, when holding together a circuit court, it is provided by law, that in all cases of appeal or error, from the district to the circuit court, judgment is to be rendered in conformity to the opinion of the judge of the Supreme Court presiding in such circuit court. And in all other cases of a disagreement of opinion between the circuit and district judges, the point may be certified into the Supreme Court for its decision; but in no case shall imprisonment be allowed, or punishment be inflicted, where the judges of the Circuit Court are divided in opinion upon the question. (d) The superior courts of the several territories of the United States, in which no district court is established, have the enlarged jurisdiction of circuit courts, subject to revision by writ of error and appeal to the Supreme Court. (e) The district and territorial judges of the United States are required to re (a) Act of February 13th, 1807, c. 13, sec. 1. (b) Act of Congress of May 15th, 1820, c. 107, sec. 4 and 5. (c) Act of February 19th, 1831, c. 28. (d) Act of April 29th, 1802, c. 31, sec. 5, 6. (e) Act of March 3d, 1805, c. 38, sec. 1. 1 The question upon which the disagreement takes place, must be specifically stated. It is not sufficient to certify, generally, that the judges disagreed upon the whole case as to what judgment should be rendered. Sadler v. Hoover, 7 How. R. 646. side within their respective jurisdictions; and no federal judge can act as counsel, or be engaged in the practice of the law. (a) * 306 Duties vested in (4.) The state courts are, in some cases, invested, by Acts of Congress, with the cognizance of cases arising under the laws of the United States. By the state courts. Acts of March 8th, 1806, and April 21st, 1808, and March 3d, 1815, the county courts within or adjoining the revenue districts in certain parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, were authorized to take cognizance of prosecutions for fines, penalties, and forfeitures, arising under the revenue laws of the United States; and the state or county courts adjoining any collection district, in relation to taxes or internal duties which may, at any time hereafter, be assessed, have cognizance of all suits for taxes, duties, fines, penalties, and forfeitures arising thereon. (b) In attending to this general survey of the organization of the judiciary establishment of the United States, it will be perceived, that all the great features of the system are to be found in the Act of Congress which was passed in September, 1789, at the first session of the first Congress under the present constitution. That Act has stood the test of experience since that time, with very little alteration or improvement; and this fact is no small evidence of the wisdom of the plan, and of its adaptation to the interest and convenience of the country. The Act of 1789 was the work of much profound reflection, and of great legal knowledge; and the system then formed and reduced to practice has been so successful and so beneficial in its operation, that the administration of justice in the federal courts has been constantly rising in influence and reputation. The principal officers of the courts are attorneys and counsellors, clerks and marshals. sel. (1.) Attorneys and counsel are regularly admitted Attorneys and coun- by the several courts, to assist the parties in their pleadings, and in the conduct of their causes, in those cases in which the parties do not appear and manage their own causes personally, as they are expressly permitted to * 307 (a) Act of December 18, 1812, sec. 1. (b) Vide infra, pp. 400-405. do. (a) This privilege conceded to parties, though reasonable in itself, is, upon the whole, useless; and the necessity of a distinct profession, to render the application of the law easy and certain to every individual case, has always been felt in every country under the government of written law. As property becomes secure, and the arts are cultivated, and commerce flourishes, and when wealth and luxury are introduced, and create the infinite distinctions and refinements of civilized life, the law will gradually and necessarily assume the character of a complicated science, requiring for its application the skill and learning of a particular profession. After the publication of the twelve tables, suitors at Rome were obliged to resort to the assistance of their patrons, and judicial proceedings became the study and practice of a distinct and learned body of men. (b) The division of advocates into attorneys and counsel has been adopted from the prevailing usage in the English courts. The business of the former is to carry on the practical and more mechanical parts of the suit, and of the latter to draw or review and correct the special pleadings, to manage the cause at the trial, and also during the whole course of the suit, to apply established principles of law to the exigencies of the case. In the Supreme Court of the United States, the two degrees of attorney and counsel are kept separate, and no person is permitted to practice both as attorney and counsellor in that court. This was by a rule of the court in February, 1790; and when, afterwards, in August, 1801, the court declared that counsellors might be admitted as attorneys, on taking the usual oath, this did not mean or imply, that if a counsellor was thus admitted as attorney, he could continue to act as counsellor. He must make his election between the two degrees. In all the other courts of the United States, as well as in the courts of *308 New York and the other states, the same person can be admitted to the two degrees of attorney and counsel, and exercise the powers of each. (c) * (a) Act of Congress of September 24th, 1789, sec. 35. (b) Gravina, de Ortu et Prog. Jur. Civ. sec. 33, 40. (c) In the convention which met in the year 1846 to revise the constitution of New York, there was a strong effort made to remove all impediments to the free admission |