opposition to the course now taken by the court. I cannot refrain from so doing, when I reflect, that I am sitting here under a constitution of government to which Rhode Island is a party; and although I have in the course of this opinion, in answering the positions taken in opposition, considered the effect of her legislative acts authenticated under the great seal of the state. Yet it must be distinctly understood, that I utterly deny, and solemnly protest against the doctrine; that the states of this union, the people whereof gave life and being to this court, and under whose delegation we exercise all our powers, are to be considered and treated by us as foreign states, or that their fundamental laws must be first ascertained as facts, by a trial by jury in the circuit court, in order to give us judicial information of the truth of an attestation, made conformably to the constitution.(a)

(a) On this case being remanded to the circuit court, there was no verdict taken on the "facts," in relation to the usage of the state; the judges certified a difference of opinion, on the validity of the act of 1792 and the deed made pursuant thereto, and the cause was finally decided by the unanimous decision of the court. That under that law and the deed, the grantees took an absolute title to the property in controversy. 10 Pet. 294, 297.

INDEX

OF

PRINCIPAL MATTERS.

ABATEMENT.

A suit in equity does not abate by the death of a co-plaintiff or co-defendant.
If one plaintiff and one defendant survive, the suit is open for amend-
ment,

Plea in abatement in suit in equity, nature and requisites thereof, .

ABOLITION SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,

ACCOUNT.

Where suit at law or bill in equity lies for, and where not,
When it is barred by time and acquiescence,

Decree for, limited to six years,

Plea to an action or bill for account,

Acquiescence in an account rendered makes it a stated one,
When a stated account can be opened, and when not,
Accounts of the state of Pennsylvania and John Nicholson,
Accounts, what cognizable in the admiralty,

Accounts against the master of a vessel, when to be rendered,

ACCOMPLICE. Vide EVIDENCE.

ACQUIESCENCE IN ACCOUNTS. Effect of,

192

414

587

409, 418, 423

418, 495, 569

419, 461
418

418, 539, 542

418, 540
432

545, 546

570

418, 539, 542

ACTS. To be performed in execution of a contract, when, by which party,
and demand of performance (Vide MARRIAGE), .

ACTS OF ASSEMBLY.

493, 495

New Jersey.-Acts of 1808 and 1822, relating to fisheries in the Delaware,
Act for recording deeds (Rev. Code 747),
Act authorizing an alien to hold lands,

Act to incorporate the Camden and Amboy Railroad, Co.,
Act for distribution of intestate estates (Rev. L. 174, 179),
Ohio.-Occupying claimant law,

Pennsylvania.-Act of 1777, adopting the common law,
Act of 1794, refunding bonds,

Acts of 1785, 1789 and 1805, relating to special juries,
Acts of 1700, 1705, 1806, for the sale of lands on execution,
Act of 1798, limiting the lien of judgments,
Acts of 1705, 1794, directing sales by the orphans' court,
Act of 1718, relating to the power of the supreme court,
Acts of 1782, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1791, relating to public accounts,
Acts of 1806, 1807, relating to John Nicholson's estate,
Acts of 1799, 1818, authorizing the sale of lands of minors,
Acts of 1780, 1788, 1820, relating to slaves and kidnapping,
Act of 1770, fugitive apprentices,

Act of 1789, abolition society,

Act of 1772, directing notice to justices of the peace,

ACTS OF CONGRESS.

Acts of 1792, 1794, 1799, 1810, and 1825, punishing mail robbery,
Acts of 1790, 1819, 1820, relating to crimes on the high seas,
Act of 1799, for the collection of the revenue, sects. 36, 62, 45,
Act of 1790, relating to foreign ministers, sects. 25, 26, 27,
Act of 1789, organizing the department of state,

Acts of 1790, 1793, 1800, relating to patents for inventions,

69

365

216

216

309, 315, 317, 320,

325

Act of 1816, punishing forgeries on the bank of the United States,

293, 367, 371, 511, 514, 520

Act of 1789, judiciary act, sect. 29, act of 1802, relating to juries and
trials,

Act of 1789, sect. 11, jurisdiction of the circuit court,
Act of 1789, sect. 16, relating to suits in equity,

Act of 1789, sect. 32, on amendments,

403, 409

195

Act of 1789, sect. 34, declaring state laws rules of decision, 72, 74, 274, 301, 449
Act of 1789, sects. 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, jurisdiction of district and other
courts,

Act of 1790, crimes; act as to murder in a fort and treason,

562, 563

Act of 1790, for the regulation of seamen and recovery of wages,
Act of 1793, for the apprehension of fugitive slaves,

118, 119
274,275, 563

505, 567

579

Acts of 1790, 1804, for the authentication of public acts and records of
states, Appendix,

608

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT.

Statutes 22, 23, 29 Car. 2, for distribution of intestate estates,

181, 187

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT-CONTINUED.

Statute 13 Ed. 1, stat. 1, ch. 45, giving a writ of scire facias,
Statute 21 Jac. 1, ch. 3, authorizing patents for inventions,
Statute 13 Eliz., ch. 5, fraudulent conveyances as to creditors,
Statute 28 Hen. 8, statute of uses,

Statute 20 Ed. 3, ch. 1, powers of courts,

Statute 1, 2 Geo. 4, ch. 76, sea and ship stores,

275

309, 317, 320
356, 358, 532

Statutes 13 Rich. 2, ch. 5, 15 Rich. 2, ch. 3, 2 Hen. 4, ch. 11, admiralty
jurisdiction,

548

553
82

120

Statutes 28 Hen. 8, ch. 15, 27 Eliz. ch. 11, criminal jurisdiction of admi-
ralty,

Statute 33 Ed. 1, challenges to jurors by the crown,

Statute Ed. 3, relating to treason,

Statutes 3 and 21 Geo. 2, relating to juries,

ADMIRALTY JURISDICTION. Vide CASES IN ADMIRALTY.

An account for provisions furnished to the owner or commander of a ves-
sel, or for articles for her use when not on a voyage or in a foreign
port, is not within the admiralty jurisdiction of the district court, either
as a substantive distinct claim or as an off-set to a libel for seamen's
wages,

545, 568

Admiralty jurisdiction is referred to in the constitution as it was re-
strained by the statute and common law in England before the revolu-
tion, and as it was exercised by the state courts before the adoption of
the constitution,

The rules which regulated it and the cases where it can be exercised,
considered libels for seamen's wages, as held in England, not to be
within the statutes which restrain the jurisdiction of the admiralty,
either as being excepted cases or as coming within the rule of communis
error facit jus,

Contracts of seamen for maritime service are in effect maritime contracts,
governed by the maritime law, which prescribes the rights and obliga-
tions of the parties differently from the common law,

In the United States they are regulated by the act of 1790, which gives
seamen a right to proceed in the admiralty for the recovery of their
wages,

The seventh amendment to the constitution excludes the jurisdiction of
admiralty over contracts regulated by the common law; suits upon
such contracts are appropriately "suits at common law" within the
terms of the amendment, and are cognizable only in courts of common
law,
556, 568
No off-set is allowable on a libel for seamen's wages, unless a payment on
account thereof,

No account against the vessel is chargeable to the master, unless it is
presented in a reasonable time, so that the master may charge it to the
owners before settling with them,

571

AGENT.

Vide PRINCIPAL AND AGENT.

The agents of a corporation may be sued in this court, though the corpora-
tion are not suable here,

216

AGREEMENT. Vide CONTRACT. MARRIAGE.

216

216

ALIEN.

An alien resident in New Jersey, who holds land under a special law of
that state, may sustain a suit in the circuit court relating to such land,
When an alien sues a corporation it is no objection that one of the stock-
holders is also an alien, if the agents of the corporation are also de-
fendants,

AMENDMENT.

The averment of citizenship of a party may be added at any stage of the
cause, if the amendment is moved for in a reasonable time after the de-
fect is suggested,

.

The staleness of a demand, or the want of proper parties, is no objection
to amend the bill,
Where a defendant had answered generally to a matter, of which he had
no particular knowledge, he was allowed to file a supplemental answer
on the same subject, after he had acquired particular information con-
cerning it. He may introduce into such answer, new matter which has
come to his knowledge since filing the original answer, on furnishing
the opposite party with the names of the witnesses by whom he expects
to prove it,
Applications to amend an answer are in the discretion of the court,

AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. Effect of,

ANSWER IN CHANCERY. Vide AMENDMENT.

193

194

289, 290

289, 290

561, 598

A party must rely on the case stated in his bill or answer; if he sets out
a contract in writing, he cannot recover on a verbal one not set up in the
bill or answer,

A general allegation in a bill against an executor, that he retains the money
of the estate in virtue of a pretended debt, claimed from the testator by a
pretended contract which the bill denies, and the prayer of the bill is
generally for an answer to the matters charged therein, does not make
the answer of the executor evidence to support such debt, when he ad-
mits there is money of the estate in his hands, for which he must ac-
count if he does not establish the debt,

An answer denying the right of a complainant is evidence in favour of a
defendant,

But if he admits the right, and sets up new matter in bar; if he admits
the charge, and avers a discharge at a different time by a distinct trans-
action, or sets up an affirmative claim in his own right to the subject
matter claimed by the complainant, it is not evidence in his favour; the
defendant must make out his case as a plaintiff ought to do,

ARREST. Vide FOREIGN MINISTER.

491

494

494

491, 495

Arrest defined,

The right of bail to arrest principal,

239
577,584

Of a master to arrest his servant, apprentice, redemptioner or slave, 577, 581, 590
When an arrest may be made on Sunday, and when not,

580

Where may be arrest on commission or suspicion of felony without war-
rant,

Party arresting in such case is liable in trespass, if the person arrested is
not guilty,

581