Page:Debates in the Several State Conventions, v3.djvu/534

518 {|
 * 4. || colspan="2" | All cases affecting ambassadors, ministers, and consuls.
 * 5. || colspan="2" | All cases of maritime or admiralty jurisdiction.
 * 6. ||Controversies ||wherein the United States shall be a party.
 * 7. || ||between two or more states.
 * 8. || ||between a state and citizens of another state.
 * 9. || ||between citizens of different states.
 * 10. || ||between citizens of the same state, claiming lands under grants of different states.
 * 11. || ||between a state, or its citizens, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.
 * }
 * 8. || ||between a state and citizens of another state.
 * 9. || ||between citizens of different states.
 * 10. || ||between citizens of the same state, claiming lands under grants of different states.
 * 11. || ||between a state, or its citizens, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.
 * }
 * 11. || ||between a state, or its citizens, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.
 * }
 * }

Without entering into a distinction of all its parts, I believe it will be found that they are all cases of general and not local concern. The necessity and propriety of a federal jurisdiction, in all such cases, must strike every gentleman.

The next clause settles the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, confining it to two cases—that of ambassadors, ministers, and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party. It excludes its original jurisdiction in all other cases. But it appears to me that it will not restrain Congress from regulating even these, so as to permit foreign ambassadors to sue in the inferior courts, or even to compel them to do so, where their causes may be trivial, or they have no reason to expect a partial trial. Notwithstanding this jurisdiction is given to the Supreme Court, yet Congress may go farther by their laws, so as to exclude its original jurisdiction, by limiting the cases wherein it shall be exercised. They may require some satisfactory evidence that the party could not expect a fair trial in the inferior court. I am struck with this view, from considering that the legislature is not excluded, by the general jurisdiction in the Constitution, from regulating it, to accommodate the convenience of the people. Yet the legislature cannot extend its original jurisdiction, which is limited to these cases only.

The next branch brings me to the appellate jurisdiction. And first, I say it is proper and necessary, in all free governments, to allow appeals, under certain restrictions, in order to prevent injustice by correcting the erroneous decisions of local subordinate tribunals, and introduce uniformity in