Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/621

 CH. XXXVIII.] suggest the propriety of vesting in some single tribunal the power of deciding, in the last resort, all cases, in which they are involved.

"We are not restrained, then, by the political relation between the general and state governments, from construing the words of the constitution, defining the judicial power, in their true sense. We are not bound to construe them more restrictively than they naturally import.

"They give to the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction in all cases, arising under the constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States. The words are broad enough to comprehend all cases of this description, in whatever court they may be decided. In expounding them, we may be permitted to take into view those considerations, to which courts have always allowed great weight in the exposition of laws.

"The framers of the constitution would naturally examine the state of things, existing at tie time; and their work sufficiently attests, that they did so. All acknowledge, that they were convened for the purpose of strengthening the confederation, by enlarging the powers of the government, and by giving efficacy to those, which it before possessed but could not exercise. They inform us, themselves, in the instrument they presented to the American public, that one of its objects was to form a more perfect Union. Under such circumstances, we certainly should not expect to find, in that instrument, a diminution of the powers of the actual government.

"Previous to the adoption of the confederation, congress established courts, which received appeals in prize causes, decided in the courts of the respective states. This power of the government, to establish tribunals for these appeals, was thought consistent with, and was founded on, its political relations with the states. These courts did exercise appellate jurisdiction over those cases, decided in the state courts, to which the judicial power of the federal government extended.

"The confederation gave to congress, the power 'of establishing courts, for receiving and determining, finally, appeals in all cases of captures.'

"This power was uniformly construed to authorize those courts to receive appeals from the sentences of state courts, and to affirm or reverse them. State tribunals are not mentioned; but this clause, in the confederation, necessarily comprises them. Yet the relation between the general and state governments was much weaker, much more lax, under the confederation, than under the present constitution; and the states being much more completely sovereign, their institutions were much more independent.

"The convention, which framed the constitution, on turning their § 1742. Another inquiry is, whether the judicial power of the United States in any cases, and if in any, in