Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/141

Rh ecution (which they termed Executive persecution) was hailed with rejoicing throughout the pro-French partisan press, it alarmed President Washington, and in view of the ruhng by the Court on the law, legislation by Congress seemed imperative for the protection of the Nation's neutraUty. Accordingly, he wrote to his Cabinet, August 3, 1793, asking their advice as to the advisabiUty of convening Congress at an earlier date than its regular session. Objection being raised, however, to this course, Washington is- sued detailed instructions to collectors of customs, through Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton, pre- scribing rigid enforcement of neutrality for the future. It was just at this crucial period, that the President's I>olicy received a third blow, by the decision in the Dis- trict Court of the United States in Maryland, in the case of Glass v. Sloop Betsy, holding that the Federal Admiralty Court had no jurisdiction over French prizes. Again the joy of the pro-French partisans was imbounded. "The Judge in a very learned and elab- orate opinion,** said a Baltimore dispatch, "unfolded his reasons against the jurisdiction of the Court in a manner that, we hope, will leave our allies to the full enjoyment of their acquisitions, without further moles- tation, under the treaty of amity and commerce." ^ The Grovemment at once took an appeal to the Su- preme Court, and there was thus presented to that

LoudwCi Regiiter, Aug. 7, 1793 ; New York DaUy Advertiser, Aug. 1, 5, 1793. Judge Wilson's charge was published in full in the Independent Chronicle, Aug. 15, 1798; The Diary or Loudun'e Regiiter, July 26, 1798, and many other papers. In spite of the result in the Henfield Case, the Federal Courts continued to indict persons for violations of neutrality, the indictments being based on common law and the law of nations. See account of three American citizens taken from the French privateer Roland in Boston and held for trial in the Circuit Court on charge of "aiding and assisting in manning and fitting out vessels and piratically and feloniously capturing the vessels of nations with whom the United States are at peace." Conneeticui Journal, Sept. 4, 1793.

1 Independent Ckroniele, Sept. 2, 1798. See also New York Daily Adverlieer, Aug. 9S, 1798.