Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/397

 Cncorr Courr, Pemfylvnia Diltriél. gg! King': Bench unirerfal in all perfonal a&ions· Another {i€l:ion, typ!. which Rates the Plaintilf to be a debtor of the Crown, gives srvsl cognizance of all kinds of perfonal fuits to the Exchequer-é And the mere profeflion of an Attorney attaches the privilege of fuing and being fued in his own Court. lf, therefore, the difpolition to amplify the jurifditlion of the Circuit Court exills, precedents of the means to do fo are not wanting, and it may hereafter he futlicient to fuggeil, that the party isa Federal Ollicer, in order to enable this Court to try every fps- eies of crime, and to fullain every defcription of aélioa. But another ground may, perhaps, be taken to vindicate the prefent claim of jurifdiéiion: it may be urged, that though the. onimce is not fpeciiied in the Conllitution, not delined in any a€l: of Congrefs; yet, that it is an olence at common law; and that the common law is the law of the United Slater, in cake that arife under their authority. The nature of.our Fcderi l compact, will not, however, tolerate this doétrine. '1`he ratlt article of the amendment, {iipulates, that •• the powers not do- legated to the United State: by the conllitutiozz, nor prohibited by it to the States, are referred to the States refpeftively, or to the People." In relation to crimes and punilhments, the objc&s of the delegated power of the United State: are enume- rated and fixed. Congrefs may provide for the punilhment of countetfeitin the fecurities and current coin of the UreitedSw:er; and may deligze and punilh piracies and felonies committed on the high feas, and ofences againll the law of nations. Art. r. jl 8. And, fo, likewife Congrefs may make all laws which {hall he necelfary and proper for carrying into execution the powero _of the general government. But here is no reference to a com- . mon law authority: Every power is matter of dehnite ind po- Iitive grant; and the very powers that are granted cannot take eifeél: until they are exetcifed through the medium of a law. Congrefs had undoubtedly a power to make a law, which {hould render it criminal to other a bribe to the Commillioncr of the Revenue; but not having made the law, the crime is notre- cognized by the Federal Code, cunllituttonal or legillative; and, eonfequently, it is not a fubjcét on which the Judicial authority of the Union can operate. · The cafes that have occurred, {ince the eltablilhment of the Federal Conliitution, con{irm_ thefe general principles. The indictment againii Heryield, an American. citizen, for enlilling and lkrving on board a 1*}·encb privatecr, while {he captured a Dutch merchant {hip, Ste. exprefsly charged the defendant with a violation of the treaties exilting between the United
 * $`!a!u and the United Nether/emdr, Great Britain, Src. which

ls a matter cognizable under the Federal authority by the very words of the Conllitutioa. The jutifdiékiou in the indiékment againft

�