Smith Thompson

“ There might be a moral duty resting on the master to communicate information of the lose to his owner. But how could there have been any legal obligation binding upon him to do it. The information could neither benefit nor prejudice the owner. It is a general rule of law, that if an injury arises to a principal, in consequence of the misconduct of his agent, an action may be sustained against him for the damage. Could an action in this case be sustained by the owner against the master for not giving him information of the loss? ”

“ Suppose the legislature, after the execution of this bond, had enlarged the jail limits? It surely would not have been an escape for the defendant to have availed himself of the enlarged limits, and gone beyond his former bounds. And yet, if the limits prescribed at the time the bond was executed, are to govern the effect and operation of the bond, it would be an escape. Such bonds may well be considered as an enlargement of the prison limits, and a mere modification of the imprisonment, according to the provisions of the laws of Rhode Island. ”

“ The court in general refer to the laws and practice in England, not as law, but as a guide; as the evidence of what enlightened men have considered, in the country from which we borrow our terms of law, as the best rules of practice.
It is true, by the laws of England, that all persons who may be damnified by a judgment, may sue out a writ of error, even those indirectly and remotely interested. It is true also as a general rule, that all parties must join in a writ of error. ”

“ The genius and character of the whole government seems to be, that its action is to be applied to all the external concerns of the nation, and to those internal concerns which affect the States generally, but not to those which are completely within a particular State, which do not affect other States, and with which it is not necessary to interfere for the purpose of executing some of the general powers of the government. The completely internal commerce of a State, then, may be considered as reserved for the State itself.' And, again, (208.) ”

“ It is by no means conceded, that New Orleans is within the ebb and flow of the tide; on the contrary, that the court will notice the notorious and historical fact, that it is beyond the ebb and flow of the tide; that the Mississippi river is not an arm of the sea, nor an inlet from the ocean but an inland river, whose current assumes but one course or flux to the ocean, and is uninfluenced by its tides. ”

“ An execution is the fruit and end of the suit, and is very aptly called the life of the law. The suit does not terminate with the judgment; and all proceedings on the execution, are proceedings in the suit, and which are expressly, by the act of Congress, put under the regulation and control of the Court out of which it issues. It is a power incident to every Court from which process issues, when delivered to the proper officer, to enforce upon such officer a compliance with his duty, and a due execution of the process, according to its command. ”

“ The court must supply something, if it is to be left to the court, though it is rather the province of the jury, and should have been left to the jury to infer what kind of money was meant. But if the inference is for the court, will they not understand by it the legal and usual currency of the country? Would they say that a man, speaking of a debt of five hundred to a bank dealing in dollars and cents only, meant pounds and not dollars. ”

“ It is a settled rule, therefore, to allow a defendant in a bill for a specific porformance of a contract, to show that it is unreasonable or unconscientious, or founded in mistake, or other circumstances, leading satisfactorily to the conclusion, that granting the prayer of the bill would be inequitable and unjust. Gross negligence on the part of the complainant, has great weight in cases of this kind. A party, to entitle himself to the aid of a court of chancery for the specific execution of a contract, should show himself ready and desirous to perform on his part. ”

“ It may, perhaps, be considered as the better conclusion to be drawn from the English cases on this question, that a mere direction, in a will, to the executors to sell land, without any words vesting in them an interest in the land, or creating a trust, will be only a naked power, which does not survive. In such case, there is no one who has a right to enforce an execution of the power. But when any thing is directed to be done, in which third persons are interested, and who have a right to call on the executors to execute the power, such power survives. ”

“ If, however, the owner of slaves in Maryland, in transporting them to Kentucky or Missouri, should pass through Pennsylvania or Ohio, no law of either state could take away or affect his right of property; nor, if passing from one slave state to another, accident or distress should compel him to touch at any place within a state, where slavery did not exist. Such transit of property, whether of slaves or bales of goods, is lawful commerce among the several states, which none can prohibit or regulate, which the constitution protects, and congress may, and ought, to preserve from violation. ”

“ A capias ad satisfaciendum against the principal is an indispensable preliminary step to a prosecution against the bail; and if the court has a right to order, that no capias ad satisfaciendum shall be issued, it is taking from the creditor all remedy against the bail. To say that an execution may be taken out, but shall not be executed upon the party, is a mere mockery of justice. The constitutionality of the insolvent law of Ohio is not drawn in question; and whether as a measure of policy, it is not wise to abolish imprisonment for debt, is not a question which we are called upon to decide. ”

“ On general principles, rights of action are not assignable, but that is a rule founded on the policy of the common law, which is averse to encouraging litigation. But the policy of the bankrupt law requires that the right of action should be assignable, and transferred to assignees, as much as any other species of property. Its policy is, that every right, belonging in any shape to the bankrupt, should pass to the assignees.
The estate of the debtor, under the New York statute, becomes vested in the trustees, by the mere act and operation of law, without any assignment. ”

“ By the common law the creditor demands his bond; he claims judgment equally against the principal, who has contracted the debt, and against the innocent securities who are to be made responsible for him. He selects among them, and chooses whom he will pursue, and whom he will sacrifice. The law places all the parties equally in his grasp; he may, in the wantonness of power, while he saves one from motives of favour or caprice, select his victim, pursue him to judgment, seize and sell and sacrifice his property ”

“ The right is secured by the constitution, and requires no law to fortify or strengthen it. It affirms, in the most unequivocal manner, the right of the master to the service of his slave, according to the laws of the state under which he is so held. And it prohibits the states from discharging the slave from such service, by any law or regulation therein. The second branch of the provision, in my judgment, requires legislative regulations, pointing out the mode and manner in which the right is to be asserted. It contemplates the delivery of the person of the slave to the owner ”

“ We do not mean to decide, definitively, that no question can be brought here upon a certificate of a division of opinion, unless the point arose upon the trial of the cause; but we are very much induced to think that such is the true construction of the act: but from the general words used, cases may possibly arise that we do not foresee. The question, however, brought up in the present case, being one resting entirely in the discretion of the court, is clearly not within the act; and this court cannot, therefore, take cognizance of the question. ”

“ Thus the part of a transaction becomes a crime in one citizen, while the whole of it is not a crime in another. The construction on the other side is, that the law meant to punish, not merely the consummation of the act, the fitting out and arming, but every step that is taken towards it; so that the fitting out, per se, becomes an offence, is a crime, without arming. ”

“ But in construing the statutes of a State, on which land titles depend, infinite mischief would ensue, should this Court observe a different rule from that which has been long established in the State.' And whether these rules of land titles grow out of the statutes of a State, or principles of the common law adopted and applied to such titles, can make no difference. There is the same necessity and fitness in preserving uniformity of decisions in the one case as in the other. ”

“ That the identity of a literary composition consists entirely in the sentiment and the language. The same conception, clothed in the same words, must necessarily be the same composition; and whatever method be taken to exhibit that composition to the ear or to the eye of another, by recital, by writing, or by printing, in any number of copies, or at any period of time, it is always the identical work of the author which is so exhibited; and no other man, it has been thought, can have a right to exhibit it, especially for profit, without the author's consent. ”

“ So that nothing short of a total exemption from State charges or taxes, under all circumstances, will answer the supposed object of the constitution. And to push the principle to such lengths, would be a restriction upon State authority, not warranted by the constitution.
It certainly cannot be maintained, that the States have no authority to tax imported merchandise. But the same principle of discrimination between the wholesale and retail dealer, as to a license to sell, would seem to me, if well-founded, to extend to taxes of every description. ”

“ It is argued, that a state law cannot give jurisdiction to a court of the United States. In one sense, this is true: a state law cannot extend such jurisdiction, but they may create a right which can only be enforced by such a court. For instance, by the general admiralty law, a master of a ship cannot sue in the admiralty for his wages, by a libel on the ship, because, by the maritime law, he has no lien on the vessel. ”

“ It is not a power coupled with an interest in executors, because they may derive a personal benefit from the devise. For a trust will survive though no way beneficial to the trustee. It is the possession of the legal estate, or a right in the subject over which the power is to be exercised, that makes the interest in question. And when an executor, guardian, or other trustee, is invested with the rents and profits of land, for the sale or use of another; it is still an authority coupled with an interest, and survives. ”

“ In the case of Gibbons v. Ogden, it was decided, that it extends to all commerce between state and state. It was held, that the whole subject of commercial regulation was taken from the states, and placed in the hands of congress. This must be so, or the whole provision would be inoperative. Nothing, which is a regulation of commerce, can be affected by state laws. Regulation is in what it is considered best to leave free and exempt from rule. Freedom of regulation, is regulation. Not declaring how action shall take place, allows the action to be performed. ”

“ If then the accounting officers of the treasury could have done nothing more than had already been done by giving credit on Hawkins's account for payments alleged to have been made by Cox after his death, whence, the necessity of making any application to the treasury? It would have been a nugatory act; and the law surely ought not to be so construed as to require of a party a mere idle ceremony. The law was intended for real and substantial purposes; that the United States should not be surprised by claims for credits, which they might not be able to meet and explain in the hurry of a trial. ”