Horace Gray, Kurtz v. Moffitt — Opinion of the Court
“ From the very year of the declaration of independence, congress has dealt with desertion as exclusively a military crime, triable and punishable, in time of peace, as well as in time of war, by court-martial only, and not by the civil tribunals; the only qualification being that since 1830 the punishment of death cannot be awarded in time of peace. ”
Horace Gray, Kurtz v. Moffitt — Opinion of the Court
“ If a police officer or a private citizen has the right, without warrant or express authority, to arrest a military deserter, the right must be derived either from some rule of the law of England which has become part of our law, or from the legislation of congress.By the common law of England, neither a civil officer nor a private citizen had the right, without a warrant, to make an arrest for a crime not committed in his presence, except in the case of felony, and then only for the purpose of bringing the offender before a civil magistrate. ”
Horace Gray, Kurtz v. Moffitt — Opinion of the Court
“ They give the right of revision in those cases only where the rights of property are concerned, and where the matter in dispute has a known and certain value, which can be proved and calculated in the ordinary mode of a business transaction. There are no words in the law which by any just interpretation can be held to extend the appellate jurisdiction beyond those limits, and authorized us to take cognizance of cases to which no test of money value can be applied. Nor, indeed, is this limitation upon the appellate power of this court confined to cases like the one before us. ”
