James Moore Wayne

“ But in a case brought to this court, by appeal or by writ of error from a Circuit Court of the United States, we begin a review of it, not by inquiring if this court has jurisdiction, but if that court has it. If the case has been decided by that court upon its merits, but the record shows it to be deficient in those averments which by the law of the United States must be made by the plaintiff in the action, to give the court jurisdiction of his case, we send it back to the court from which it was brought, with directions to be dismissed, though it has been decided there upon its merits. ”

“ The case involves private rights of value, and constitutional principles of the highest importance, about which there had [60 U.S. 393, 455] become such a difference of opinion, that the peace and harmoney of the country required the settlement of them by judicial decision. ”