Melville Fuller

“ Under the fourteenth section of the judiciary act of 1789, (1 St. p. 73,) the courts of the United States, and either of the justices of the supreme court, as well as the judges of the district courts, had power to grant writs of habeas corpus for the purpose of an inquiry into the cause of commitment; but this extended in no case to prisoners in jail, unless in custody under or by color of the authority of the United States, or committed for trial before some court of the United States, or necessary to be brought into court to testify. ”

“ The whole effect of the statute was to declare that, in case of an application for the purpose of obtaining a review on error, the day of execution should not be set so as to cut off the opportunity for review and possible reversal;' that the power of the court to set a day for execution was not exhausted by its first exertion ”

“ The act does not apply in either section to any criminal case, (Farnsworth v. Montana, 129 U.S. 104, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 253; U.S. v. Sanges, 144 U.S. 310, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 609,) but is applicable to all judgments or decrees in suits at law or in equity in which there is a pecuniary matter in dispute, and it inhibits any appeal or writ of error therefrom, except as stated. ”