Nathan Clifford

“ Jurisdiction, in common law cases, can never be exercised in the Federal courts, unless conferred by an act of Congress, because such courts are courts of special jurisdiction, and derive all their powers from the Constitution, and the laws of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. Rules of decision, also, in cases within the thirty-fourth section of the judiciary act, are derived from the laws of the States; but in the construction of the laws of Congress, the rules of the common law furnish the true guide ”

“ Unless that whole provision, therefore, be rejected as without meaning, or as repugnant to the residue of the act, it is not possible, we think, to hold that the Territory acquired a vested interest in the lands at the date of the act; and yet the fourth section contains the same words of grant as are to be found in the first and third, and no reason is perceived for holding that they are not used in the same sense. It is insisted by the defendants that the provision does not devest the grant of a present interest ”

“ Whenever the words of a statute are ambiguous, or the meaning doubtful, the established rule of construction is, that the intention must be deduced from the whole statute, and every part of it. (1 Kent's Com., 462.) ”