Peter Vivian Daniel

“ In the objection which was taken to the power of the Legislative Assembly to transfer the cognizance of causes previously pending under the laws of the provisional Government to the courts created by the act of Congress establishing the Territory of New Mexico, we can perceive no force. It was, undoubtedly, within the competency of Congress either to define directly, by their own act, the jurisdiction of the courts created by them, or to delegate the authority requisite for that purpose to the Territorial Government ”

“ By the twenty-second section of the act of Congress to establish the judicial courts of the United States, it is declared that final judgments and decrees in civil actions and suits in equity in a Circuit Court, brought there by original process, or removed there from the courts of the several States, or from a District Court, where the matter in dispute exceeds the sum or value of two thousand dollars, exclusive of costs, may be examined, and reversed or affirmed, in the Supreme Court. ”

“ It is obvious, that in the proceedings in the District Court, neither the justice nor the amount of the plaintiff's demand was put in controversy. These were not embraced within the issue raised upon the petition and affidavit. That issue related only to the right of the plaintiff to sue in a particular form of action, a right dependent upon his ability to show the alleged character of the defendants' acts, with respect to their creditors generally, and not with respect to the plaintiff particularly or exclusively. ”