William Johnson

“ In the admiralty a claimant is an actor and had the decision of the District Court been affirmed, the state would have had the full benefit of this interposition, as a party. And again, at a subsequent period, the state voluntarily surrendered the res to the Circuit Court, and took it out again on stipulation, &c., and had not this exception now been taken, would have had all the benefit of a decree of restoration, if made by this Court. But it is insisted that consent cannot give jurisdiction-that this is a sound rule, and as applied to the Common Law Courts, cannot be controverted. ”

“ The state of Georgia, by law, authorized their governor to appoint an agent to receive such persons of colour, and deliver them to the executive, to be sold, unless applied for, by the colonizing society; and if so applied for, then to be delivered into their possession.
These slaves were seized by a revenue officer of the United States, and voluntarily delivered to governor Rabun, then governor of Georgia; who had sold all, except about thirty, before the society applied to him, agreeably to the provisions of the Act. ”

“ The grant of jurisdiction to the United States, and by the United States to the District Court, is without restriction-and it would be singular, if a state should be precluded from the right of appearing to assert its rights before that tribunal. Suppose the case of a capture of a library shipped to state, and a re-capture and libel for salvage; surely, in some form or other, the state must have a hearing. There is nothing compulsory upon the state the right may be abandoned, if it will ”

“ On the question of right, upon the evidence before the Circuit Court, there can scarcely be two opinions. The cargo was Madrazo's-it was captured by a privateer-fitted out in Baltimore run into Fernandina-there sold to Bowen-carried across the country to the Creek agency, within the limits of the United States, and where its jurisdiction attached, notwithstanding the Indian title existed-and, although Bowen, the tortiou sowner, committed an offence by introducing them into the country ”

“ And if so, it follows, that the state must, upon appeal from a decision there made in its favour, assume the attitude of a defendant in any Court, into which the cause may be legally carried, by appeal or writ of error.
In England, the king cannot be sued, yet he is daily brought before the Appellate Courts, as a defendant in error. It has long since been decided that this is legal. And thus, too, the United States Continually appears upon the docket of this Court, as a party defendant ”