obtained without much laborious research. This book in my opinion, ought to be found in the library of every American lawyer. Nor can I omit mentioning the Annual Law Register of the United States, lately published by the Hon. WILLIAM GRIFFITH.* The condensed view which it gives of the variations from the English law which now exist in the different States of this Union, is of immense value to the student of American Jurisprudence. It is time that the common law should gradually conform itself to the national spirit. When certain principles have acquired an undoubted ascendancy through the whole or a great majority of the States, they should give tone and colour to the national system, in preference to the maxims of the jurists of a distant and a foreign country. The knowledge of these principles can only be acquired by studying the common and statute law of the different States, for which purpose I consider such collections as that of Mr. Griffith to be invaluable. At the request of several friends I have republished in the Addenda, the discourse which I delivered on the subject of legal education * Annual Register of the United States, by William Griffith, counsellor at law; vols. 3d and 4th. Burlington, New Jersey, 1822. at the opening of the Law Academy in 1821. I hope it will not be thought here out of place. Considering this Essay as a partial commentary on the Constitution of the United States, I have thought it necessary to insert in an Appendix the text of the instrument, for the sake of immediate reference. I have likewise inserted the decisions of the Judges in the five principal cases to which this dissertation refers, and a denunciation of the common law by the general assembly of Virginia, to which this Essay may be in part considered as an answer. Before I conclude, I would observe, that whenever, in the course of the ensuing address, I make use of the familiar expression 66 common law jurisdiction" as appertaining to the Courts of the United States, I always mean jurisdiction of and not from the common law. In this sense I have said (page 70) that the Courts of the District of Columbia have common lau jurisdiction, by which I only meant to say that they have a right to administer the common law in the exercise of their jurisdiction over the territory or a part of it. I now commit this little work to the candour and indulgence of my professional brethren. TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Cases which gave rise to the question of common law Laws are but the means through which jurisdiction is SECT. I. Of the Courts of the United States when Page. 1 5 7 9 13 16 17 19 21 23 24 26 ibid. 29 31 1. Cases at Common law, 35 Cases of the United States v. Worrall, and the United Page. Has the federal government a right to protect its officers against insult and outrage? 51 Can the federal Legislature enact penal laws for that ? purpose Can the federal Courts protect them by the mere force of the common law? Distinction between imperative and potential or per missive powers under the federal Constitution, 2. Cases of admiralty jurisdiction, SECT. II. Jurisdiction exercised without the limits of the States. Of ceded countries and places, and what laws are in force within them, 1. District of Columbia, 2. Old Territory N. W. of the Ohio, 3. Old Territory S. W. of the Ohio, 4. Louisiana and Florida, 5. Forts, Arsenals, Dock Yards, &c. SECT. III. Question whether the common law is the national law of the United States, considered, Recapitulation of the principles attempted to be established in this dissertation, Hostility to the common law, its origin and cause, Inconveniences in the common law, but none sufficient to induce its abolition, Impossibility of abolishing the common law, 53 54 57 63 69 73 74 75 83 85 101 102 General view of the common law in England before the revolution of 1648, Improvement of the common law since that time, in The commercial and maritime law in England different in many respects from the general law of the commercial world, and why? 119 The improvement of the common law reserved to the 123 Page. 124 Effects produced in England by the writings of Ame- ADDENDA. I. A brief sketch of the national jurisprudence exercis- APPENDIX. I. Constitution of the United States, II. Extract from the Report of the case of the United III. Instruction from the Assembly of Virginia, to their V. Report of the case of the United States v. Hudson & VI. Judge Story's opinion in the case of the United 133 169 193 213 225 227 233 237 VII. Report of the same case on appeal, in the Supreme 247 VIII. Extract from the opinion of Chief Justice Tilghman, in the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Kosloff, 249 |