Goodwin-the soundness of the decision of which CHAP. 8. was, moreover, denied. But the majority of the court being of opinion that the case before them was not distinguishable from that, contented themselves with merely declaring their adherence to their former decision, limiting the criminal jurisdiction of the national courts, without exception, to statute offenses.. In accordance with this rule, it was held in the case of The United States v. Bevans,1 that the circuit court for the district of Massachusetts could not take cognizance of the crime of murder committed on board an American ship of war in Boston harbor, because the 8th section of the act of 1790, by which alone, any provision had been made for the punishment of this crime committed on shipboard, speaks only of offenses committed "upon the high seas, or in any river, harbor, or bay out of the jurisdiction of any particular state." And in the case of The United States v. Wiltberger, the rule was applied with the same result in the case of manslaughter committed on board an American merchant vessel while within the dominions of a foreign power, because the provision contained in the 12th section of the same act for the punishment of that offense committed on shipboard, is also confined to manslaughter perpetrated on the high seas."

The result, then, with respect to the criminal jurisdiction of the courts of the United States is this, that in order to ascertain its extent, resort must be had to the various statutes of the United States providing for the punishment of crimes. For although 13 Wheat., 336.

25 Wheat., 76. But by the Crimes Act of March 3, 1825, offenses committed on board American ships while within the jurisdiction of a foreign state or sovereign, are made cognizable and punishable in the courts of the United States, in the same manner as if committed on the high seas: ch. 65, § 5: 4 Stat. at Large, 115.

PART 1. the national courts are unquestionably to look to the common law, in the absence of statutable provisions, for rules to guide them in the exercise of their functions in criminal as well as in civil cases, it is to the statutes of the United States enacted in pursuance of the constitution, alone, that they must have recourse to determine what constitutes an offense against the United States. The United States have no unwritten criminal code to which resort can be had as a source of jurisdiction. A considerable proportion of these offenses are, in their nature, of admiralty jurisdiction. But this distinction in our system is merely theoretical, the form of prosecution and trial, and the rules of evidence being the same in these last mentioned cases as in others. The constitution it is true, extends the judicial power of the United States to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction: and this plenary grant embraces criminal as well as civil causes. But this power can be brought into action, only through the instrumentality of the national legislature. This principle is applicable as well to criminal as to civil jurisdiction, and extends as well to admiralty as to common law offenses. Congress, in dealing with the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, placed by the constitution at their disposal, have thought proper to provide for its exercise, eo nomine, only in civil cases, and have confided this branch of it, exclusively, except under an appellate form, to the district courts. Criminal jurisdiction in admiralty, as such, is not conferred by any act of congress. The judicial act only declares in general terms that the circuit courts, and the district courts under certain limitations, shall have cognizance of all crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States: and the subsequent acts providing for the punishment of specific

offenses, make no distinction between those of admi- CHAP. 8. ralty and those of common law jurisdiction.

.

The crimes designated in the several penal statutes Comprises

two classes

of the United States are referable to one or other of of crimes. the two following classes: 1. Such as are perpetrated on board American vessels on the high seas, or in any arm of the sea, or in any river, haven, creek, basin, or bay, within the jurisdiction of the United States, and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state (and which are, therefore, comprehended within the admiralty jurisdiction), or within any fort, dockyard, navy-yard, arsenal, magazine, site of a lighthouse, or other place which has been ceded to the United States, and is under their jurisdiction. 2. Such as relate to subjects committed to the charge of the national government, and which are, therefore, comprised within the grant of judicial power over all cases arising under the constitution, laws and treaties of the United States, and over all cases affecting ambassadors or public ministers and consuls. Of this nature are forgeries of the public securities or other instruments, documents, or papers, whereby the United States, or others, may be defrauded; counterfeiting the current coin; depredations upon the mail; false swearing in oaths taken under the laws of the United States; crimes and trespasses against the Indians; enticing soldiers to desert; frauds committed by public officers and contractors; violence to public ministers. Most of these offenses By what are specified in the Crimes Act of April 30, 1790,1 and defined. of March 3, 1825; the amendatory act of March 3, 1835;3 the act of the same date, regulating the postoffice department; the neutrality act of April 20, 1 Ch. 9: 1 Stat. at Large, p. 112.

4

2 Ch. 65: 4 Stat. at Large, p. 115. Ch. 40: 4 Stat. at Large, p. 775. 'Ch. 64: 4 Stat. at Large, p. 102.

statutes

PART 1. 1818;1 the act of March 3, 1863, to punish frauds upon the revenue, &c.; the acts for the suppression of the piracy and the slave trade; the acts to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes; and the acts regulating the carriage of passengers in merchant vessels.3

1 Ch. 88: 3 Stat. at Large, p. 447.

2

3

Ch. 76: 12 Stat. at Large, p. 737.

The Criminal Code of the United States is, in several respects, defective, and stands much in need of a thorough revision. It is wanting in precision and consistency, and requires additions. Some of its defects are pointed out by Chancellor KENT in a note at page 363 of Vol. 1 of his Commentaries. But there are others equally objectionable. The Crimes Act of 1825 repeals all prior acts and parts of acts inconsistent with its provisions, as it doubtless would have been held to do by implication, without this clause. But to determine the precise extent to which it repeals the act of 1790, will be found to be a task of some difficulty. The judicial decisions under this branch of jurisdiction are numerous. Most of them are cited in notes appended to the several acts under which the cases arose, in the Statutes at Large. A notice of them, sufficiently full, to supersede the necessity of resorting elsewhere for further information, would require too much space, and is, for that reason, omitted.

CHAP. 9.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE APPELLATE JURISDICTION OF THE CIRCUIT
COURTS.

The revisory power of the circuit courts over final judgments and decrees of the district courts, is exercised either, 1. By appeal, in this, its technical sense, a civil law process by which the entire cause is removed, and both the law and the fact are subjected to review and retrial; or, 2. By writ of error, a common law process which removes for re-examination, nothing but the law. The following are the enactments by which the jurisdiction is conferred:

acts con

"That from final decrees in the district court, in cases of Legislative admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, where the matter in ferring. dispute exceeds the sum or value of three hundred dollars, exclusive of costs, an appeal shall be allowed to the next circuit court to be holden in such district." Act of 24 September, 1789, ch. 20, § 21: 1 Stat. at Large, p. 83.

"That final decrees and judgments in civil actions in a district court, where the matter in dispute exceeds the sum or value of fifty dollars, exclusive of costs, may be re-examined and reversed or affirmed in a circuit court, holden in the same district, upon a writ of error." Id., § 22, p. 84.

"That from all final judgments and decrees, in any of the district courts of the United States, an appeal, where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum or value of fifty dollars, shall be allowed to the circuit court next to be holden in the district where such final judgment or judgments, decree, or decrees, may be rendered." Act of March 3, 1803, ch. 11: 2 Stat. at Large, p. 244.

tion of

Before the act of 1803, and while this branch of Construcjurisdiction was regulated only by the two sections these acts. of the judicial act above referred to, no difficulty existed in deciding in what cases it was requisite to resort to an appeal, and in what to a writ of error. The right of appeal was clearly restrained by the