Schacker v. Hartford Fire Insurance Company Sewing Machine Companies' Case. 68 114, 143 138 117, 139 79 32 137 225 259, 266 49, 56 78 207 Virginia, State of, v. State of West Virginia Western Union Telegraph Company v. Rogers Weston v. City of Charleston 84 56 195 146 190 206 23 70 267 265 276 84, 203 68 32 271 126 162 79 30 83 89 40 190 Y. Yznaga v. Harrison 68 LECTURES ON THE JURISDICTION, PRACTICE, AND JURISPRUDENCE OF THE COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Importance of the Subject. I. The Judicial Power of the United States. The Supreme Court. Its Original Jurisdiction. Must be confined to the Cases enumerated in the Constitution. Whether Original Jurisdiction conferred by the Constitution on the Supreme Court can also be conferred by Congress on inferior Construction of the Supreme Court. - Meaning of Courts. - Distinction between "Law" and "Equity." - Cases affecting Ambassadors, &c. - Controversies to which the United States is a Party. — Controversies between two or more States. The Eleventh Amendment. - Suits by Foreign States or Sovereigns. Practice of the Original Jurisdiction. - The Original Docket. GENTLEMEN OF THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: I HAVE been requested to come here and deliver some lectures upon a subject of which you have been, undoubtedly, already informed, the jurisdiction and practice, and some of the peculiar jurisprudence, of the courts of the United States. Before I speak directly of these topics, I wish to say a few words concerning their importance to you, and also concerning the method I shall pursue in these lec tures. When I came to the bar, forty years ago, there were comparatively few cases tried in the courts of the United States. They were generally important cases, but they were few, and the number of practitioners engaged in those courts was small. The practice was in the hands of a few leaders of the bar in the great cities or large towns where the courts were held; gentlemen of the bar residing elsewhere did not trouble themselves to acquire any knowledge, or they acquired but very slight knowledge, concerning either the jurisdiction or practice of those courts. In truth, they had nothing to do with them, except, perhaps, in some accidental way. Owing to the great increase in the wealth and population of our country, in its inter-state as well as its foreign commerce, in the means of locomotion, which have brought the different parts of the country so much nearer together, and in the value of patent and copy rights granted by the United States, as well as, during the last ten years, the extension of the powers of Congress over many subjects previously left to the exclusive legislation of the States, and therefore left exclusively to the judicial power of the States, owing to these and other causes, all co-operating, the business of the courts of the United States has greatly increased; and these same causes are likely in the future to operate with increased efficiency. You will readily understand, therefore, that a gentleman about to enter the profession, who neglects to inform himself concerning the subjects of these lectures, neglects to obtain important means of usefulness and success. A few words concerning the method I propose to pursue in what I have to say to you. I do not come here prepared with elaborate written dissertations; I have neither time nor inclination to prepare such; and in reference to these particular subjects, I can say with certainty that I think I can serve you better in the way I propose to treat them, than I could by elaborate treatises; because my desire is, not so much to endeavor to teach these things fully to you, as to induce you to learn them for yourselves, to point out as well as I can what you are to look for and how you are to find it. Of course, it must depend upon yourselves whether you will look for it, whether you will find it, and what uses you will make of the information which I give you. But having confidence in your individual desires to make use of this information, I will endeavor, as well as I can, to show you how you can possess yourselves of these subjects by studying what I shall indicate to you. Nobody can teach them to you without your own study; you cannot learn them in any other way; and I do not entertain any doubt of your disposition to learn them in that way. Let me say, however, |