States, for the sum admitted by such garnishee to CHAP. 8. be due to the said corporation, in the same manner as if it had been due and owing to the United States: Provided, that no judgment shall be entered against any garnishee, until judgment shall have been rendered against the corporation defendant to the said action, nor until the sum in which such garnishee may stand indebted be actually due. That when any person summoned as garnishee, shall depose in open court, that he or she is not indebted to such corporation, nor was not at the time of the service of the summons, it shall be lawful for the United States to order an issue upon such demand; and if, upon the trial of such issue a verdict shall be rendered against such garnishee, judgment shall be entered in favor of the United States, pursuant to such verdict, with costs of suit. That if any person summoned as garnishee under the provisions of this act shall fail to appear at the term of the court to which he has been summoned, he shall be subject to attachment for contempt of the court.

tures.

By the "act to regulate the collection of duties of Debenimports and tonnage," passed March 2, 1799,1 it is made the duty of the collectors in certain cases to grant certificates, called debentures, certifying that the sums therein mentioned are due from the United States, payable at the office of such collector, to the persons therein named or order. These debentures are also declared to be negotiable by indorsement and delivery, and "the possessor or assignee" thereof is authorized upon their non-payment by the collector, to maintain suits thereon against any indorser, in the proper circuit or district court. In this case also, as well the amount in dispute as the character 1 Ch. 22, § 80: 1 Stat. at Large, p. 627.

1

PART 1. of the parties is unimportant to the question of juris

Suits by

the bank of

States.

diction.

By the "act to incorporate the subscribers to the the United Bank of the United States," passed April 10, 1816,1 the President, Directors and Company of the said bank, are authorized and rendered liable "to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered, defend and be defended, in all state courts having competent jurisdiction, and in any circuit court of the United States."

Circuit court to have unlimited

jurisdiction of suits under

patent and

acts.

And here again it will be perceived the jurisdiction is independent of the amount in controversy, and of the citizenship of the parties.

Similar acts have been passed with respect to suits arising under the patent and copyright acts.

By the judiciary act patentees and authors were left upon the same footing as suitors in general; their Copyright right to sue in the circuit courts depending on citizenship and the amount in controversy. But theirs being cases "arising under the constitution and laws of the United States," congress had power to bring them within the jurisdiction of the circuit courts without regard either to amount or to citizenship. This was done by an act of February 15, 1819, giving to the circuit courts original jurisdiction "as well in equity as in law of all actions, suits, controversies, and cases arising under any law of the United States, granting or confirming to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings, inventions and discoveries;" with power, at the suit of any party aggrieved, "to grant injunctions, according to the course and principles of courts of equity, to prevent the violation of the rights of any authors or inventors, secured to them by any laws of the United States, on such terms and conditions as the said 'Ch. 44, § 7: 3 Stat. at Large, p. 266.

courts may deem fit and reasonable." This act has CHAP. 8. been superseded and repealed, with respect to copyrights, by the copyright act of February 3, 1831, ch. 16 (4 Stat. at Large, 436); and with respect to patent rights, by the patent act of July 4, 1836, ch. 357 (5 Stat. at Large, 117), both of which, however, incorporate and re-enact the above mentioned provisions of the act of 1819.

By a subsequent act the courts of the United Manuscripts. States are expressly empowered to grant injunctions, in like manner, according to the principles of equity, to restrain the unauthorized publication of any manuscript.2

1 Act of February 15, 1819, ch. 19: 3 Stat. at Large, p. 481.

2 The subject of the copyrights is one of considerable interest, and its importance is daily increasing. In pursuance of the power expressly delegated by the constitution to congress for that purpose, an act was passed at the first session of that body "for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the terms therein mentioned." (Act of May 31, 1790: 1 id., p. 124.) This act embraced only the productions named in the title, and secured (or was intended to secure) to the author (being a citizen or resident of the United States,) and to his executors, administrators and assigns, the exclusive right to publish and sell the same during the period of fourteen years; and if at the expiration of that period the author should still be living, and a citizen or resident of the United States, then, upon certain conditions, for the further term of fourteen years.

On the 29th of April, 1802, a supplemental act was passed, extending the benefits of the foregoing act to the "arts of designing, engraving and etching, historical and other prints." 2 id., p. 171.

The act of February 3, 1831, in addition to books, maps, charts, prints, and engravings, embraces also musical compositions. But the most important alteration introduced by it consists in the extension of the period of the exclusive enjoyment to twenty-eight instead of fourteen years, and in the right conferred upon the widow and children of the author, in case of his death before the expiration of the first term, to renew the copyright for fourteen years longer, in the same manner as the author himself may do if living. These liberal and just provisions are also extended to existing copyrights, dating from the time of their

PART 1. A power of considerable importance has been conTo enforce ferred on the circuit and district courts, and also on consuls. the commissioners to take affidavits and acknow

awards of

ledgments of bail, &c., &c., designed more fully to effectuate certain treaty stipulations with foreign powers. The preamble to the act for this purpose, recites a provision contained in a treaty between the United States and Prussia, provisions similar in substance being also contained in treaties with some other foreign powers, that the consuls, vice-consuls, and commercial agents of the respective parties, "shall have the right as such, to sit as judges and arbitrators in such differences as may arise between the captains and crews of the vessels belonging to the nation whose interests are committed to their charge, without the interference of the local authorities, unless," &c. And it is therefore enacted that the district courts and circuit courts of the United States, and the commissioners shall have full authority, on the application of any such consuls, or viceconsuls, or commercial agents, for assistance to carry into effect the award, arbitration or decree of such consul, &c., to issue all proper remedial process, mesne and final, to carry into full effect such award, &c., and to enforce obedience thereto, by imprisonment in the common jail, or other place in the district, where the United States may lawfully imprison perentry. This act was designed wholly to supersede the two former acts of 1790, and 1802, and expressly repeals them; saving only such rights as had already been acquired under them. It accordingly provides remedies for any invasion of the exclusive rights intended to be secured by it. But in this respect it adopts, substantially, the provisions of the two former acts. It denounces forfeitures and penalties; the one moiety thereof to the use of the United States; and "to be recovered in any court having competent jurisdiction thereof." These remedies, in point of form, were originally borrowed from the laws of England. Whether it was wise to adopt and thus continue them, may be doubted. It is believed they will, in practice, be found inconvenient and embarrassing.

sons arrested under their authority, until such award, CHAP. 8. &c., shall be complied with, or the parties shall be otherwise discharged therefrom, by the consent in writing of such consul, &c., or his successor, or by authority of his government.1

the forms

Power to

The process act of May 8, 1792, empowers all the To alter courts of the United States to make, and the Supreme of process and procecourt to prescribe, such alterations in the forms of dure." writs, executions and other process, except their style, and in the forms and modes of proceeding, as they shall in their discretion respectively deem expedient.2 For the statutable authority of the circuit courts to issue writs of scire facias, habeas corpus, ne exeat, injunction, and "all other writs which may be necessary for the exercise of their jurisdiction and agreeable to the principles and usages of law," and for the restrictions upon the exercise of that authority, as also for power to punish for contempts, make rules, grant new trials, &c., see pp. 71-74.

issue writs,

make rules new trials.

and grant

from state

Lastly, it remains now to bring to the notice of the Removals reader the important provisions of the 12th section courts. of the judicial act. In the first place it prescribes a mode by which the jurisdiction conferred by the 11th section, of suits to which an alien is a party, and suits between citizens of different States, may be made effective, when such suits are commenced in a state court; and, in the next place, it makes the only provision which congress has yet seen fit to make, for the purpose of giving effect to the constitutional grant of judicial power over "controversies between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants from different states"-thus superadding another distinct branch of jurisdiction to those specified in the preceding section. It is in the following words :

1 Act of August 8, 1846, ch. 105: 9 Stat. at Large, p. 78.