vided, that in all cases to which the judicial power applies, except cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State is a party, “the Supreme Court shall have ‘appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make.’ ”
Thus, therefore, it is in the power of Congress to authorize, in all such cases, an appeal to the Supreme Court, even as to the fact, from the verdict of a jury, and empower the Supreme Court to control the jury if they appear to have erred. And such was the intention of the framers of the Constitution.
They assumed as a principle, that the interests of the State governments and of the General Government would often be at variance; that laws passed by the United States, the most wise and salutary, might be very obnoxious to and unpopular in, some of the states; judges holding their commissions under the respective States, that is, the State judges, the framers of the Constitution would not, therefore, entrust with the execution of the laws of the United States. They also considered that, as far as juries were introduced, the jurors would be citizens of the respective States wherein the trials should be had, that they would, in consequence, probably partake of the interests, the prejudices, and the passions prevailing in the State, and therefore might decide contrary to the direction of the judges appointed by the United States, and thereby prevent the due execution of their laws. To obviate this, the Constitution has a provision for an appeal to the Supreme Court, even from the verdict of such a jury. Judge then whether the framers of the Constitution ever contemplated giving power to counsel to argue to jurors against the opinions of their judges, or juries to decide against such opinions.
ⅭⅭⅭⅦ. Jonathan Dayton in the United States Senate.[1]
The provision of the Constitution had arisen from an experience of the necessity of establishing a permanent seat for the Government. To avert the evils arising from a perpetual state of mutation, and from the agitation of the public mind whenever it is discussed, the Constitution had wisely provided for the establishment of a permanent seat, vesting in Congress exclusive legislation over it.
- ↑ Annals of Congress, Eighth Congress, First Session, 284.
