mental principles of the new Constitution and Government and the provisions of the Federal statutes and
definition of the new Federal criminal legislation became known to the people. As was said by a contemporary newspaper: "Among the more vigorous production of the American pen, may be enumerated the
various charges delivered by the Judges of the United
States at the opening of their respective Courts. In
these useful addresses to the jury, we not only discern
sound legal information conveyed in a style at once
popular and condensed, but much political and constitutional knowledge. The Chief Justice of the United
States has the high power of giving men much and
most essential information in a style the very model
of clearness and dignity."[1] No better exposition
- ↑
Farmer's Weekly Museum (Walpole, N. H.), June 17, 1799.
The Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut was opened at New Haven, Thursday, April 23, 1790, by Jay, Cushing, and District Judge Richard Law: "His Honor the Chief Justice delivered an eloquent and pertinent charge. . . . The session continued until Saturday during which the several civil causes were heard and sundry rules and regulations adopted for future proceedings. The good sense and candor of the Judges has left an impression on the minds of the public, favorable to this new institution." Literary Diary of Exra Stiles (1901), III; Gazette of the United States, May 5, 1790. At the October session of the Circuit Court in Connecticut in 1790, the Chief Justice in his charge to the Grand Jury "made many pointed remarks on the nature of certain offences and the duty of the Grand Jury and delivered the whole with elegant simplicity and precision", Connecticut Courant, Oct. 25, 1790.
The opening of the Circuit Court in Massachusetts was described in the Boston Gazette, May 10, 1790, as follows: "Monday last agreeably to law a Circuit Court of the United States for the Massachusetts District was held before Chief Justice Jay, Judge Cushing and Judge Lowell. After the usual forms were gone through and the Grand Jury impannelled, a charge was given them by the Chief Justice and the Throne of Grace addressed in Prayer by the Rev. Dr. Howard—the following gentlemen were admitted Counsellors, etc. Tuesday, the Grand Jury came into Court and presented one indictment after which they were dismissed by the Chief Justice. The cause, Nelson v. De Baury, was discontinued by the plaintiff in order to bring it before the chancellate of the Consul, agreeably to the Convention agreed on between France and the United States and recently promulgated. The criminal cause was continued to the next session on the plea of the defendant that very essential evidences were absent"; see also Columbian Centinel, May 5, 1790, and Independent Chronicle, May 27, 1790, giving the charge of Chief Justice Jay in full; see “elegant charge" of Judge Iredell at Boston, Independent Chronicle, Oct. 28, 1791; charge of Chief Justice Jay in Massachusetts replete with his usual perspicuity and elegance", Columbian Centinel, May 6,
