Court : US Supreme Court
..... place them on a footing with the officers of the army, that the officers of the navy of this state, entitled to half pay for life, under the resolutions of the 24th of march, 1779, and confirmed by act of assembly, passed the 1st of march 1780, be allowed five years full pay in lieu thereof, to be paid at the same time, and in the same manner, that the officers of the army, in the line ..... officers of the army of the united states, or of the assembly of pennsylvania on the same subject, respecting the troops of the state, as the principal ground on which our present decision must stand is the act of assembly, intitled, 'an act for the more effectual supply and honorable reward of the pennsylvania troops, in the service of the united states of america,' passed the 1st of march, 1780. ..... in answer, it has been asserted (and acceded to) that the plaintiff, at the time he received his certificate from the comptroller general, as well as the other navy-officers, gave him notice, that they meant not thereby to relinquish the arrears of half pay then due to them respectively; and it was farther contended, ..... afterwards, by an act of assembly, a complete suit of uniform ( the particulars of which are specified in the 8th section) was allowed to be given annually to each officer ..... it appears to me, that the clause in the resolve of the 22nd of september, 1783, relates to retiring officers of the army, and that the navy of the state of pennsylvania was not at all then in the contemplation of .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... enables each and every of them to obtain justice without any danger of being overborne by the weight and number of their opponents; and because it brings into action and enforces this great and glorious principle -- that the people are the sovereign of this country, and consequently that fellow citizens and joint sovereigns ..... the chancellor, or others, cannot do them without the king, then the petitions shall be brought before the king to know his pleasure, so that no petitions come before the king and his council but by the hands of the chancellor, and other chief ministers; that the king and his council may attend the great affairs ..... . we find the legislature of the united states expressing themselves in the like general and comprehensive manner; they speak in the thirteenth section of the judicial act, of controversies where a state is a party, and as they do not impliedly or ..... order, i think, should be thus: "ordered that unless the state of georgia should, after due notice of this order, by a service thereof upon the governor and attorney general of the said state, cause an appearance to be entered in behalf of the state, on the 5th day of the next term, or then shew cause ..... with the former it cannot be, for admitting that the constitution is not to have a restrictive operation, so as to confine all cases in which a state is a party exclusively to the supreme court (an opinion to which i am strongly inclined), yet there ..... do with the immediate preceding clause; "controversies between two .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... having absconded from her service, he was committed to goal, for that cause; and a general question was made, whether an infant could be bound as a servant in pennsylvania? ..... ' there have been instances of children here being bound out as servants; but this has not been general; and the courts of justice have always frowned on the attempts. ..... these speak only of imported servants; and direct how long such servants, brought into the province without indentures, shall serve; but, in chap. ..... this policy of putting children out as apprentices, is carried into our poor laws, and those which relate to orphans. ..... i am, therefore, of opinion with the rest of the court, that this boy is not a servant within the meaning of the act of 1700; and consequently, he must be discharged. ..... persons desirous of coming to america, and unable to pay for their passage in any other way, shipped themselves and their children, as servants. ..... the opinion of justice bradford, (which is all i have in my notes) entered fully into the principles of the decision as follows. ..... 197, 198 bradford, justice: the imprisonment of this infant, if justified at all, must be supported under the act of 1700, respecting servants; so that the only question for our determination is, whether he be a servant within the meaning of that act of assembly? .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... not see guinet 'till the bargain was struck, and the repairs were considerably advanced; that afterwards when the owner came, which was generally twice a day, he spoke so little english, that guinet used to translate for him, and on all occasions act as his interpreter; that guinet sometimes brought orders from the owner to the carpenter; that he never assumed any right of ownership himself, ..... 321, 325 had arisen between the executive of the federal government, and the french minister; in the course of which the latter contended, that, if not by the general law of nations, at least by positive compact, the french republic was entitled to repair and equip vessels of war in the ports of the united states; since the treaty, by making it ..... weak, that the witness was at first afraid to undertake it; that he went, however, to borrow a runner and tackle from an adjoining sloop; that guinet concluded to postpone heaving the guns into the boat 'till the next evening; and in the intermediate time the marshall seized the guns and boat, and apprehended the parties. ..... the distinction is justified by this further consideration, that the 3rd section makes arming the vessel, with intent to employ her in hostilities, the offence; whereas the 4th section refers nothing to the intent with which the force of the vessel is augmented, as it only contemplates the case of vessels originally fitted for war ..... 20th of december, 1794, containing the following passage: 'your favor per post is come to hand. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... thus, likewise, the act of congress and the state act have been reconciled, and both put into operation; 12 jurors being returned in pursuance of the former, ..... more than 80 jurors; that the power of extending the pannel to that number does not vest in the circuit court, fitting in its ordinary character, as the act only vests it in the courts of oyer & terminer, general-goal- delivery, and nisi prius; but that, in the present instance, even that number, and without the order of the court, had been far exceeded, since ..... shall not be less than forty-eight, nor more than sixty, without the direction of the judge or judges appointed to go the circuit, and sit as judge or judges of oyer & terminer, general-goal-delivery, or nisi prius, in such county, who are hereby empowered and required, if he or they see cause, by order, under his hand, or their hands, to direct a greater number, not to exceed ..... that have been suggested on this occasion, are principally founded on the 29th section of the judicial act of congress, which refers the federal courts to the state laws, for certain ..... act of pennsylvania, however, had obviously an oeconomical object in view, when it limited the number of jurors to sixty, as a compensation was originally allowed for their attendance, the gh it has since been repealed ..... as to the clause in the law of the united states, directing, that 'the laws of the states (with great exceptions) shall be regarded as rules of decision, in trials at common law in the courts of .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the law are these: "whensoever any citizen of this commonwealth shall, by deed in writing under his hand and seal, executed in the presence of and subscribed by three witnesses and by them or two of them proved in the general court, any district court, or the court of the county or corporation where he resides or by open verbal declaration made in either of the said courts, to be by them entered of record, declare that he relinquishes the character ..... cause, and thereupon set forth that he was admitted a citizen of the french republic on 28 december 1793, by the municipality of point-a-petre at guadaloupe, and on the 2 january following received a commission from the governor of that island as captain of the schooner l'ami de la point-a-petre, which was owned by samuel redick, a french citizen, resident at point-a-petre since 31 dec. ..... , and that although he found a party from l'ami de la liberte on board the brigantine, yet as they produced no commission or authority for taking possession of her, the claimant sent her as his prize into charleston, having put on board several of his crew to take charge of her, and particularly john remfen in the character of prize master, to whom he gave a copy of his commission. ..... by our own law on his quitting this country, could any act of a foreign country operate as a repeal of these? ..... talbot was then in sight, and, coming up in about an hour afterwards, he also took possession of the brigantine, and placed a prize master and ..... selden mare claus. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the present instance, to compel the resignation of wells the excise officer, so as to render null and void, in effect, an act of congress; constituted the apparent, the avowed, object of the insurrection, and of the outrages which the prisoner assisted to commit. ..... then proceeded to the house of wells, the excise officer in fayette county, swearing that the excise law should never be carried into effect, and that they would destroy wells and his house. ..... likewise, examined to establish that the general combination and scope of the insurrection, were to prevent the execution of the excise law by force; and in the course of the evidence, the duress of the marshall of the district, the assembling at couche's, the burning of general neville's house, &c. ..... adjournment took place, the jury requested to see foster's crown law and the acts of congress, which, by consent, were accordingly sent to them. ..... his surrendering his official papers, and extorted an oath from him, that he would never act again in the execution of the excise law. ..... in all its parts: it proves that the prisoner was a member of the party, who went to reigan's house, and, afterwards, to the house of wells, in arms, marshalled, and arrayed; and who, at each place, committed acts of violence and devastation. ..... ransacked the house; burned it, with all its contents, including the public books and papers; and afterwards discovering wells, seized, imprisoned, and compelled him to swear, that he would no longer act as excise officer. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... 'and whereas the late proprietaries, and divers other persons have heretofore acquired titles to parcels of the land aforesaid, agreeably to the laws and usages of pennsylvania, and who will be deprived thereof by the operation of this act, and as justice requires, that compensation be made for the lands, of which they shall be thus divested; and as the state is possessed of other lands, in which an equivalent may be rendered to the claimants under pennsylvania, and as it will be ..... some of the judges in england have had the boldness to assert, that an act of parliament, made against natural equity, is void; but this opinion contravenes the general position, that the validity of an act of parliament cannot be drawn into question by the judicial department: it cannot be disputed, and must be obeyed. ..... it has sovereign and uncontroulable authority in the making, confirming, enlarging, restraining, abrogating, repealing, reviving, and expounding of laws, concerning matters of all possible denominations, ecclesiastical or temporal, civil, military, maritime, or criminal: [307-continued] this being the place where that absolute despotic power, which must in all governments ..... *warrant from richard penn, lieutenant governor, to make a separate return of lot no ..... compensatory part of the act lies in the ninth section. ..... ) in the thirty-second section of the same constitution, it is ordained; 'that all elections, whether by the people or in general assembly, shall be by ballot, free and voluntary .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... prisoner offered a negro slave as a witness in his favour; but, the attorney-general objecting to his competency, he was rejected, without argument: and it was said by m'kean, chief justice, that it was a settled point at common law, that a slave could not be a witness, because of the unbounded influence of his master over him; which was, at least, equal to duress: that the act of assembly was in aid of the common law, not to change its principles: and ..... being, likewise, dissuaded from returning to the crowd with the axe, he said 'he would do it; and striking the instrument, with great passion, into the ground, 'swore, that he would split down any fellows that were saucy. ..... the construction which is now given to the act of assembly on this point, must decide, whether the law shall have a beneficial, or a pernicious, operation. ..... ' the affray, however, became general, and continued so for some time. ..... before the act was passed, the prisoner's offence would clearly have amounted to murder; all the circumstances, implying that malice, which is the gist of the definition of the crime at common law: and if he escapes with impunity, under an interpretation of the act, different from the one which we have delivered, a case can hardly occur to warrant a conviction for murder in the first degree. ..... it is not pretended, that there was any accident in the case; and, therefore, the act must have been wilful. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... operation of the fourth article is that the stipulation in favor of creditors, so as to enable them to bring suits and recover the full value of their debts, could not at that time be carried into effect in any other manner than by a repeal of the statutes of the different states constituting the impediments to their recovery, and the passing of such other ..... general rule, and if conscientiously used (of which each nation must judge for itself), the principle applies as well to property, which was in the country before the war began, as to any other which may be accident come into ..... the words or effect and operation of the enacting clause are ambiguous or doubtful, such construction should be made as not to extend the provisions in the enacting clause beyond the intention of the legislature so clearly expressed in the preamble; but if the words in the enacting clause in their nature, import ..... of the payer, which certificate they, the defendants, then delivered to the governor and council, who gave a receipt therefor in conformity to the directions of the said act, in the words and figures following, to-wit:" " received into the council's office a certificate bearing date 26 april, 1780, under the ..... in the third section of the law it was enacted "that it should be lawful for any citizen of virginia owing money to a subject of great britain to pay the same or any part thereof from time to time as he should think fit into the loan office, taking thereout a certificate for the same in .....
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