but congress has no power to regulate by law, bills of exchange or promissory notes drawn and payable in the same state. The latter class of bills and notes must be regulated exclusively by the laws of the state. And as a general rule, property and persons, the domestic relations and contracts, are all governed by the municipal laws of the respective states, as interior and local, not national

concerns.

SEC. 9. MUNICIPAL LAWS, AND THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN STATE

AND UNITED STATES LAWS.

The word municipal is of Roman origin, and originally designated that which pertained to a free city, town or corporation. Its signification was afterwards extended, and as now used it includes all the internal affairs, laws, and institutions of a state, kingdom, or nation. Its proper use has always been restricted to matters more or less local, internal, and domestic; and in that sense I use it. Municipal laws include all the laws, and those only, which apply exclusively to the internal affairs and institutions of a state. Each state has laws and domestic institutions differing more or less from those of every other state. The laws of the several states and the administration of justice therein by state judges and magistrates, are as totally distinct from, and independent of each other, as those of England and France are-the powers and jurisdiction of each being local, and confined within the limits of the state. Hence they are, properly speaking, inter nal, local, domestic, and municipal laws.

But to understand, fully and clearly, what are municipal laws, it is necessary to understand what are not laws of that character. Each state may prescribe the laws pertaining to domestic bills of exchange, notes, drafts, and checks, drawn, in and payable within the state, and the laws so prescribed are municipal; but foreign bills of exchange and promissory notes, drawn in one state and payable in another, or in a foreign country, or drawn in a foreign country and payable in a state, are governed by the law merchant, as a general rule, and not by the municipal or local laws.

The navigation laws of a state or country, so far as they pertain to the rivers, harbors, lakes, and bays, within its territorial limits, are, strictly speaking, municipal laws; but so far as they pertain to

navigation upon the high seas, they must conform to the laws of nations, which are blended with and form a portion of the maratime code of every nation.

The navigation of Oneida, Seneca, and Cayuga lakes, and the ferries across the Hudson river above the New Jersey line, and also the ferries across the sound from New York to Long Island, are all governed by the laws of the state of New York, as completely and exclusively as the canals of the state are. These laws are properly called municipal laws, because they pertain exclusively to the internal affairs of the state. But navigation between New York and foreign countries is governed by the maratime code of nations, and the acts of congress blended together. So the coasting trade, from state to state, on the ocean, and the inter-state trade and navigation on lakes and rivers, are governed exclusively by the laws of congress, by virtue of that clause of the constitution authorizing congress to regulate commerce among the several states. The coasting trade, and inter-state commerce and navigation not being confined within the limits of a state, could not be governed by laws of a strictly municipal character.

Power having been granted to congress, to regulate foreign commerce, and commerce among the states, and with the Indian tribes, those grants of power include power to regulate all such commercial contracts, including foreign bills of exchange, and notes drawn in the prosecution of such commerce, notes drawn in one state payable in another, and all contracts for affreightment, and maratime contracts made in carrying on such commerce. Congress can also regulate by law, all contracts which may be made in carrying on the federal government. It does not occur to me that there is any other class of contracts which congress has power to regulate. All other contracts made within a state are of a strictly municipal or domestic character, and therefore governed as to their validity, verification and construction, by the state laws. Congress has neither common nor statute laws upon the subject of such contracts, and no power to pass any.

So all conveyances of lands and real property within a state, and all contracts relating thereto, are governed by the lex loci rei sitae; that is, by the law of the state where the same are situated. Laws to regulate marriages, the marriage relation, and all the do

mestic relations; laws for the protection of persons, personal liberty, property and character, including those to punish slander and libel, both civilly and criminally; laws relating to slaves and slavery; laws to check and punish crimes, offences and vices, with the exception of offences against federal statutes; police regulations; laws regulating schools and education, religious and philanthropic societies, cities, counties, and towns, roads and bridges, rail roads and canals, banking, insurance, rail road, and canal companies, and all other private corporations, are all, (strictly speaking), municipal or domestic laws, under the exclusive jurisdiction of the state governments. Congress has no laws upon such subjects, either statute or common, and no power to pass any. In administering justice, in civil cases, in the several states, the federal courts administer the local and state laws respectively, the same as the state courts do the national government having no municipal common law, and no statute laws to supply its place, except a declaratory statute, that "the laws of the several states shall be regarded as rules of decision in trials at common law in the courts of the United States, in cases where they apply.”

In admiralty and maratime cases, the federal courts administer the laws of nations, and the navigation and criminal laws of the United States; in equity cases, they are governed by the general principles of equity jurisprudence, and universal laws as modified and extended in some instances by the lex loci rei sitae; in all other civil cases the federal courts are governed either by the law of the forum, or by the lex loci contractus.

Congress has no power to punish murder, arson, robbery, rape, lar eeny, burglary, assault and battery, forgery, or any other natural crime within a state, except forgery and perjury against the laws of the United States.

The federal courts have no jurisdiction over common law offences in the states, and congress has no power to confer on them any such jurisdiction. Nor has congress any power to restrain or punish vice of any kind within a state. All.such crimes and offences, and all matters of police are of a municipal character, subject to state legislation only, and not within the powers of the federal government. Within the limits of the states, the national government can take cognizance of only artificial crimes and of

fences against its own proper authority and laws. The state governments are the sole conservators of the morals of the people, and of the public peace and good order of society-the federal government having no power to legislate upon such subjects, and no power to punish crimes against individuals, or against individual property. The federal courts take cognizance of only statutory crimes and offences prescribed by congress; and congress has no power to make statutory crimes and offences, except so far as it be may necessary to do so, as a means of executing its laws, and attaining the ends and national purposes for which it was established.

Congress has power to protect the officers of the federal government from violence or molestation, while in the discharge of their official duties, and to punish such offences. This is a matter of necessity, to ensure the execution of the laws; but congress has no power to punish either verbal slander or libels of federal officers, for the purpose of protecting their character, unless the same be published in the District of Columbia. Federal officers must look to state laws, and to state laws only, to protect them from slanders and libels. Congress cannot confer on the federal courts, for the convenience and protection of federal officers, any such powers and jurisdiction as have been exercised for centuries, under mere fictions of law, by the courts of Exchequer and King's Bench of England. Federal officers must rely on the state courts for the protection of their private rights.

SEC. 10. NATIONAL COMMON LAW OF THE UNITED STATES.

The United States have no municipal common law; no common law upon municipal questions and subjects; but they have a national common law, which applies only to national questions and subjects. The law merchant of England, at the time of the American revolution, which regulated foreign bills of exchange and notes, and the liabilities of the drawers, makers, and endorsers thereof, constitute a part of the national common law of the United States, subject to such alterations as congress may see fit to make.

So much of the old maratime laws of England, as are generally recognized by the laws and usages of civilized nations, constitute a

part of the national common law of the United States. Such is the case also with the admiralty laws; the laws and usages of civilized nations which regulate the mode of waging war, treating prisoners, punishing spies and pirates, prohibiting trade in contraband goods, regulating the rights of neutral nations, and prescribing the rules for blockades, and the rights of privateers. Congress may, by statute, regulate the details of action in all such matters, in such manner as not to infringe the laws of nations, to which the principles of universal law require them to conform.

In the organization of the executive departments of government, congress authorized the president of the United States to appoint the heads of departments, and to commission them, and certain other officers during his pleasure. Under such statutes, a practice has grown up, and been tacitly sanctioned by congress, during a period of more than sixty years, until it has ripened into established usage, and become a part of the national common law of United States, by which the president and the several heads of departments remove from office all their civil appointees, except judges. In that way the precedents, practices, and usages of the government ripen into law, and are gradually forming a code of national common law, upon various subjects of a national character.

The statutes of the United States must be interpreted, in order to be carried into effect, not only by the courts of justice, but also by the heads of departments, heads of bureaus, and other officers, who are required to execute them. The first constructions given to them serve as precedents to guide future action; on which practice and usages are founded, which ripen into common law by the tacit consent of the legislative power.

Under and by virtue of acts of congress, courts of justice, heads of departments, and heads of bureaus also, are authorized to adopt rules and regulations, to govern their own proceedings, in the discharge of their duties, and in carrying the laws into effect. The rules so prescribed form the basis of practice and various usages which soon ripen into common laws by the tacit consent of congress. In this mode, a great body of national common laws has grown out of the rules and practice of the supreme court of the United States, and out of the rules of practice of the treasury