[Sidenote: The federal jurisdiction.] The federal jurisdiction covers two classes of cases: (1) those which come before it "because of the nature of the questions involved: for instance, admiralty and maritime cases, navigable waters being within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal authorities, and cases arising out of the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States or out of conflicting grants made by different states"; (2) those which come before it "because of the nature of the parties to the suit," such as cases affecting the ministers of foreign powers or suits between citizens of different states.
The division of jurisdiction between the upper and lower federal courts is determined chiefly by the size and importance of the cases. In cases where a state or a foreign minister is a party the supreme court has original jurisdiction, in other cases it has appellate jurisdiction, and "any case which involves the interpretation of the Constitution can be taken to the supreme court, however small the sum in dispute." If a law of any state or of the United States is decided by the supreme court to be in violation of the Constitution, it instantly becomes void and of no effect. In this supreme exercise of jurisdiction, our highest federal tribunal is unlike any other tribunal known to history. The supreme court is the most original of all American institutions. It is peculiarly American, and for its exalted character and priceless services it is an institution of which Americans may well be proud.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.
1. What was the second important factor in transforming our country from a Band-of-States to a Banded-State?
2. Why was a federal judiciary deemed necessary?
3. The organization of the federal judiciary:— a. The supreme court and its sessions. b. The circuit courts. c. The district courts. d. Exchanges of service. e. Appointment of judges. f. The United States district attorney. g. The United States marshal.
4. The jurisdiction of the federal courts:—
a. Cases because of the nature of the questions involved.
b. Cases because of the nature of the parties to the suit.
c. The division of jurisdiction between the upper and the lower
courts.
d. Wherein the supreme court is the most original of American
institutions.
Section 6. Territorial Government.
[Sidenote: The Northwest Territory.] [Sidenote: The Ordinance of 1787.] The Constitution provided for the admission of new states to the Union, but it does not allow a state to be formed within another state. A state cannot "be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress." Shortly before the making of the Constitution, the United States had been endowed for the first time with a public domain. The territory northwest of the Ohio River had been claimed, on the strength of old grants and charters, by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. In 1777 Maryland refused to sign the Articles of Confederation until these states should agree to cede their claims to the United States, and thus in 1784 the federal government came into possession of a magnificent territory, out of which five great states—Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin—have since been made. While the Federal Convention was sitting at Philadelphia, the Continental Congress at New York was doing almost its last and one of its greatest pieces of work in framing the Ordinance of 1787 for the organization and government of this newly acquired territory. The ordinance created a territorial government with governor and two-chambered legislature, courts, magistrates, and militia. Complete civil and religious liberty was guaranteed, negro slavery was prohibited, and provision was made for free schools.[30]
[Footnote 30: The manner in which provision should be made for these schools had been pointed out two years before in the land-ordinance of 1785, as heretofore explained. See above, p. 86.]