Sir,
I have now the honor to enclose you the answer of the Attorney General to a letter I wrote him on the subject of yours of the 18th instant.
It appears that the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States are open to the application of Mr. Pagan for a writ of error to revise his case. This writ is to be granted, indeed, or refused, at the discretion of the judge; but the discretion of the judge is governed by the rules of law: if these be in favor of Mr. Pagan’s application, his case will be reviewed in the Supreme Court, and the decision against him corrected, if wrong, if these be against his application, he will then be at the end of the ordinary course of law, at which term alone it is usual for nations to take up the cause of an individual, and to inquire whether their judges have refused him justice. At present, therefore, I am not able to say more, than that the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States will receive Mr. Pagan’s application for a writ of error to revise the judgment given against him by the inferior court, and that there can be no doubt they will do on that application what shall be right.
I have the honor to be, with the highest esteem, your most obedient and most humble servant.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCVII.—TO MESSRS. JOHNSON, CARROL, AND STEWART, March 6, 1792
TO MESSRS. JOHNSON, CARROL, AND STEWART.
Philadelphia, March 6, 1792,
Gentlemen,