Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-12-22
PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE TER.
RITORIAL SCHEKE.

culties in the way of the scheme of the
Congress of the North to territorialize
the conquered States of the South. We
now propose to refer to others no less
formidable, and which cannot, in the
judgment of sound lawyers, be surmount'
ed. The effect of demolishing State
government and placing it on the footing
of a territory would be abolition of the
judicial system Of the United States
therein. That system has no reference
to territories. Chief Justice MARSHALL
american Insurance Company vs. Can
ter. | Peters, 546), speaking Of Terrific
rial courts, thus expounded their charac-
ter: "These courts are not constitutional
courts, in which the judicial power con-
ferred by the Constitution on the General
Government can be deposited. They are
incapable of receiving it. They are leg
islative courts created in virtue Of the
general right of sovereignty which exists
in the Government" The Circuit
and District Courts of the United States
can be held only in States. Those ap-
plicable to territories are the creation OF
Congress and designed to meet only the
exigencies of territorial condition.
The consequence therefore of State reduc-
ton would be denial to Northern men
of the benefit of the Federal Courts in
collecting their debts IN the South An
inhabitant of a territory, says a legal
writer, has no standing in any of the
United States Courts The Supreme
Court has decided THE corporation of
New Orleans VS.. Winter ct al. Whea-
ton, 81 that :" the fact that the plaintiff
is citizen of territory and the defend
ant of a State does not enable the courts
ofthe United States to take jurisdiction"
The Constitution confers jurisdiction in
suits "between citizens of different
States" inhabitants of territories not
being included in this designation. 1t
therefore appears that not only would
the courts of the United States be abol-
ished in the States degraded into terrific
ries, but they would be without jurisdic-
ton over the inhabitants, even if they
could continue to exist But there is
something else in the way of State reduc-
ton. An act of the Congress of the
North, passed at the last session, starts
up and stares Jacobinism in the face. 1t
recognizes all the States of the South as
States, by including them in the judicial
circuits of the United States. The second
section provides
That the first and second circuits shall
remain as now constructed that the dis
tricts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and
Delaware shall constitute the third cir
cult; that the districts of Maryland, West |
Virginia. Virginia, North Carolina and |
South Carolina shall constitute the |
fourth circuit that the districts Of Geor-
ala, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and 1eras shall constitute the |
fifth circuit; that the districts Of Ohio,
Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee shall
constitute the sixth circuits that the dis
tricts of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin
shall constitute the seventh circuit; that
the districts of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas
and Arkansas shall 'constituts the eighth
circuit and the districts Of California,
Oregan and Nevada shall constitute the
ninth circuit.
1t will bee seen 1--WE quote from the
writer referred to) that every one of the
ten excluded States is here mentioned
by name and recognized as State in
the Union, since it is only in States in
the Union that these courts can be held.
Congress has therefore eStopped itself
from denying their statehood now. If
they have lost their standing as States,
it must have been either by their acts
of secession, or by the completion
of our conquest in the surrender Of
the Confederate armies; certainly
by nothing that has taken place
since the passage Of the above reeited act
of Congress. But by that act Congress
virtually declared that, in spite Of the
acts of secession, and in spite of the sur
render, they were, at its date, States in
the Union. The act prescribing the time
for holding the Circuit Courts in Vir-
ginia implies similar admission. The
famous Civil Rights bill is full Of snch
admissions, inasmuch as the Circuit and
District Courts of the United States are
the pivots on which the whole legal
machinery turns for its execution.
Another consideration of the first
magnitude involved in this controversy,
respects the corporate property and
pecuniary obligations of the daposed
States. The public buildings, records,
and other property will cease to belong
10 the States when they become ex-
tinct, and will, Of necessity, accrue to
the conqueror. In pursuance of the
same principle, the United States 1ia
assume the Southern STATE debts. 1t is
an established principle Of public law
that the conqueror becomes liable for
all the just pecuniary obligations of a
conquered State. This follows from the
fact that the conquered State, by losing
its sovereignty, loses its control over the
property of the citizens, and with 1t all
ability to satisfy the just demands OF
public creditors. 1t is said that the prop |
erty of the territories may be held for the |