plainant filing proper ancillary bills in the circuit courts in the other districts, those courts will take what is termed ancillary jurisdiction. What is meant by ancillary jurisdiction is best shown by a copy of an order made by one of the circuit courts in this circuit upon assuming ancillary jurisdiction in a railroad foreclosure. The order is as follows: "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, EIGHTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT. In the Circuit Court of the United States for the. ... vs. “On this........day of..... came on to be heard the ancillary bill filed by the complainant in this cause, and the court having considered the same, and it appearing to the court that said complainant has already filed its bill of complaint against the..... .. in the Circuit Court of the United States for the............District of...... .....seeking for the foreclosure of a certain mortgage or deed of trust executed by said defendant company to said complainant upon the railroad, property, rights, privileges and franchises of the said defendant company wherever situated: "And it further appearing that in said cause now pending in said Circuit Court in said........... .. District of.... ... said last named court made its order and decree sustaining said complainant's application for a receiver and naming and appointing ... as receiver of the railroad, property, rights, privileges and franchises of the said defendant company covered by said mortgage so sought to be foreclosed as aforesaid with certain powers and under certain instructions as fully appear in said order, a copy of which is attached to said complainant's ancillary bill filed herein: "And it further appearing that a portion of the railroad and real and personal property owned by the said defendant subject to the lien of said mortgage is in this district and within the jurisdiction of this court: "It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that this court take ancillary jurisdiction with said Circuit Court in the .... in this cause: ...District of ... .... ... ... "It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that the said order made by the said Circuit Court of primary jurisdiction sustaining the application of the complainant for a receiver and appointing... as such receiver, be, and the same is hereby, ratified, approved and confirmed and the said is hereby appointed receiver by this court and vested with the same rights, powers and privileges as are conferred by said order of said Circuit Court of primary jurisdiction, over that portion of the property of said defendant subject to the lien of the mortgage, which is in this district and within the jurisdiction of this court, and the said receiver having already executed bond in the manner prescribed by the order and decree of said Circuit Court of primary jurisdiction, is hereby authorized to take possession of the railroad and property of the defendant in this district and to act as such receiver without taking further oath of office or executing further bond, and said receiver will make his reports to the court of primary jurisdiction and pass his accounts in the master's office of that court, and will make no reports to this court except when specially ordered so to do. "It is further ordered that the authority and jurisdiction of the said Circuit Court for the............ District of of...... as the court of primary jurisdiction be and the same is hereby recognized and confirmed, and that said court shall exercise jurisdiction in all matters and proceedings and make all orders relating to or affecting the general administration of said trust and the conduct of said receivership. But this court retains and will exercise jurisdiction in matters of a local nature and which affect only persons and property in this district, and jurisdiction to settle and determine the claims and demands of the citizens of this district against the receiver, and retains jurisdiction to direct the payment, out of the trust fund, of the debts and liabilities of the defendant company payable in this district or due to citizens of this district hereinafter enumerated in this order and declared to be preferential, and may also determine by general or special order what other debts and demands shall be deemed preferential; and the orders of this court in respect of said claims and demands shall be effectual to bind the property of the defendant company in this district and shall be observed and obeyed by said receiver." Here follows the order requiring the payment of certain debts due from the company, heretofore set out, and the order concludes thus: "This court hereby expressly reserves the right at any time upon the application of any person interested or upon its own motion to make such other and further orders to secure compliance with the terms of this order and the payment of all claims and demands hereinbefore declared to be preferential, as to the court shall seem meet and proper." In the case of the Farmers Loan & Trust Co. v. The Northern Pacific R. R. Co., some differences of opinion arose between the circuit court of the United States for the district of Wisconsin in the seventh circuit, and the circuit court of the United States for the district of Washington in the ninth circuit, as to which was the court of primary jurisdiction in that case. The matter was finally brought to the attention of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States assigned to the several circuits through which the road ran or in which it had property (the second, seventh, eighth and ninth circuits), and they asserted the propriety and necessity of the practice which recognizes courts of primary and ancillary jurisdiction in such cases and pointed out the jurisdiction to be exercised by each, substantially as it is stated in the foregoing order. This action of the learned Justices, though advisory in its character and not technically the judgment of a court, was taken after full argument and consideration of the question and will doubtless be accepted as settling the practice for all the circuits in such cases in the future. Young gentlemen, I have called your attention to a few matters only, relating to the subject in hand. My remarks probably have not been technically accurate in every respect and they were not intended to be exhaustive on the points touched upon, but merely suggestive. I trust that you may find them of some service to you in your more thorough and critical investigation of the subject. THE CASE OF MARBURY v. MADISON.1 There has never been a case in jurisprudential records, more marked and important than the case of Marbury v. Madison, which was considered by the Supreme Court of the United States at the February term in the year 1803, and in which it was first decided that such court could nullify a law of Congress. It is the purpose of this paper to give, briefly and impartially, the causes that led up to such decision, its character and scope, and the circumstances surrounding and following it. The American colonies had emerged from the war with the mother country, achieving the acknowledgment, by Great Britain and the world, that such colonies, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, were "free and independent States." The people of such States had found the Articles of Confederation inadequate to the demands and requirements of the confederated union, and "a more perfect union" had been suggested by the Constitutional Convention representing the several States, excepting Rhode Island, which convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1787, and formulated a constitution. This constitution was ratified by all of the States, and they became, as its preamble declares, “a more perfect union" of free and independent States." Of course, Of course, in order to secure that more perfect union, it became necessary to surrender up a certain degree of State sovereignty, which was done, the States under the constitution delegating to the Federal government certain powers necessary for its construction, in derogation of their hitherto plenary sovereignty. The measure of the extent of that necessary delegation for such a federated government was the great stumbling block in the convention that formulated the constitution, and in the conventions of the several States which ratified it; and the constitution as ratified became the definite measure so agreed upon. 1 1 Cranch. 137. |