CASES
DETERMINED IN THE
DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR THE
DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS,
FROM 1836 TO 1849.
BEFORE THE
HON. BENJAMIN JOHNSON, District Judge.
THE UNITED STATES vs. TA-WAN-GA-CA, or TOWN-MAKER, an Osage Indian.
- Congress specifically defined the boundaries of the State of Arkansas, and by giving the district court thereof such powers only as were conferred on the district court of Kentucky by the judicial act of 1789, necessarily excluded jurisdiction beyond the boundaries of the State of Arkansas; and, therefore, a crime committed in the Indian country west of Arkansas, is not triable in the district court.
- A person indicted for murder in the late superior court, and not tried, can not be committed nor tried in the district court on that charge, the latter not being the successor of the former, and the business of the superior court not having been continued over to the district court by act of congress.
- The courts of the United States are of limited, though not inferior jurisdiction, and cannot exercise any jurisdiction which is not expressly or by necessary implication conferred by law.
