A Century of Federal Judicature. cided only fifty-five cases. The engrossed minutes of its work cover only a little more than two hundred pages of one of the vol umes of its records, and its reported deci sions fill only five hundred pages of the sec ond, third and fourth volumes of Dallas' re ports. In 1790 there was no business before
early business was concerned with questions of practice, most of which related to enforc ing the appearance of defendant states. These efforts finally culminated in the decision in the case of Chisholm v. State of Georgia, 2 Dall. 419, in which the court asserted the right to determine the case of a citizen
OLIVER ELLSWORTH.
the court; in 1791 only two matters of prac tice and a single case, State of Georgia v. Brailsford, which was further considered at the following term. The few decisions touching the scope of the court's power and duties were mainly confined to denial rather than to assertion. The major part of the
against a State. This was really the first case finally disposed of; but its effect was promptly nullified by the adoption of the eleventh amendment to the Constitution. Georgia i1. Brailsford, 3 Dall. I, was finally determined by a jury. During this period nine cases involving constitutional questions
