Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/142

tribunal, in February, 1794, this important question involving most seriously the attitude of the United States towards its international duties and relations. It would have been easy for the Court, in view of the heated conflict between the British and the French factions, to shrink from the responsibility of decision, and to hold that the question was purely a political one with which the Executive Department alone should deal. Such a course, however, it declined to follow; and, by its decision in Glass v. Sloop Betsy, 3 Dallas, 6, it met the vital question squarely and conclusively. The case presented the following facts: a vessel and cargo belonging to neutral Swedes and Americans, captured by the French and sent into Baltimore for purpose of adjudication as a prize by the French consul there, was libeled by the neutral owners in the United States District Court; and the question at issue was whether that Court had jurisdiction to determine the legality of capture or to order restitution of a prize brought by a belligerent into our ports. The argument by Edward Tilghman and John Lewis against Peter S. Duponceau lasted for five days, February 8-12, 1794; six days after its close, the Court "informed the counsel, that besides the question of jurisdiction as to the District Court, another question fairly arose upon the record, whether any foreign nation had a right, without the positive stipulation of a treaty, to establish in this country, an admiralty jurisdiction for taking cognizance of prizes captured on the high seas, by its subjects or citizens, from its enemies. Though this question had not been agitated, the Court deemed it of great public importance to be decided; and meaning to decide it, they declared a desire to hear it discussed." Since the counsel for appellants, however, stated that they "did not conceive themselves inter-