[Footnoted:TheUnionwasdividedintodistricts，ineachofwhicharesidentFederaljudgewasappointed，andthecourtinwhichhepresidedwastermeda\"DistrictCourt。\"EachofthejudgesoftheSupremeCourtannuallyvisitsacertainportionoftheRepublic，inordertotrythemostimportantcausesuponthespot;thecourtpresidedoverbythismagistrateisstyleda\"CircuitCourt。\"Lastly，allthemostseriouscasesoflitigationarebroughtbeforetheSupremeCourt，whichholdsasolemnsessiononceayear，atwhichallthejudgesoftheCircuitCourtsmustattend。ThejurywasintroducedintotheFederalCourtsinthesamemanner，andinthesamecases，asintothecourtsoftheStates。
ItwillbeobservedthatnoanalogyexistsbetweentheSupremeCourtoftheUnitedStatesandtheFrenchCourdeCassation，sincethelatteronlyhearsappealsonquestionsoflaw。TheSupremeCourtdecidesupontheevidenceofthefactaswellasuponthelawofthecase，whereastheCourdeCassationdoesnotpronounceadecisionofitsown，butrefersthecausetothearbitrationofanothertribunal。SeethelawofSeptember24，1789，\"LawsoftheUnitedStates，\"byStory，vol。i。p。53。]
MeansOfDeterminingTheJurisdictionOfTheFederalCourtsDifficultyofdeterminingthejurisdictionofseparatecourtsofjusticeinconfederations—ThecourtsoftheUnionobtainedtherightoffixingtheirownjurisdiction—InwhatrespectthisruleattackstheportionofsovereigntyreservedtotheseveralStates—ThesovereigntyoftheseStatesrestrictedbythelaws，andtheinterpretationofthelaws—Consequently，thedangeroftheseveralStatesismoreapparentthanreal。
AstheConstitutionoftheUnitedStatesrecognizedtwodistinctpowersinpresenceofeachother，representedinajudicialpointofviewbytwodistinctclassesofcourtsofjustice，theutmostcarewhichcouldbetakenindefiningtheirseparatejurisdictionswouldhavebeeninsufficienttopreventfrequentcollisionsbetweenthosetribunals。Thequestionthenarosetowhomtherightofdecidingthecompetencyofeachcourtwastobereferred。
Innationswhichconstituteasinglebodypolitic，whenaquestionisdebatedbetweentwocourtsrelatingtotheirmutualjurisdiction，athirdtribunalisgenerallywithinreachtodecidethedifference;andthisiseffectedwithoutdifficulty，becauseinthesenationsthequestionsofjudicialcompetencyhavenoconnectionwiththeprivilegesofthenationalsupremacy。