Minutes of the Circuit Court for the District of New York, 5 April 1792
Minutes of the Circuit Court for the District Of New York
[New York, Thursday, 5 April 1792]
At a S[t]ated Circuit Court of the United States held for the District of New York at the City of New York the fifth day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety two—at 12 OClock.
Present
The Honorable John Jay Esquire Chief Justice of the United States
The Honorable William Cushing Esquire one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
The Honorable James Duane Esquire Judge of the District of New York
The Court was opened by Proclamation.
Proclamation was made for the Marshal of the District to return the Prǣcept to him directed and delivered returnable here this very day that the Justices of the United States might proceed thereon
Whereupon the Marshal returned the said prǣcept with a pannel of the persons summoned to serve as Grand Jurors for this term annexed and the pannel being called the following Persons appeared and were sworn as Grand Jurors to wit,
Foreman Robert C. Livingston, Francis B. Winthrop, Richard Yates, Levinus Clarkson, John Broome, Edmund Seaman, Nicholas Cruger, Nicholas Hoffman, Matthew M Clarkson, Israel Honeywell, Lewis Cornwell, Stephen, Jacob Sharp, John K. Covenhoven, John Hicks, Abraham Rolph, Israel Bedell, Comfort Sands, John Murray1
Proclamation was now made for silence, and charge was thereupon given to the grand Jury.2
The Court proceeded to take into consideration the following Act of the Congress of the United States, to wit,
“An Act to provide for the settlement of the claims of widows and orphans barred by the limitations heretofore established, and to regulate the claims to Invalid Pensions.”
[Here is inserted the text of the Act]
The Court were thereupon unanimously of opinion That by the Constitution of the United States the government thereof is divided into three distinct and independent branches and that it is the duty of each to abstain from and to oppose encroachments on either.
That neither the Legislative nor the executive branches can constitutionally assign to the judicial any duties but such as are properly judicial and to be performed in a judicial manner.
That the duties assigned to the Circuit Courts by this act, are not of that description, and that the act itself does not appear to contemplate them as such; inasmuch as it subjects the decisions of these Courts made pursuant to those duties, first to the consideration and suspension of the Secretary at War, and then to the revision of the Legislature. whereas by the constitution neither the Secretary at war nor any other executive officer nor even the Legislature are authorized to sit as a Court of Errors on the judicial acts or opinions of this Court
As therefore the business assigned to this Court by the act, is not judicial, nor directed to be performed in a judicial manner, the act can only be considered as appointing commissioners for the purposes mentioned in it by official, instead of personal descriptions
That the Judges of this Court, regard themselves as being the Commissioners designated by the act, and therefore as being at liberty to accept or to decline that Office.
That as the objects of this act are exceedingly benevolent, and do real Honor to the humanity and justice of Congress, and as the Judges desire to manifest on all proper occasions, and in every proper manner their high respect for the national legislature, they will execute this act in the capacity of Commissioners
That as the Legislature have a right to extend the Session of this Court for any term, which they may think proper by Law to assign the term of five days, as directed by this act ought to be punctually observed.
That the Judges of this Court will as usual during the Session thereof adjourn the Court from day to day or other short period as circumstances may render proper, and that they will regularly between the adjournments proceed as Commissioners to execute the business of this act, in the same Court Room or Chamber
Ordered
That the clerk of the court prepare and certify a Copy of the aforegoing entries, in order that it may be transmitted in the following letter from the Judges to the President of the United States.
“Sir,
As we could not in our opinion convey the enclosed extracts from the minutes of the Circuit Court now sitting here to the Congress of the United States in so respectful and sincere a manner as thro’ the President, we take the liberty to you and to request the favor of you to communicate them to that Honorable Body We have the Honor to be with perfect respect Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servts”.3
Ordered
That Morgan Lewis Esquire be and he is hereby admitted to the practise as Counsellor of this Court
| The United States of America |  |
| Vs | |
| William Duer |
The Marshal returns on the Capias which issued in this Cause that he had taken the Defendant. And on Motion of the Attorney for the District
Ordered that the Marshal bring in the body of that defendant sitting the Court or be amerced forty shillings and that the defendant plead in twenty days after filing of the declaration against him on Judgment.4
| Mathew Cowper administrator of the goods chattels and credits of Thomas Pierce deceased with the will of the said Thomas Pierce annexed | |
| Vs. | |
| Catharine Cox, Johanna Beekman, Margaret Beekman, Magdalen Beekman, and Elizabeth Beekman administrators of the goods chattels and credits of Gerard W. Beekman deceased unadministered by Mary Beekman Executrix of the last will and testiment of the said Gerard W. Beekman deceased, with the will of the said Gerard W. Beekman annexed |
The Marshal returns on the Capias which issued in this Cause the defendants taken with their appearances indorsed. And on Motion of Mr. Harrison of Counsel for the Plaintiff
Ordered
That the appearances of the Defendants be entered, and that they plead in Twenty days after filing of the Declaration against them as Judgment.
The Court was then adjourned till Saturday next at 10 OClock A.M.
D, NjBaFAR: RG 21, CCD New York, Minutes; E, DNA: RG 46 (EJ: 11781). Endorsed: “Legis[latur]e. 2 Cong. Sep. 1st. Copy of the proceedings of the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of New York in respect to an Act entitled ‘An [Act] to provide for the settlement of the claims of Widows and Orphans barred by the limitations heretofore established and to regulate the claims to Invalid pensions.’ April 5, 1792.” , 6: 370–72.
1. List of jurors converted into paragraph format with punctuation added. Robert C. Livingston (c. 1741–94) of Hudson; Francis B. Winthrop (1754–1817) and Richard B. Yates (c. 1732–1808) both of New York; Levinus Clarkson (1740–98) of Jamaica; John Broome (1738–1810), Edmund Seaman (c. 1744–1826), Nicholas Cruger (c. 1743–1800), Nicholas Hoffman (c. 1736–1800), and Matthew M. Clarkson (d. 1804), all of New York; Israel Honeywell (c. 1743–c. 1806) of Westchester County, Lewis Cornwell (c. 1754–c. 1837) of Flushing; Jacob Sharp of Brooklyn; John K. Covenhoven; Comfort Sands (1748–1834) of New York; and John Hicks (1743–1808) of Brooklyn; Abraham Rolph (c. 1746–c. 1799) and Israel Bidell (c. 1754–1830), both of Castleton; possibly John Murray (c. 1737–1808) of New York.
2. For JJ’s charge to the New York Grand Jury, see Dft, incorrectly dated 1791 by William Jay, NNC (EJ: 08124). The date and location for which this draft charge was prepared is derived by the notation of “Good Friday” at the bottom of the text. The circuit court opened in New York on 5 Apr., on which date JJ delivered his charge, did not meet on Good Friday, 6 Apr., and reassembled on 7 Apr. No other court session met during JJ’s tenure as justice during a week that contained Good Friday. See , 2: 253–57. For the final version of the charge delivered in Bennington, Vt., on 25 June 1792, and printed in several newspapers, see below.
3. For the justices’ letter to GW dated 10 Apr., enclosing the extract from the minutes, see , 10: 251–53. On the justices’ challenging the constitutionality of their assignment as circuit court judges to review pension claims under the Invalid Pension Act of 1792, the agreement of some of the judges to act as commissioners, and the relevance to Supreme Court cases, see the editorial note “The Supreme Court: Procedures and Cases,” above; Minutes of the Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut, 3 May 1792, below; and the Supreme Court Minutes for 5, 13, 14 and 17 Feb. 1794, below.
4. Oliver Wolcott Jr., Comptroller of the United States, initiated a suit through District Attorney Richard Harison in March 1792 after Duer had repeatedly failed to account for over $203,150 in indents (certificates of interest) delivered to him as secretary to the Board of Treasury to be applied for use of the United States. Duer had already stopped payment on 9 Mar. on private debts and was confined in the New York debtors’ prison on 23 Mar. On 6 Apr. the Circuit Court issued a warrant directing the U.S. Marshall for New York, Aquila Giles, to summon Duer to appear before the court on 5 Sept. 1792 to answer the charges. In a “plea and notice of set off” filed on 26 Apr. 1793, Duer contended he had made the appropriate payments and that he was owed over $300,000 by the United States for indents applied for public use, and additional sums on his contracts for supplying the U.S. army. On 5 Sept. 1793, Harison filed a “Replication” denying Duer’s claims and calling for his trial. In October 1793 the United States brought further suit for $36,773.72 for new emission money that he allegedly also had failed to apply to public use. No evidence of judgment against him has been found, and it appears that suits against him were dropped at the time of his death in prison in 1799. See Joseph Stancliff Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations (2 vols.; Cambridge, Mass., 1917), 1: 290–94, 319–20; Jones, “King of the Alley,” 177, 184n54, 193–94, 204n12; , 11: 131–32, 170–72; United States v. William Duer, DNA: RG 21, Records of the United States Circuit Court for the Southern New York District.