4497. LAW, Federal, State and Common.—[continued].
Though long estranged
from legal reading and reasoning, and little
familiar with the decisions of particular
judges, I have considered that respecting the
obligation of the common law in this country
as a very plain one, and merely a question of
document. If we are under that law, the
document which made us so can surely be
produced; and as far as this can be produced,
so far we are subject to it, and farther
we are not. Most of the States did, I
believe, at an early period of their legislation,
adopt the English law, common and
statute, more or less in a body, as far as
localities admitted of their application. In
these States, then, the common law, so far
as adopted, is the lex-loci. Then comes the
law of Congress, declaring that what is law in
any State, shall be the rule of decision in
their courts, as to matters arising within
that State, except when controlled by their
own statutes. But this law of Congress has
been considered as extending to civil cases
only; and that no such provision has been
made for criminal ones. A similar provision,
then, for criminal offences, would, in like
manner, be an adoption of more or less of the
common law, as part of the lex-loci, where the
offence is committed; and would cover the
whole field of legislation for the General Government.—
To Dr. John Manners. Washington ed. vii, 73.
Ford ed., x, 87.
(M.
1817)
See Common Law.
