1822 - Edocs

192
little labour, and will afford a communication to facilitate
the intercourse between that pant of the Territory
and the southern states—the establishment uf this road
was deemed an object of ^e iftm -st importance to the
province of East Florida, by the British Government,
your memorialists are induced to believe that the policy
and necessity of such measures will be morestrongiy felt
by the Government of the'United States.*
Your memorialists would beg leave particularly to di-
(rect the attention of the Congress of ene United States to
the necessity of erecting light houses at l^nsacola, and
St. Augustine, and also to provide some law upon the
subject of wrecking at the peninsula of Florida, which is
now in the hands of foreigners, and subject to the absolute
controul of the colonies'of Great BritamJand Spain, and
is frequently made the pretext for piracy and smuggling.
Another subject to which the Legislative Council will
call the attention of Congress, is the organization of the
judiciary in this Territory, by reference to the act ^-i' Congress,
it will be found that two district courts are established,
one in East, and the other in West Florida; those
courts are vested with jurisdiction, in civil and criminal
cases, without an appeal from their decisions, to aay other
tribunal, only where they entertain jurisdiction in
their federal capacity, it follows therefore, that the act >of
Congress, has vested in one judge power over the lives,
liberties and property, of the citizens of , this Territory,
without providing for an appeal or writ of error, to correct
a judgment rendered by misconception uf the law,
partiality or judicial impetuosity, whatever confidence we
may repose in the virtues of our judges, or the upright
integrity of the American bench, your memorialists conceive
that it is a novel and dangerous power, inconsistent
with the policy of our government, and contrary to the
usual course in relation to all the other Territories, in all
of which, if they are not mistaken, three judges have been
appointed who were required to hold courts in different
parts of the Territories, and once or twice a year, hold a
court of errors and appeals, in all cases arising under the
territorial laws. Two judges are incompetent to form
such a connective tribunal,—to supply the deficiencies in
the judiciary system as regulated by the act of Congress,
the Legislative Council considered it incumbent upon
them to establish inferior courts, as a temporary expedient
making it the duty of the judges of the inferior courts
to hold pleas in the several counties, with an appeal from
their decision to the district court of the United States ;
we believe this course to be indispensable to the convenience
of large settlements, remote from St. Augustine,
and Pensacola, a contrary policy would have subjected
them to great inconvenience, and in many instances