it revived on the treaty of peace; and the jury returned a verdict for the defendants. 3 Dali. 1.

It thus appears that in Georgia v. Brailsford the State did not sue for a penalty, or upon a judgment for a penalty, imposed by a municipal law, but to assert a title, claimed to have absolutely vested in her, not under an ordinary act of municipal legislation, but by an act of war, done by the State of Georgia as one of the United States (the Congress of which had not then been vested with the power of legislating to that effect) to assist them against their common enemy by confiscating the property of his subjects; and that the only point decided by this court, except as to matters of procedure, was that the title had not vested in the State of Georgia by the act in question.

In Pennsylvania v. Wheeling Bridge Co., 13 How. 518, this court, upon a bill in equity by the State of Pennsylvania against a corporation of Virginia, ordered the taking down or heightening of a bridge. built by the defendant over the Ohio River, under a statute of Virginia, which the court held to have obstructed the navigation of the river, in violation of a compact of the State, confirmed by act of Congress. 13 How. 561. See also Willamette Bridge Co. v. Hatch, 125 U. S. 1, 15, 16. All the judges who took part in the decision in the Wheeling Bridge Case treated the suit as brought to protect the property of the State of Pennsylvania. Mr. Justice McLean, delivering the opinion of the majority of the court, said: "In the present case, the State of Pennsylvania claims nothing connected with the exercise of its sovereignty. It asks from the court a protection of its property on the same ground and to the same extent as a corporation or individual may ask it. 13 How. 560, 561. So Chief Justice Taney, who dissented from the judgment, said: "She proceeds, and is entitled to proceed, only for the private and particular injury to her property which this public nuisance has occasioned. 13 How. 589. And Mr. Justice Daniel, the other dissenting judge, took the same view. 13 How. 596.

Mississippi v. Johnson, 4 Wall. 475, and Georgia v. Stanton, 6 Wall. 50, were cases of unsuccessful attempts by a State, by a bill in equity against the President or the Secretary of War, described as a citizen of another State, to induce this court to restrain the defendant from executing, in the course of his official duty, an act of Congress alleged to unconstitutionally affect the political rights of the State.

Texas v. White, 7 Wall. 700, Florida v. Anderson, 91 U. S. 667, and Alabama v. Burr, 115 U. S. 413, were suits to protect rights of property of the State. In Texas v. White, the bill was maintained to assert the title of the State of Texas to bonds belonging to her, and held by the defendants, citizens of other States, under an unlawful negotiation and transfer of the bonds. In Florida v. Anderson, the suit concerned the title to a railroad, and was main

tained because the State of Florida was the holder of bonds secured by a statutory lien upon the road, and had an interest in an internal improvement fund pledged to secure the payment of those bonds. In Alabama v. Burr, the object of the suit was to indemnify the State of Alabama against a pecuniary liability which she alleged that she had incurred by reason of fraudulent acts of the defendants; and upon the facts of the case the bill was not maintained.

In Pennsylvania v. Quicksilver Co., 10 Wall. 553, an action brought in this court by the State of Pennsylvania was dismissed for want of jurisdiction, without considering the nature of the claim, because the record did not show that the defendant was a corporation created by another State.

In Wisconsin v. Duluth, 96 U. S. 379, the bill sought to restrain the improvement of a harbor on Lake Superior, according to a system adopted and put in execution under authority of Congress, and was for that reason dismissed, without considering the general question whether a State, in order to maintain a suit in this court, must have some proprietary interest that has been affected by the defendant.

The cases heretofore decided by this court in the exercise of its original jurisdiction have been referred to, not as fixing the outermost limit of that jurisdiction, but as showing that the jurisdiction has never been exercised, or even invoked, in any case resembling the case at bar.

The position that the jurisdiction conferred by the Constitution upon this court, in cases to which a State is a party, is limited to controversies of a civil nature, does not depend upon mere inference from the want of any precedent to the contrary, but has express legislative and judicial sanction.

By the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789, c. 20, § 13, it was enacted that "the Supreme Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction of controversies of a civil nature, where a State is a party, except between a State and its citizens; and except also between a State and citizens of other States, or aliens, in which latter case it shall have original but not exclusive jurisdiction. 1 Stat. 80. That act, which has continued in force ever since, and is embodied in § 687 of the Revised Statutes, was passed by the first Congress assembled under the Constitution, many of whose members had taken part in framing that instrument, and is contemporaneous and weighty evidence. of its true meaning. Ames v. Kansas, 111 U. S. 449, 463, 464.

In Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 419, decided at August term, 1793, in which the judges delivered their opinions seriatim, Mr. Justice Iredell, who spoke first, after citing the provisions of the original Constitution, and of § 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, said: "The Constitution is particular in expressing the parties who may be the objects of the jurisdiction in any of these cases, but, in respect to the subject-matter upon which such jurisdiction is to be

exercised, uses the word 'controversies' only. The act of Congress more particularly mentions civil controversies, a qualification of the general word in the Constitution, which I do not doubt every reasonable man will think was well warranted, for it cannot be presumed that the general word 'controversies' was intended to include any proceedings that relate to criminal cases, which, in all instances that respect the same government only, are uniformly considered of a local nature, and to be decided by its particular laws." 2 Dall. 431, 432. None of the other judges suggested any doubt upon this point; and Chief Justice Jay, in summing up the various classes of cases to which the judicial power of the United States extends, used "demands" (a word quite inappropriate to designate criminal or penal proceedings) as including everything that a State could prosecute against citizens of another State in a national court. 2 Dall. 475.

In Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, decided at October term, 1821, Chief Justice Marshall, after showing that the Constitution had given jurisdiction to the courts of the Union in two classes of cases, in one of which, comprehending cases arising under the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States, the jurisdiction depended on the character of the cause, and in the other, comprehending controversies between two or more States, or between a State and citizens of another State, the jurisdiction depended! entirely on the character of the parties, said: "The original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, in cases where a State is a party, refers to those cases in which, according to the grant of power made in the preceding clause, jurisdiction might be exercised in consequence of the character of the party, and an original suit might be instituted in any of the Federal courts; not to those cases in which an original suit might not be instituted in a Federal court. Of the last description is every case between a State and its citizens, and perhaps every case in which a State is enforcing its penal laws. In such cases, therefore, the Supreme Court cannot take original jurisdiction." 6 Wheat. 398, 399.

The soundness of the definition, given in the Judiciary Act of 1789, of the cases coming within the original jurisdiction of this court by reason of a State being a party, as "controversies of a civil nature," was again recognized by this court in Rhode Island v. Massachusetts, 12 Pet. 657, 722, 731, decided at January term,

1838.

The statute of Wisconsin, under which the State recovered in one of her own courts the judgment now and here sued on, was in the strictest sense a penal statute, imposing a penalty upon any insurance company of another State, doing business in the State of Wisconsin without having deposited with the proper officer of the State a full statement of its property and business during the previous year. Rev. Stat. Wis. § 1920. The cause of action was

not any private injury, but solely the offence committed against the State by violating her law. The prosecution was in the name of the State, and the whole penalty, when recovered, would accrue to the State, and be paid, one half into her treasury, and the other half to her insurance commissioner, who pays all expenses of prosecuting for and collecting such forfeitures. Stat. Wis. 1885, c. 395. The real nature of the case is not affected by the forms provided by the law of the State for the punishment of the offence. It is immaterial whether, by the law of Wisconsin, the prosecution must be by indictment or by action; or whether, under that law, a judgment there obtained for the penalty might be enforced by execution, by scire facias, or by a new suit. In whatever form the State pursues her right to punish the offence against her sovereignty, every step of the proceeding tends to one end, the compelling the offender to pay a pecuniary fine by way of punishment for the offence.

This court, therefore, cannot entertain an original action to compel the defendant to pay to the State of Wisconsin a sum of money in satisfaction of the judgment for that fine.

The original jurisdiction of this court is conferred by the Constitution, without limit of the amount in controversy, and Congress has never imposed (if indeed it could impose) any such limit. If this court has original jurisdiction of the present case, it must follow that any action upon a judgment obtained by a State in her own courts against a citizen of another State for the recovery of any sum of money, however small, by way of a fine for any offence, however petty, against her laws, could be brought in the first instance in the Supreme Court of the United States. That cannot have been the intention of the Convention in framing, or of the people in adopting, the Federal Constitution.

Judgment for the defendant on the demurrer.

4. Suits against States.

HANS v. LOUISIANA.

134 United States, 1. 1890.

MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the court. This was an action brought in the Circuit Court of the United States, in December, 1884, against the State of Louisiana by Hans, a citizen of that State, to recover the amount of certain coupons annexed to bonds of the State, issued under the provisions of an act of the legislature approved January 24, 1874. The bonds are known and designated as the "consolidated bonds of the State of

Louisiana," and the coupons sued on are for interest which accrued January 1, 1880.

[Plaintiff's claim is that the issuance of the bonds in question was sanctioned by an amendment to the State constitution proposed by the legislature at the time the bonds were authorized, in which it was declared that the State should not impair the obligation of the contract thereby created, and that the judicial power should be exercised when necessary to secure the levy, collection, and payment of taxes to satisfy such claim; but that subsequently this constitutional amendment was superseded by a new constitution, which remitted the taxes thus provided for and prohibited the payment of such bonds, whereby the obligations of the State were repudiated, and taxes already collected to be applied on the interest of such bonds were diverted to other purposes. Plaintiff avers that these provisions of the later constitution violated the obligations of the contract, and asked that the State be required to pay plaintiff the interest represented by the coupons in suit. The State appeared and excepted to the suit on the ground that the State could not be sued without its permission, and asked that the suit be dismissed. This exception was sustained and the case was brought to this court by plaintiff on writ of error.]

The question is presented, whether a State can be sued in a Circuit Court of the United States by one of its own citizens upon a suggestion that the case is one that arises under the Constitution or laws of the United States.

The ground taken is, that under the Constitution, as well as under the act of Congress passed to carry it into effect, a case is within the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, without regard to the character of the parties, if it arises under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or, which is the same thing, if it necessarily involves a question under said Constitution or laws. The language relied on is that clause of the 3d article of the Constitution which declares that "the judicial power of the United States shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;" and the corresponding clause of the act conferring jurisdiction upon the Circuit Court, which, as found in the act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, § 1, 18 Stat. 470, is as follows, to wit: "That the Circuit Courts of the United States shall have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several States, of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, . . arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority." It is said that these jurisdictional clauses make no exception arising from the character of the parties, and, therefore, that a State can claim no exemption from suit, if the case is really one arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States. It is conceded that