ted; but the exception was
overruled, and the return was held sufficient. In Buel vs. Van Ness,[4]
also a writ of error to a State Court, the record was authenticated in
the same manner. No exception was taken to it. These were civil cases.
But it has been truly said at the bar, that, in regard to this process,
the law makes no distinction between a criminal and civil case. The
same return is required in both. If the sanction of the Court could be
necessary for the establishment of this position, it has been silently
given.

[3] 1st Wh. 304, 361.

[4] 8th Wh. 312.

McCulloch vs. the State of Maryland,[5] was a _qui tam_ action, brought
to recover a penalty, and the record was authenticated by the seal of
the Court and the signature of the Clerk, without that of a Judge. Brown
et al. vs. the State of Maryland, was an indictment for a fine and
forfeiture. The record in this case, too, was authenticated by the seal
of the Court and the certificate of the Clerk. The practice is both
ways.

[5] 4th Wh. 316.

The record, then, according to the Judiciary act, and the rule and the
practice of the Court, is regularly before us. The more important
inquiry is, does it exhibit a case cognizable by this tribunal?

The indictment charges the plaintiff in error, and others, being white
persons, with the offence of "residing within the limits of the
Cherokee nation without a licence," and "without having taken the oath
to support and defend the constitution and laws of the State of
Georgia."

The defendant in the State Court appeared in proper person, and filed
the following plea:

"And the said Samuel A. Worcester, in his own proper person, comes and
says, that this court ought not to take further cognizance of the action
and prosecution aforesaid, because, he says, that, on the 15th day of
July, in the year 1831, he was, and still is, a resident in the Cherokee
nation; and that the said supposed crime or crimes, and each of them,
were committed, if committed at all, at the town of New Echota, in the
said Cherokee nation, out of the jurisdiction of this court, and not in
the county Gwinnett, or elsewhere within the jurisdiction of this court:
And this defendant saith, that he is a citizen of the State of Vermont,
one of the United States of America, and that he entered the aforesaid
Cherokee nation in the capacity of a duly authorized missionary of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,