urts that subsist in the several States of the Union,
and the different powers exercised by them, it will appear that there
are no expressions more vague and indeterminate than those which
have been employed to characterize that species of causes which it
is intended shall be entitled to a trial by jury. In this State, the
boundaries between actions at common law and actions of equitable
jurisdiction, are ascertained in conformity to the rules which prevail
in England upon that subject. In many of the other States the boundaries
are less precise. In some of them every cause is to be tried in a court
of common law, and upon that foundation every action may be considered
as an action at common law, to be determined by a jury, if the parties,
or either of them, choose it. Hence the same irregularity and confusion
would be introduced by a compliance with this proposition, that I
have already noticed as resulting from the regulation proposed by
the Pennsylvania minority. In one State a cause would receive its
determination from a jury, if the parties, or either of them, requested
it; but in another State, a cause exactly similar to the other, must
be decided without the intervention of a jury, because the State
judicatories varied as to common-law jurisdiction.

It is obvious, therefore, that the Massachusetts proposition, upon this
subject cannot operate as a general regulation, until some uniform plan,
with respect to the limits of common-law and equitable jurisdictions,
shall be adopted by the different States. To devise a plan of that kind
is a task arduous in itself, and which it would require much time
and reflection to mature. It would be extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to suggest any general regulation that would be acceptable
to all the States in the Union, or that would perfectly quadrate with
the several State institutions.

It may be asked, Why could not a reference have been made to the
constitution of this State, taking that, which is allowed by me to be a
good one, as a standard for the United States? I answer that it is not
very probable the other States would entertain the same opinion of our
institutions as we do ourselves. It is natural to suppose that they are
hitherto more attached to their own, and that each would struggle for
the preference. If the plan of taking one State as a model for the whole
had been thought of in the convention, it is to be presumed that the
adoption of it in that body