d jurisdiction has made it necessary, in these
courts, to adopt different rules and principles of pleading, so far as
jurisdiction is concerned, from those which regulate courts of common
law in England, and in the different States of the Union which have
adopted the common-law rules.

In these last-mentioned courts, where their character and rank are
analogous to that of a Circuit Court of the United States; in other
words, where they are what the law terms courts of general
jurisdiction; they are presumed to have jurisdiction, unless the
contrary appears. No averment in the pleadings of the plaintiff is
necessary, in order to give jurisdiction. If the defendant objects to
it, he must plead it specially, and unless the fact on which he relies
is found to be true by a jury, or admitted to be true by the
plaintiff, the jurisdiction cannot be disputed in an appellate court.

Now, it is not necessary to inquire whether in courts of that
description a party who pleads over in bar, when a plea to the
jurisdiction has been ruled against him, does or does not waive his
plea; nor whether upon a judgment in his favor on the pleas in bar,
and a writ of error brought by the plaintiff, the question upon the
plea in abatement would be open for revision in the appellate court.
Cases that may have been decided in such courts, or rules that may
have been laid down by common-law pleaders, can have no influence in
the decision in this court. Because, under the Constitution and laws
of the United States, the rules which govern the pleadings in its
courts, in questions of jurisdiction, stand on different principles
and are regulated by different laws.

This difference arises, as we have said, from the peculiar character
of the Government of the United States. For although it is sovereign
and supreme in its appropriate sphere of action, yet it does not
possess all the powers which usually belong to the sovereignty of a
nation. Certain specified powers, enumerated in the Constitution, have
been conferred upon it; and neither the legislative, executive, nor
judicial departments of the Government can lawfully exercise any
authority beyond the limits marked out by the Constitution. And in
regulating the judicial department, the cases in which the courts of
the United States shall have jurisdiction are particularly and
specifically enumerated and defined; and they are not authorized to
take cognizance of any case which does not come within th