no more than _here_ can the chief executive power rescue a prisoner from
custody without an order of the proper tribunal directing his discharge.
The precise stage of the proceedings at which such order may be made is
a matter of municipal regulation exclusively, and not to be complained
of by any other government. In cases of this kind a government becomes
politically responsible only when its tribunals of last resort are shown
to have rendered unjust and injurious judgments in matters not doubtful.
To the establishment and elucidation of this principle no nation has
lent its authority more efficiently than Great Britain. Alexander
McLeod, having his option either to prosecute a writ of error from the
decision of the supreme court of New York, which had been rendered upon
his application for a discharge, to the Supreme Court of the United
States, or to submit his case to the decision of a jury, preferred the
latter, deeming it the readiest mode of obtaining his liberation; and
the result has fully sustained the wisdom of his choice. The manner in
which the issue submitted was tried will satisfy the English Government
that the principles of justice will never fail to govern the enlightened
decision of an American tribunal. I can not fail, however, to suggest to
Congress the propriety, and in some degree the necessity, of making such
provisions by law, so far as they may constitutionally do so, for the
removal at their commencement and at the option of the party of all
such cases as may hereafter arise, and which may involve the faithful
observance and execution of our international obligations, from the
State to the Federal judiciary. This Government, by our institutions, is
charged with the maintenance of peace and the preservation of amicable
relations with the nations of the earth, and ought to possess without
question all the reasonable and proper means of maintaining the one and
preserving the other. While just confidence is felt in the judiciary of
the States, yet this Government ought to be competent in itself for the
fulfillment of the high duties which have been devolved upon it under