Abstract
TN mid-1776, when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson sketched preliminary drafts of Declaration of Independence, they included among grievances one that denounced King George and his toadies for foisting upon Americans Jurisdiction foreign to their Constitution and thereby robbing them of the Benefits of Trial by jury. This charge referred to vice-admiralty courts, competence of which had been greatly enlarged after close of Seven Years' War. The castigation of civil law in this bill of complaints and in other contemporary documents might lead one to assume that civilians would have been forever banished when colonies became autonomous. Such was not case. After British sovereignty had been extinguished, and right down to present century, navigation and maritime and customs laws have been enforced in United States in a way not greatly at variance with that employed in colonies.l Since basic elements of enforcement and procedure were not substantially altered by new governments,2 it may be
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