Page "Admiralty law" Paragraph 8

In 1787 Thomas Jefferson, who was then ambassador to France, wrote to James Madison proposing that the U. S. Constitution, then under consideration by the States, be amended to include " trial by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land opposed the law of admiralty and not by the laws of Nations not by the law of admiralty ".

The result was the Seventh Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were both admiralty lawyers and Adams represented John Hancock in an admiralty case in colonial Boston involving seizure of one of Hancock's ships for violations of Customs regulations.

In the more modern era, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was an admiralty lawyer before ascending to the federal bench.