Opinion of the Court. served on each of the defendants in each proceeding by the sheriff of Plymouth County. On the 24th of October, complaints were filed, alleging that these plaintiffs in error had violated this injunction by selling intoxicating liquors contrary to the law and the terms of the injunction served on them, and asking that they be required to show cause why they should not be punished for contempt of court. A rule was granted accordingly, and the court, having no personal knowledge of the facts charged, ordered that a hearing be had at the next term of the court, upon affidavits; and on the 8th day of March, 1886, it being at the regular term of said District Court, separate trials were had upon evidence in the form of affidavits, by the court without a jury, upon which the plaintiffs were found guilty of a violation of the writs of injunction issued in said cause, and a sentence of fine and imprisonment, as already stated, entered against them. Each plaintiff obtained from the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa, upon petition, a writ of certiorari, in which it was alleged that the District Court of Plymouth County had acted without jurisdiction and illegally in rendering this judgment, and by agreement of counsel, and with the consent of the Supreme Court of Iowa, the cases of the six appellants in this court were submitted together and tried on one transcript of record. That court affirmed the judgment of the District Court of Plymouth County, and to that judgment of affirmance this writ of error is prosecuted. The errors assigned here are that the Supreme Court of Iowa failed to give effect to clause 3 of section 2 of Article III of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and also to the provisions of Article VI of the amendments to the Constitution, which provides that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. The second assignment is, that the Supreme Court of Iowa erred in holding that plaintiffs could be fined and imprisoned without first being presented by a grand jury, and could be tried on ex parte affidavits, which decision, it is said, is in con VOL. CXXXIV-3 Opinion of the Court. flict with and contrary to the provisions of both Articles V and VI of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the latter of which provides that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to be confronted by the witnesses against him. The fourth assignment is, that the Supreme Court erred in not holding that section 12 of chapter 143 of the acts of the twentieth general assembly of Iowa is in conflict with Article VIII of the amendments to the Constitution of 'the United States, which provides that excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. These three assignments, as will be presently seen, may be disposed of together. The third assignment is, that the Supreme Court of Iowa erred in not holding that said chapter 143 of the acts of the twentieth general assembly of Iowa, and especially section 12 of said chapter, is void, and in conflict with section 1 of Article XIV of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, in this, that it deprives persons charged with selling intoxicating liquors of the equal protection of the laws, and it prejudices the rights and privileges of that particular class of persons, and denies to them the right of trial by jury, while in. all other prosecutions the accused must first be presented by indictment, and then have the benefit of trial by a jury of his peers. The first three of these assignments of error, as we have, stated them, being the first and second and fourth of the assignments as numbered in the brief of the plaintiffs in error, are disposed of at once by the principle often decided by this. court, that the first eight articles of the amendments to the Constitution have reference to powers exercised by the government of the United States and not to those of the States. Livingston v. Moore, 7 Pet. 469; The Justices v. Murray, 9 Wall. 274; Edwards v. Elliott, 21 Wall. 532; United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542; Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U. S. 90; Fox v. Ohio, 5 How. 410; Holmes v. Jennison, 14 Pet. 540; Presser v. Illinois, 116 U. S. 252. The limitation, therefore, of Articles V and VI and VIII Opinion of the Court. of those amendments, being intended exclusively to apply to the powers exercised by the government of the United States, whether by Congress or by the judiciary, and not as limitations upon the powers of the States, can have no application to the present case, and the same observation is more obviously true in regard to clause 3 of section 2 of Article III of the original Constitution, that the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury. This Article III of the Constitution is intended to define the judicial power of the United States, and it is in regard to that power that the declaration is made that the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury. It is impossible to examine the accompanying provisions of the Constitution without seeing very clearly that this provision was not intended to be applied to trials in the state courts. This leaves us alone the assignment of error that the Supreme Court of Iowa disregarded the provisions of section 1 of Article XIV of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, because it upheld the statute of Iowa,' which it 1 Section 1543 of the Code of Iowa, as amended by c. 143 of the Acts of the twentieth general assembly, is as follows: Sec. 1543. In case of violation of the provisions of either of the three preceding sections or of section fifteen hundred and twenty-five of this chapter, the building or erection of whatever kind, or the ground itself in or upon which such unlawful manufacture or sale, or keeping, with intent to sell, use or give away, of any intoxicating liquors, is carried on or continued or exists, and the furniture, fixture, vessels, and contents, is hereby declared a nuisance, and shall be abated as hereinafter provided, and whoever shall erect or establish, or continue, or use any building, erection or place for any of the purposes prohibited in said sections, shall be deemed guilty of a nuisance, and may be prosecuted and punished accordingly, and upon conviction, shall pay a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars and costs of prosecution, and stand committed until the fine and costs are paid; and the provisions of chapter 47, title 25 of this Code, shall not be applicable to persons committed under this section. Any citizen of the county where such nuisance exists, or is kept or maintained, may maintain an action in equity, to abate and perpetually enjoin the same, and any person violating the terms of any injunction granted in such proceeding shall be punished as for contempt, by fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court. Opinion of the Court. is supposed by counsel deprives persons charged with selling intoxicating liquors of the equal protection of the law, abridges their rights and privileges, and denies to them the right of trial by jury, while in all other criminal prosecutions the accused must be prosented by indictment, and then have the benefit of trial by a jury of his peers. The first observation to be made on this subject is, that the plaintiffs in error are seeking to reverse a judgment of the District Court of Plymouth County, Iowa, imposing upon them a fine and imprisonment for violating the injunction of that court, which had been regularly issued and served upon them. Of the intentional violation of this injunction by plaintiffs we are not permitted to entertain any doubt, and, if we did, the record in the case makes it plain. Neither is it doubted that they had a regular and fair trial, after due notice, and opportunity to defend themselves in open court at a regular term thereof. The contention of these parties is, that they were entitled to a trial by jury on the question as to whether they were guilty or not guilty of the contempt charged upon them, and because they did not have this trial by jury they say that they were deprived of their liberty without due process of law within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. If it has ever been understood that proceedings according to the common law for contempt of court have been subject to the right of trial by jury, we have been unable to find any instance of it. It has always been one of the attributes - one of the powers necessarily incident to a court of justice-that it should have this power of vindicating its dignity, of enforcing its orders, of protecting itself from insult, without the necessity of calling upon a jury to assist it in the exercise of this power. In the case in this court of Ex parte Terry, 128 U. S. 289, this doctrine is fully asserted and enforced; quoting the language of the court in the case of Anderson v. Dunn, 6 Wheat. 204, 227, where it was said that "courts of justice are universally acknowledged to be vested, by their very creation, with Opinion of the Court. power to impose silence, respect and decorum in their presence, and submission to their lawful mandates;" citing also with approbation the language of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Cartwright's Case, 114 Mass. 230, 238, that "the summary power to commit and punish for contempts tending to obstruct or degrade the administration of justice is inherent in courts of chancery and other superior courts, as essential to the execution of their powers and to the maintenance of their authority, and is part of the law of the land, within the meaning of Magna Charta and of the twelfth article of our Declaration of Rights." And this court, in Terry's case, held that a summary proceeding of the Circuit Court of the United States without a jury, imposing upon Terry imprisonment for the term of six months, was a valid exercise of the powers of the court, and that the action of the Circuit Court was also without error in refusing to grant him a writ of habeas corpus. The case of Terry came into this court upon application for a writ of habeas corpus, and presented, as the case now before us does, the question of the authority of the Circuit Court to impose this imprisonment on a summary hearing without those regular proceedings which include a trial by jury — which was affirmed. The still more recent cases of Ex parte Savin, 131 U. S. 267, and Ex parte Cuddy, 131 U. S. 280, assert very strongly the same principle. In Ex parte Robinson, 19 Wall. 505, 510, this court speaks in the following language: "The power to punish for contempts is inherent in all courts. Its existence is essential to the preservation of order in judicial proceedings, and the enforcement of the judgments, orders and writs of the courts, and consequently to the due administration of justice. The moment the courts of the United States were called into existence and invested with jurisdiction over any subject, they became possessed of this power. But the power has been limited and defined by the act of Congress of March 2d, 1831. 4 Stat. 487." The statute, now embodied in § 725 of the Revised Statutes, reads as follows: "The power of the several courts of the United States to issue attachments and inflict summary pun |