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OF THE

83935

LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES,

INCLUDING AN ABSTRACT

OF THE

JUDICIAL DECISIONS RELATING TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY

LAW.

WITH NOTES EXPLANATORY AND HISTORICAL,

BY THOMAS F. GORDON.

PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR.

1827.

EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the thirteenth day of January, in the fiftyfirst year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1827, Thomas F. Gordon, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: A Digest of the Laws of the United States, including an abstract of the judicial decisions relating to the constitutional and statutory law. With notes explanatory and Historical, By Thomas F. Gordon.

In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, intituled "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned."—And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

THE laws of the United States consist of the Constitution, of Treaties with foreign nations, with individual states, and with the Indian tribes; of Statutes enacted by congress, and of the Laws of the several states, so far as they are recognized by such statutes; and lastly, of the Rules and Decisions of the courts of the United States. These form a large and intricate mass, requiring long and intense study to comprehend; and is a sealed book to all but professional men. The statute law, in every free country must, hecessarily from the frequent changes it undergoes, and the manner of legislation, become involved in obscurity, and almost buried beneath its obsolete and repealed provisions. This is more emphatically true in the United States, where nothing can be deemed permanent, but the basis of political and civil liberty, and the progression of wealth, of power and of happiness. This year witnesses an act, of congress, wisely modelled on the state of circumstances at the time of its enactment; the next, and many successive years, by reason of the increase of knowledge or the mutation of things, load that act with amendments, alterations and additions, so that frequently, to comprehend a few simple provisions, it becomes necessary to trace the legislation of years, and to compare and reconcile many laws with each other. Sometimes a repealing clause is added to a statute, declaring all laws inconsistent therewith, to be repealed. This attempt to render the law certain, almost invariably sends the inquirer upon a voyage of discovery over the ocean of the statute book, and casts a doubt upon every law in para materia.

Such a state of the law is everywhere an evil. It is most grievous, in a government, where the voice of the law-giver, is obeyed as the will of fate. But it is an evil which though inevitable, and inveterate, may be greatly diminished. It is among the first duties of the legislature to inform the people of the laws by which they are governed, to make the laws accessible to all, and to remove as far as is practicable, every doubt and obscurity which overshadows them. The best and perhaps the only means fully to perform this duty, is to revise the legal code at stated periods, to promulgate the existing laws and to repeal every act not so promulgated. Short of this efficient measure, the government of the United States has shown every disposition to instruct her citizens. Many thousand copies of the laws annually enacted are annually published and distributed. But this affords no relief against the accumulation of the laws; and recourse must be had to the imperfect but necessary means of abstracts, abridgments and digests, made by individuals. Several works of this character have already been published, some with the encouragement of congress, others without national aid or authority. Of the first, are the abstracts of the land laws, the military law, and the Indian treaties, chiefly designed for the use of the executive depart

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