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OF

DECISIONS RENDERED

IN THE

CIRCUIT AND DISTRICT COURTS

OF THE

UNITED STATES.

BY

BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT.

VOL. I.

NEW YORK:

DIOSSY & COMPANY.

1870.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870,

BY BENJ. VAUGHAN ABBOTT,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

LIBRARY OF THE

LELANS STAMFORD, JR., UNIVERSITY
LAY DEPARTMENT.

HENRY M. TOBITT,
Printer and Stereotyper.

350 PEARL-ST., N. Y.

PREFACE.

To present the adjudications of the United States Circuit and District Courts, in a comprehensive and satisfactory manner, is the general purpose of this series.

The progress of our national jurisprudence is embodied in the laws passed by Congress, the decisions of the Supreme Court, and those decisions of Circuit or District Courts which are not reviewed on writ of error or appeal; in addition to which should be mentioned the determinations of the Court of Claims, as covering one important though limited department. Systematic and satisfactory arrangements now exist (relying partly upon government aid) for the prompt publication of the acts of Congress, and for regular reports of the adjudications of the Supreme Court and of the Court of Claims. If the system of reporting the important decisions of the Circuit and District Courts can be made comprehensive and reliable, there will then be in operation a complete scheme, presenting the progress of the entire jurisprudence developed under the operation of the national government.

To some extent the decisions of the Circuit and District Courts are now reported. There is, for the first circuit, a special series of Circuit Court Reports, almost unbroken; and for the second, another, nearly, though not quite, as continuous. In some other circuits there are valuable reports covering limited periods. But there remain some circuits which are almost wholly unreported.

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And as respects the District Courts, there has not been any thing like a systematic method of selecting and reporting what is valuable in their decisions.

So far as it is practicable for reports within a particular circuit to be maintained, the cases which they may include ought not to duplicated in these volumes. But the endeavor of this series will be, to collect from the Circuit and District Courts at large, wherever local reports are not supported, those decisions which have general value and importance, and to report them in the best and most satisfactory manner; to the end that the current volumes of the Supreme Court Reports and of this series, may give, from time to time, a good view of the course of decision in the national courts.

The selection of cases to be reported in these volumes, must be chiefly controlled by the consideration of their value and utility to the practicing lawyer. There is a tendency towards the unnecessary multiplication of reports, to which, it is hoped, this enterprise will not be found to yield. The volumes will be devoted to decisions of general application and value, exhibiting the advance and progress of the national jurisprudence; the construction and application of the United States laws; the procedure of the United States tribunals, and similar subjects. And as far as practicable, cases of only local application; decisions which only resolve controverted questions of fact peculiar to the particular controversy, or repeat and apply familiar principles of law; together with decisions which, there is reason to anticipate, will be carried before the Supreme Court for review, or will be seasonably reported in standard reports to which the bar would naturally turn for them, will be excluded.

NEW YORK, June, 1870.

BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBott.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICES.

Chief Justice.

SALMON P. CHASE,

Residence, Washington, D. C.

Fourth Circuit.

Associate Justices.

SAMUEL NELSON, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Second Circuit.

NATHAN CLIFFORD, Portland, Me.

First Circuit.

NOAH H. SWAYNE, Columbus, Ohio.

Sixth Circuit.

SAMUEL F. MILLER, Keokuk, Iowa.
Eighth Circuit.

DAVID DAVIS, Bloomington, Ill.

Seventh Circuit.

STEPHEN J. FIELD, San Francisco, Cal.

Ninth Circuit.

WILLIAM STRONG, Philadelphia, Pa.

Third Circuit.

JOSEPH P. BRADLEY, Newark, N. J.

Fifth Circuit.

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