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ON THE

LAW OF EVIDENCE.

BY

SIMON GREENLEAF, LL.D.,

EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

Quorsum enim sacræ leges inventæ et sancitæ fuere, nisi ut ex ipsarum justitia
unicuique jus suum tribuatur?-MUSCARDUS EX ULPIAN.

VOLUME I.

TWELFTH EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED, with large ADDITIONS,

BY

ISAAC F. REDFIELD, LL.D.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

MDCCCLXVI.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858,

By JAMES GREENLEAF,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863,
By JAMES GREenleaf,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866,

By MRS. JAMES Greenleaf,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

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TO THE HONORABLE

JOSEPH STORY, LL.D.,

ONE OF THE

JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,
AND DANE PROFESSOR OF LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

SIR,

In dedicating this work to you, I perform an office both justly due to yourself and delightful to me, that of adding the evidence of a private and confidential witness to the abundant public testimonials of your worth. For more than thirty years the jurisprudence of our country has been illustrated by your professional and juridical labors; with what success, it is now superfluous to speak. Other Jurists have attained distinction in separate departments of the law; it has been reserved for yourself, with singular felicity, to cultivate and administer them all. Looking back to the unsettled state of the law of our national institutions, at the period of your accession to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, and considering the unlimited variety of subjects within the cognizance of the Federal tribunals, I do but express the consenting opinions of your contemporaries, in congratulating our country that your life

and vigor have been spared until the fabric of her jurisprudence has been advanced to its present state of lofty eminence, attractive beauty, and enduring strength.

But many will regard the foundation of the present Law School in Harvard University as the crowning benefit, which, through your instrumentality, has been conferred on our profession and country. Of the multitude of young men, who will have drunk at this fountain of jurisprudence, many will administer the law, in every portion of this widespread Republic, in the true spirit of the doctrines here. inculcated; and succeeding throngs of ingenuous youth will, I trust, be here imbued with the same spirit, as long as our government shall remain a government of law. Your anxiety to perpetuate the benefits of this Institution, and the variety, extent, and untiring constancy of your labors in this cause, as well as the cheerful patience with which they have been borne, are peculiarly known to myself; while, at the same time, I have witnessed and been instructed by the high moral character, the widely-expanded views, and the learned and just expositions of the law, which have alike distinguished your private Lectures and your published Commentaries. With unaffected sincerity I may be permitted to acknowledge, that while my path has been illumined for many years by your personal friendship and animating example, to have been selected as your associate in the arduous and responsible labors of this Institution, I shall ever regard as the peculiar honor and happiness of my professional life. Beatè vixisse videar, quia cum Scipione vixerim.

Long may you continue to reap the rich reward of labors so vast, so incessant, and of such surpassing value, in the heartfelt gratitude of our whole country, and in the prosperity of her institutions, which you have done so much to establish and adorn.

I am, with the highest respect,
Your obliged friend,

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts,

February 23, 1842.

SIMON GREENLEAF.

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