(e) The Secretary of War shall adjust and appraise the value, at the time of transfer, of all assets transferred to the corporation under this Act, and such value shall be entered upon the books of the corporation.

(f) In the determination of the running of the statute of limitations or of any prescriptive right, the period of time shall be computed in the same manner as though this Act had not been passed. Sec. 6, act of June 3, 1924 (43 Stat. 362): U. S. C. 49: 156.

1897. Mississippi River Commission; establishment and personnel.-The President of the United States shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint seven commissioners, three of whom shall be selected from the Engineer Corps of the Army, one from the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and three from civil life, two of whom shall be civil engineers. And any vacancy which may occur in the commission shall in like manner be filled by the President of the United States; and he shall designate one of the commissioners appointed from the Engineer Corps of the Army to be president of the commission. The commissioners appointed from the Engineer Corps of the Army and the Coast and Geodetic Survey shall receive no other pay or compensation than is now allowed them by law, and the commissioners appointed under this Act shall remain in office subject to removal by the President of the United States. Sec. 2, act of June 28, 1879 (21 Stat. 37); U. S. C. 33: 642.

*

• The president of the commission shall be the executive officer thereof and shall have the qualifications now prescribed by law for the Assistant Chief of Engineers, shall have the title brigadier general, Corps of Engineers, and shall have the rank, pay, and allowances of a brigadier general while actually assigned to such duty: Sec. 8, act of May 15, 1928 (45 Stat. 537);

U. S. C. 33: 702h.

See 189, ante, for detail of officers of the Engineer Corps to duty with the commission; 1423, ante, for their pay and allowances while detailed; and 2100, post, for provision for transfer of vessels, etc., to the commission by the Secretary of War.

1898. Same; duties in general.—It shall be the duty of said commission to direct and complete such surveys of said river, between the Head of the Passes near its mouth to its headwaters as may now be in progress, and to make such additional surveys, examinations, and investigations, topographical, hydrographical, and hydrometrical, of said river and its tributaries, as may be deemed necessary by said commission to carry out the objects of this Act. Sec. 3, act of June 28, 1879 (21 Stat. 37); U. S. C. 33: 647.

1899. Same; prosecution of flood-control work. The project herein authorized shall be prosecuted by the Mississippi River Commission under the direction of the Secretary of War and supervision of the Chief of Engineers and subject to the provisions of this Act. It shall perform such functions and through such agencies as they shall designate after consultation and discussion with the president of the commission. For all other purposes the existing laws governing the constitution and activities of the commission shall remain unchanged. The commission shall make inspection trips of such frequency and duration as will enable it to acquire first-hand information as to conditions and problems germane to the matter of flood control within the area of its jurisdiction; and on such trips of inspection ample opportunity for hearings and suggestions shall be afforded persons affected by or interested in such problems. Sec. 8, act of May 15, 1928 (45 Stat. 537); U. S. C. 33:702h.

For details of project see 1886, ante.

51109°-3074

After the

1900. Statutes at Large, publication and distribution.-* close of each Congress, the Secretary of State shall have edited, printed, and bound a sufficient number of the volumes containing the statutes at large enacted by that Congress to enable him to distribute copies, or as many thereof as may be needed, as follows: * *. To the War Department, seventy-five copies:

Sec. 73, act of Jan. 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 615); U. S. O. 44: 196. 1901. Same; pamphlet edition.-* The Secretary of State shall cause to be edited, printed, published, and distributed pamphlet copies of the statutes of the present and each future session of Congress to the officers and persons hereinafter provided for; said distribution shall be made at the close of every session of Congress, as follows: * ** to the War Department, two hundred copies; Sec. 73, act of Jan. 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 614); U. S. C. 44: 195. For publication of slip laws, see sec. 56, act of Jan. 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 609); U. S. C 44: 191.

Notes of Decisions

session is not an officer, but a contractor. Drury v. U. S. (1908), 43 Ct. Cl. 237.

Status of publisher.-A person employed by Congress to prepare and edit the publication of the statutes at the end of each

1902. Same; preservation of copies.-The various officers of the United States, to whom, in virtue of their offices and for the uses thereof, copies of the United States Statutes at Large, published by Little, Brown and Company, have been or may be distributed at the public expense, by authority of law, shall preserve such copies, and deliver them to their successors respectively as a part of the property appertaining to the office. A printed copy of this section shall be

inserted in each volume of the statutes distributed to any such officers. R. S. 1777; U. S. C. 5: 89.

1903. Same; legal effect.-*

The pamphlet copies of the statutes and the bound copies of the acts of each Congress shall be legal evidence of the laws and treaties therein contained in all the courts of the United States and of the several States therein. The said pamphlet and the Statutes at Large shall contain all laws, joint and concurrent resolutions passed by Congress, and also all conventions, treaties, proclamations, and agreements. Sec. 73, act of Jan. 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 615) ; U. S. C. 1: 30.

Notes of Decisions

Act of Congress as evidence.-The acts of Congress, as they stand approved by the President and enrolled in the Department

of State, are conclusive evidence of the written law. (1857) 9 Op. Atty. Gen. 1.

1904. Same; Little & Brown edition, legal effect.-The edition of the laws and treaties of the United States, published by Little & Brown, shall be competent evidence of the several public and private acts of Congress, and of the several treaties therein contained, in all the courts of law and equity and of maritime jurisdiction, and in all the tribunals and public offices of the United States, and of the several States, without any further proof or authentication thereof. R. S. 908.

The edition of the laws, etc., mentioned in this section, included vols. 1-17 of the Statutes at Large, which were published under contracts with the publishers named. Said contracts were terminated by sec. 1, act of June 20, 1874 (18 Stat. 113.) As to judicial notice taken of acts of Congress, see ante, 1903, post, 1911.

1905. Revised Statutes, first edition; scope.-The foregoing seventy-three titles embrace the statutes of the United States general and permanent in their nature, in force on the 1st day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, as revised and consolidated by commissioners appointed under an act of Congress, and the same shall be designated and cited, as the Revised Statutes of the United States. R. S. 5595.

Notes of Decisions

Nature, construction, and effect of Revised Statutes-In general.-The revision must be treated as the legislative declaration of the statute law on the subjects embraced therein on Dec. 1, 1873. When the meaning is plain, the courts can not look to the statutes revised to see if Congress erred in the revision, but they may do so, if necessary to construe doubtful language. U. S. v. Bowen (1879), 100 U. S. 508, 513. The enactment of the Revised Statutes was not original legislation, but merely a more convenient expression of the law existing on Dec. 1, 1873. U. S. v. Moore (C. C. 1878), Fed. Cas. No. 15804.

In the construction of the Revised Statutes no change of meaning will be imputed to a change of phraseology in the reenacted statute unless the language used indicates an intended departure therefrom. U. S. v. Tilden (D. C. 1878), Fed. Cas. No. 16520.

The incorporation of a particular statutory provision into the Revised Statutes, adopted in 1874, was a legislative declara

tion that the law on that subject was as therein provided; and, in the absence of any obscurity in the meaning, the court can not look to the preexisting statutes to see whether or not they were correctly incorporated. U. S. v. North American Commercial Co. (C. C. 1896), 74 Fed. 145; reversed (1898) 171 U. S. 110.

The Revised Statutes are an act of Congress. The enactment was approved and became the law June 22, 1874. Wright . U. S. (1879), 15 Ct. Cl. 80. The object of the Revised Statutes was to simplify and bring together all statutes and parts of statutes which, from similarity of subject, ought to be brought together, to expunge redundant and obsolete enactments, and to make such alterations as might be neces sary to reconcile contradictions and amend imperfections in the original text of the preexisting statutes, and all those statutes were abrogated by this section. Dwight v. Merritt (1891), 140 U. S. 213; Bowen ↑. U. S. (1878), 14 Ct. Cl. 162. It would defeat their object if courts were to disre

much as ever. (1875) 15 Op. Atty. Gen.

gard their language and administer previous | expression of the will of Congress, binds as enactments as if the Revised Statutes did not exist. Bowen v. U. S. (1878), 14 Ct. Cl. 162.

The Revised Statutes did not make a new state of the law, such as would authorize the head of an executive department to reexamine legal questions determined by his predecessors. State of Inois v. U. S. (1885), 20 Ct. Cl. 342.

493.

Marginal notes.-Marginal notes in the Revised Statutes may be referred to on questions of construction, as indicating the intention of Congress not to alter by revision the substantial provisions of previous acts. Mackey v. Miller (1903), 126 Fed. 161.

The marginal notes annexed to the sections of the Revised Statutes formed a part of the Revised Statutes when adopted by Congress, and are to be taken and read as a part thereof. U. S. v. Green (D. C. 1905), 136 Fed. 618. 624, affirmed (1905), 199 U. S. 601.

Semble that the original dates of the provisions of the Revised Statutes must be considered in determining their effect upon each other, and that a previous decision of a court or a department based upon the circumstance that one such provision is an earlier, and the other a later, 1906. Same; effect on laws enacted prior to December 1, 1873.-All acts of Congress passed prior to said first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, any portion of which is embraced in any section of said revision, are hereby repealed, and the section applicable thereto shall be in force in lieu thereof; all parts of such acts not contained in such revision, having been repealed or superseded by subsequent acts, or not being general and permanent in their nature: Provided, That the incorporation into said revision of any general and permanent provision, taken from an act making appropriations, or from an act containing other provisions of a private, local, or temporary character, shall not repeal, or in any way affect any appropriation, or any provision of a private, local, or temporary character, contained in any of said acts, but the same shall remain in force; and all acts of Congress passed prior to said last-named day no part of which are embraced in said revision, shall not be affected or changed by its enactment. R. S. 5596.

Notes of Decisions

Effect of section.-By the express language of this section, an act is no longer in force where the revision embraces such

act and all others on the subject. U. S. v. Bowen (1879), 100 U. S. 508, 513.

1907. Same; effect on laws enacted after December 1, 1873.-The enactment of the said revision is not to affect or repeal any act of Congress passed since the 1st day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, and all acts passed since that date are to have full effect as if passed after the enactment of this revision, and so far as such acts vary from, or conflict with any provision contained in said revision, they are to have effect as subsequent statutes, and as repealing any portion of the revision inconsistent therewith. R. S. 5601.

Notes of Decisions

Acts passed since Dec. 1, 1873.-Sec. 12, act of June 22, 1874, was a subsequent statute to the Revised Statutes, and repealed any portion thereof inconsistent therewith. U. S. v. Auffmordt (1887), 122 U. S. 197.

The Revised Statutes, though adopted after the passage of act of June 9, 1874, did not repeal the provisions of that act. U. S. v. Mason (C. C. 1888), 34 Fed. 129, 130.

The Revised Statutes did not affect statutes passed between Dec. 1, 1873, and June