OF CASES DECIDED IN THE CIRCUIT AND DISTRICT COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO HUMPHREY H. LEAVITT BY LEWIS H. BOND Counselor at Law VOLUME I CINCINNATI ROBERT CLARKE & CO Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, BY LEWIS H. BOND, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. LISARY OF THE LELAND STRAI GRE, JR., UNIVERSITY LAW DEPARTMENT. PREFACE. THE liberal encouragement proffered by a number of his professional brethren, in advance of the publication of these volumes, and the assurance of the co-operation of the learned Judge whose decisions are herein presented, induced the Reporter cheerfully to enter upon the labor of preparing them for the press. The six volumes of Judge MCLEAN's Reports include the period dating from his appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court, in 1829, to the year 1855. Since the last-named year, with the exception of decisions occasionally appearing in law periodicals and newspapers, there have been no reports of cases in the courts for the Southern District of Ohio. It occurred to the Reporter that it could not be otherwise than acceptable to the profession to present, in an enduring form, a portion of the numerous cases before Judge LEAVITT from 1855 to the spring of 1871, when he retired from the bench, after his long judicial service. And in this view, the Reporter is gratified in knowing he had the cordial concurrence of many prominent members of the bar with whom he conferred. After the division of the State of Ohio, in 1855, into two judicial districts, and the establishment of the courts for the Southern District at Cincinnati, there was a rapid increase of business in both tribunals. For a few years prior to the death of Judge MCLEAN, in the spring of 1861, his duties in the Supreme Court, and his failing health, prevented his regular attendance at the terms of the Circuit Court. After the appointment of Justice SWAYNE to the Supreme Court, in 1862, his necessary attendance at its protracted terms, and his duties in other districts of his extended circuit, rendered it impossible for him to give any considerable portion of his time to the court at Cincinnati. As a result of these causes, the labor and responsibility of presiding in the Circuit Court were imposed by law on the District Judge. In addition to his labors there, it was his duty to hear and decide cases in the District Court, and after the adoption of the internal revenue system of the United States they were exceedingly numerous, and frequently involved new and difficult questions. The enactment of the bankrupt act of 1867 greatly increased the previous heavy pressure upon the District Judge. This brief reference is made, preliminary to the statement that it was a physical impossibility for the court to prepare extended written opinions in all the cases before it, which are reported in these volumes. It was deemed expedient that these Reports should not exceed two volumes. The cases reported comprise but a small portion of the whole number decided by Judge LEAVITT. The Reporter has exercised his best judgment in selecting the cases for publication. His aim has been to include only such as might be of some interest to the profession. He has purposely omitted all the cases arising under the Fugitive Slave act. The abolishment of slavery, and the certainty that it could never again have an existence in this country, rendered the report of such cases altogether superfluous. And for a reason kindred to this, the numerous exciting cases growing out of and connected with the late civil war, with one or two exceptions, do not appear in these volumes. That was an abnormal condition of the country, never, as we may hope, to return again. Some of these cases created at the time a highly excited state of public feeling; but as the exigencies which gave rise to them have passed away, it is deemed expedient not to report them. With the consent and approval of the Hon. S. S. FISHER, the |