MINUTE AND RESOLUTIONS. The Bar of the District of Columbia have met to give expression to their sorrow and to their sensibility of the loss occasioned to them and to the profession by the death of J. Hubley Ashton, and to pay a tribute to his eminent abilities and virtues. Mr. Ashton was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in December, 1864, and to this Bar in the month of October, 1869. He was Assistant Attorney General of the United States from May, 1864, continuously, with the exception of a few months, until his resignation in April, 1869. During that period he argued on behalf of the Government a great number of important causes, more than seventy in all, which originated in the events of the Civil War and in the execution of the laws and policy relating to reconstruction and which involved grave questions of constitutional and international law. Many of these cases as they are reported in volumes 2 to 8 of Wallace related to the law of prize, and his arguments therein greatly contributed to the establishment of the doctrines enunciated by the Court. He served under and was associated with Attorneys General Bates, Speed, Stanbery, Evarts and Hoar, and was several times appointed Acting Attorney General. From the time he was admitted to this Bar to the day of his death his home was in Washington, and until recently he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession. After he severed his connection with the Law Department, he was frequently employed by the Government in litigation involving great responsibility and in matters relating to international intercourse and obligation. He seldom appeared in the local courts. His practice continued to be in the Supreme Court of the United States, and he was also the adviser of many corporations and had professional charge of important business interests. Mr. Ashton's long career made conspicuous his varied learning and professional knowledge of the fundamental principles of jurisprudence, his intellectual vigor, alertness and acumen, his power in legal controversy, and his capacity for persuasive and convincing argument and exposition. His briefs were made of exceptional value and usefulness by his habit of exhaustive research and preparation and his faculty for lucid statement and logical reasoning. The conduct of his professional life, as was his conduct in all the relations of life, was in conformity with the highest and most ennobling standards of duty, of rectitude and of honor. His character and the simplicity, refinement and kindliness of his nature secured and firmly held the confidence, the respect and the sincere friendship of the Bench and of the members of the Bar. Therefore, be it Resolved, That we bear testimony to and hold in honor the rare attainments of our deceased brother, his fidelity to justice and to law, his great services to the profession and to the community, and the nobility and purity of the spirit in which he devoted his great abilities to the duties and labors of his profession. Resolved, That the unalterable purpose evinced by Mr. Ashton from the beginning to the end of his laborious life to accept and fully meet the moral responsibilities and obligations that devolve upon the Bar, as well as upon the Bench, deserves our special recognition and a permanent record of our remembrance, in the desire that the influence of his example may be thereby preserved, strengthened and extended. Resolved, That the president of the Bar Association be requested to present this memorial and these resolutions to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, with the request that they be entered on its minutes, and that a copy be communicated to the family of the deceased with the expression of the sincere sympathy of the members of the Bar. A sovereign is exempt from suit, not because of any formal conception or obsolete theory, but on the logical and practical ground that there can be no legal right as against the authority that makes the law on which the right depends, and as this doctrine is not confined to full sovereign powers it extends to those, such as the Territories of the United States which in actual administration originate and change the law of contract and property. Kawananakoa v. Polyblank, 349. See BANKRUPTCY, 3; JUDGMENTS AND DECREES, 1; DEFENSES; JURISDICTION, D 5; RES JUDICATA. ACTS OF CONGRESS. ARKANSAS, Act of June 15, 1836, 5 Stat. 50 (see Boundaries): Moore v. McGuire, 214. ARMY, Act of April 26, 1898, § 7, 30 Stat. 364 (see Army and Navy, 1): United States v. Mitchell, 161. AUTOMATIC COUPLER ACT of March 2, 1893, § 8 (see Safety Appliance Act, 4): Schlemmer v. Buffalo, R. & P. Ry. Co., 1. BANKRUPTCY ACT of 1898, § 17, subd. 4 and § 63a (see Bankruptcy, 1): Tindle v. Birkett, 183; § 70a (see Bankruptcy, 2): Hiscock v. Mertens, 202. Amendment of February 5, 1903 (see Bankruptcy, 3): Frank v. Vollkommer, 521. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, Rev. Stat. § 1014 (see Criminal Law): Tinsley v. Treat, 20. EXTRADITION, Rev. Stat. §§ 5272, 5275 (see Extradition, 3): Johnson v. Browne, 309. INDIANS, Act of March 2, 1895, 28 Stat. 876 (see Indians, 1): West v. Hitchcock, 80. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, Rev. Stat. §§ 441, 463 (see Indians, 2): West v. Hitchcock, 80. INTERSTATE COMMERCE, Wilson Act, 26 Stat. 713 (see States, 8): Delamater v. South Dakota, 93. JUDICIARY, Act of March 3, 1875, § 8. The repealing section of the Judiciary Act of 1887–1888 did not reach § 8 of the act of March 3, 1875, 557 18 Stat. 470, and that section is still in force. Citizens' Sav. & Trust PUBLIC DEBT, Rev. Stat. § 3701 (see Taxes and Taxation, 2): Home Sav- RECORDS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS, Rev. Stat. § 905 (see Constitutional SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT of March 2, 1893, § 2, as amended April 1, 1896 ADMIRALTY. See JURISDICTION, A 2; E; PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE, 6. ADMISSIONS. See CRIMINAL LAW, 3. ADOPTION. See INDIANS, 2. AGENCY. See PROCESS, 3. ALIENS. See JURISDICTION, A 4; TREATIES. ALLOTMENTS. See INDIANS, 1, 3. AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION. AMOUNT IN CONTROVERSY. See JURISDICTION, A 1; B 1. |