CASES ARGUED AND ADJUDGED IN The Supreme Court OF THE UNITED STATES, DECEMBER TERM, 1872, AND OCTOBER TERM, 1873. REPORTED BY JOHN WILLIAM WALLACE. VOL. XVII. WASHINGTON, D. C.: W. H. & O. H. MORRISON, Law Publishers and Booksellers. 1874. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, BY W. H. & O. H. MORRISON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. * Chief Justice Chase died May 7th, 1873. Some of the cases in this volume were decided during his life, but more after his death, and while the Chief Justiceship was vacant. (iii) ALLOTMENT, ETC., OF THE JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, AS MADE APRIL 28, 1873, UNDER THE ACTS OF CONGRESS OF JULY 23, 1866, AND MARCH 2, 1867. NAME OF THE JUDGE, AND STATE NUMBER AND TERRITORY OF THE DATE AND AUTHOR OF THE JUDGE't WHENCE COMING. CIRCUIT. COMMISSION. HON. J. P. BRADLEY, GEORGIA, FLORIDA, ALA New Jersey. BAMA, MISSISSIPPI, LOU- SIXTH. 1870. March 21st. PRESIDENT GRANT. (iv) MEMORANDA. DEATH OF CHIEF JUSTICE CHASE. THE Honorable SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, late Chief Justice of this Court, departed this life on the 7th day of May, A.D. 1873. On Monday, the 13th of October, 1873, the first day of the October Term, a meeting of the members of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States was held at the Capitol, and was called to order by JAMES MANDEVILLE CARLISLE, Esquire, on whose motion the Honorable REVERDY JOHNSON was made chairman. On taking the chair, Mr. Johnson said: GENTLEMEN OF THE BAR: Although it has been some months since the sad event occurred which brings us together to-day, our sense of the great loss which the court, the bar, and the country have sustained by the death of the late Chief Justice Chase is as deep as ever. The loss of any eminent judicial State officer is always greatly to be lamented; but the death of the presiding Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States is more extensively felt and naturally more deplored. The jurisdiction of that high tribunal is so vast and comprehensive, embracing as it does questions which involve not only every variety of personal controversy between the citizens of different States and aliens and our citizens, but more or less, the respective rights of the States and of the United States, and which may at times affect our relations with foreign governments, that the death of one of its members is calculated to fill the public mind with more than ordinary solicitude. The tribunal is to pass upon the acts of the other two departments of the government when cases involving them are properly under judgment, and to decide authoritatively whether they have transcended their legitimate powers. It is also to adjudicate all questions of prize and maritime law; to construe treaties and all questions of public law that may be before them, and to decide conclusively the limits of their own jurisdiction. It has also frequently before it questions of cc mercial law, which affect, more or less, not only our own commercial con munity, but in many instances that class in other countries. It is very obvious, then, that to a proper and enlightened discharge of these several functions an extensive range of legal knowledge-constitutional, domestic, and foreign-is absolutely necessary, as is also a fixed conviction in the public mind that these qualifications are connected with strict impartiality and perfect integrity. It is to the honor of our country (x) |