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CHAPTER IX.

THE REVISED STATUTES1-THE STATUTES AT LARGETHE ARMY REGULATIONS-THE ARMY REGISTER.

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307. Commissioners to revise and consolidate the General Statutes of the United States.-The President of the United States is hereby

'The Revised Statutes must be accepted as the law on the subjects which they embrace as it existed on the 1st day of December, 1873, and were enacted to present the entire body of the laws in a concise and compact form. When the language of the Revised Statutes is plain and unambiguous, the grammatical structure simple and accurate, and the meaning of the whole intelligible and obvious, a court is not at liberty, by construction, to reproduce the law as it stood before the revision. (U. S. v. Bowen, 100 U. S., 508. See also Wright v. U. S., 15 Ct. Cls., 80, 86; U. S. v. No. Am. Com. Co., 74 Fed. Rep., 145.)

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authorized, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint three persons, learned in the law, as commissioners, to revise, simplify, arrange, and consolidate all statutes of the United States, general and permanent in their nature, which shall be in force at the time such commissioners may make the final report of their doings. Sec. 1, Act of June 27, 1866 (14 Stat. 74).

308. First edition, 1874.-That the Secretary of State is hereby charged with the duty of causing to be prepared for printing, publication, and distribution the Revised Statutes of the United States enacted at this present session of Congress; that he shall cause to be completed the headnotes of the several titles and chapters and the marginal notes referring to the statutes from which each section. was compiled and repealed by said revision; and references to the decisions of the courts of the United States explaining or expounding the same, and such decisions of State courts as he may deem expedient, with a full and complete index to the same.1 Sec. 2, Act of June 20, 1874 (18 Stat. 113).

310. Printed copies-Evidence.-When the same shall be completed, the said Secretary shall duly certify the same under the seal of the United States, and when printed and promulgated as hereinafter provided, the printed volumes shall be legal evidence of the laws and treaties therein contained, in all the courts of the United States, and of the several States and Territories. Id.

311. Title of revision of statutes.-That the revision of the statutes of a general and permanent nature, with the index thereto, shall be printed in one volume, and shall be entitled and labeled "Revised

'The Revised Statutes were prepared by commissioners appointed under acts of Congress approved June 27, 1866 (14 Stat. 74), and May 4, 1870 (16 Stat. 96), the latter act providing that the work and revision should be completed within three years from the date of its passage. The act of March 3, 1873 (17 Stat. 579), authorized the appointment of a joint committee of Congress to accept the draft of the revision of laws, so far as the same was completed at the expiration of the time designated for that purpose. (May 4, 1873.) The same statute authorized the existing joint committee to contract with some suitable person or persons to prepare a revision of the statutes, already reported by the commissioners, in the form of a bill to be presented at the opening of the Forty-third Congress. The publication of the first edition of the Revised Statutes was authorized by the act of June 20, 1874. (18 Stat. 113.)

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The first edition of the Revised Statutes is a transcript of the original act in the State Department, which became a law June 22, 1874, and is prima facie evidence of the law, but the original is the only conclusive evidence of the exact text of the law. (Wright v. U. S., 15 Ct. Cls., 80, 87.) The Revised Statutes must be accepted as the law on the subjects which they embrace as it existed on the 1st day of December, 1873, and were enacted to present the entire body of the laws in a concise and compact form. The incorporation of a particular statutory provision into the revision was a legislative declaration 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. Bowen, 100 U. S., 508; Bates Refrigerating Co. v. Sulzberger, 157 U. S., 1; Wright v. U. S., 15 Ct. Cls., 80, 86; U. S. v. North American Commercial Co., 74 Fed. Rep., 145.) As to the effect of amendments to the Revised Statutes, see U. S. v. Jessup (15 Fed. Rep.,

Statutes of the United States;" and the revision of the statutes relating to the District of Columbia; to post-roads, and the public treaties in force on the first day of December, one thousand eight hired and seventy-three, with a suitable index to each, shall be pablished in a separate volume, and entitled and labeled "Revised Statutes relating to District of Columbia and Post-Roads. Public Treaties." Sec. 3, id.

312. Certificate to Revised Statutes.-That the certificate to the printed volume of the Revised Statutes of the United States required by section two of "An act providing for publication of the revised statutes and laws of the United States," approved June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, shall be made by the Secretary of State under the seal of the Department of State, and so much of said section as provides that such certificate shall be under the seal of the United States, is hereby repealed. Act of Dec. 28, 1874 (18 Szt. 293).

313. Scope of Revised Statutes.-The foregoing seventy-three titles embrace the statutes of the United States general and permanent in their nature, in force on the first 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 -hall be designated and cited, as The Revised Statutes of the United States. Sec. 5595, R. S.

314. Repeal of acts embraced in revision.-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 setion of said revision, are hereby repealed, and the section applicable thereto shall be in force in lieu thereof; all parts of such acts tot contained in such revision having been repealed or superseded by

quent 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 te:porary character, shall not repeal, or in any way affect any appropration, or any provision of a private, local, or temporary chararter, 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, part of which are embraced in said revision, shall not be affected or changed by its enactment. Sec. 5596, R. S.

315 Accrued rights reserved.-The repeal of the several acts embraced in said revision shall not affect any act done, or any right

*Sections 3597, 5598, and 5599, Revised Statutes, provide that the repeal shall bet feet rights acquired, suits commenced, offenses committed, or acts of 't tation but that "all suits, proceedings, or prosecutions, whether civil or frital for curses arising or acts done or committed prior to said repeal may braced and prosecuted within the same time as if said repeal had not bert Ade"

accruing or accrued, or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil cause before the said repeal, but all rights and liabilities under said acts shall continue, and may be enforced in the same manner, as if said repeal had not been made; nor shall said repeal in any manner affect the right to any office, or change the term or tenure thereof. Sec. 5597, R. S.

316. Arrangement and classification. The arrangement and classification of the several sections of the revision have been made for the purpose of a more convenient and orderly arrangement of the same, and therefore no inference or presumption of a legislative construction is to be drawn by reason of the title under which any particular section is placed. Sec. 5600, R. S.

317. Acts passed since December 1, 1873, not affected.-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. Sec. 5601, R. S.

318. Second edition (1878)—Evidence.-That said new edition shall be completed in manuscript by said commissioner by the first day of January, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and by him presented to the Secretary of State for his examination and approval, who is hereby required to examine and compare the same, as amended, with all the amendatory acts, and, within two months after having been submitted to him, and when the same shall be completed, the said Secretary shall duly certify the same under the seal of the Secretary of State, and when printed and promulgated as herein provided the printed volume shall be legal evidence of the laws therein contained, in all the courts of the United States, and of the several States and Territories, but shall not preclude reference to nor control, in any case of discrepancy, the effect of any original act as passed by Congress since the first day of December, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and said Secretary shall cause fifteen thousand copies of the same to be printed and bound at the Government Printing Office, under the supervision of said commissioner, at the expense of the United States, and without unnecessary delay. Sec. 4, Act of Mar. 2, 1877 (19 Stat. 269), as amended by Act of Mar. 9, 1878 (20 Stat. 27).

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The second edition of the Revised Statutes was prepared by the Hon. George S. Boutwell, who was appointed commissioner under authority of the act of March 2, 1877 (19 Stat. 268). It is only a new publication; a compilation, containing the original law, with specific amendments incorporated therein according to the judgment of the editor. (Wright v. U. S., 15 Ct. Cls., 80.) It did not affect statutes passed between December 1, 1873, and June 22, 1874.

THE SUPPLEMENTS TO THE REVISED STATUTES.

319. Supplement of 1891.-That the publication of the Supplement to the Revised Statutes, embracing the statutes general and permabent in their nature, passed after the Revised Statutes, with references connecting provisions on the same subject, explanatory notes, and citations of judicial decisions, be continued and issued in one volume, to include the general laws of the Forty-seventh, Fortyeighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses, with a table of alterations and a general index to the whole, to be prepared and edited by the editor of the existing Supplement, authorized by the joint resolution of June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty, numbered forty-four (Supplement to Revised Statutes, page five hundred and eighty-two), to be stereotyped at the Government Printing Office, using the present plates, as far as practicable, with such alterations as may be found necessary, the work and plates and all right and title therein and thereto to be in and fully belong to the Government for its exclusive use and benefit. Sec. 1, Act of Apr. 9, 180 (26 Stat. 50).

320. Same-Prima facie evidence.-That the publication herein authorized shall be taken to be prima facie evidence of the laws therein contained, but shall not change nor alter any existing law, nor preclude reference to nor control, in case of any discrepancy, the effect of any original act passed by Congress.1 Sec. 3, id.

THE STATUTES AT LARGE.

321. Pamphlet and bound copies, evidence. 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, 1-95 (28 Stat. 615).

'The volume published in conformity to the authority conferred by this stitute was published in 1891, and is entitled "Vol. 1, Supplement to the ReTed Statutes of the United States. Second edition. 1874-1891; and super

the volume published under authority of Joint Resolution No. 44 of June 718 (21 Stat. 308). Under authority of act of February 27, 1893 (27 Stat. 477), the publication of the supplement was continued--part of a second volume being issued in 1895, containing general legislation of the Fifty-second and Fiftythird Congresses, between January 22, 1892, and March 2, 1895. Later numbers Were sued at the end of each session as required by act of June 4, 1897 (30 St. 30, to include the general legislation of the Fifty-sixth Congress. Volume 2 therefore, comprises the general legislation of the Fifty-second to the FiftyEith Congresses, January 22, 1892. to March 3, 1901. Since then the publicafon has been discontinued, it is understood, because of the steps taken toward the preparation of a new revision of the statutes of the United States authorized by act of March 3, 1901 (31 Stat. 1181).

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