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SENATE, 


,No.  1 


THE 


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ATTORNEY   GENERALS 


ANNUAL  REPORT 


JAl^lJARY  8,  1835. 


iSof^ton: 

DUTTON  AND  WENTWORTH,  PRINTERS  TO  THE  STATE. 


1833. 


tArit  HOUSED  BOSTON. 

m  271888 


\^ 


Boston,  8th  January,  1835. 
To  the  Honorable  the  President  of  the  Senate, 

Sir: 

I  beg  leave  to  present  through  jou  to  the  Leg- 
islature my  Annual  Report  for  the  year  ending  on  31st 
October  last. 

With  the  highest  respect, 

JAMES  T.  AUSTIN, 

Attorney  General, 


eommontnealtti  of  J^as^i^actiugctti^. 


To  the  Honorable  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts. 

In  obedience  to  that  part  of  the  statute  of  1832,  chap- 
ter 131,  which  requires  the  Attorney  General  "  to  make 
and  submit  to  the  Legislature,  at  the  commencement  of 
each  session  thereof,  a  report  of  all  the  business  done  by 
him  during  the  preceding  year,  by  virtue  of  his  office, 
specifying  the  suits  and  prosecutions,  to  which  he  may 
have  attended,  the  names  of  the  persons  prosecuted  for 
crimes, — the  crimes  for  which,  and  the  counties  where 
such  prosecutions  were  had,  the  results  thereof,  and  the 
punishments  awarded  therefor,"  I  have  the  honor  to 
present  the  annexed  papers,  marked  A?  as  such  report. 

In  obedience  to  another  part  of  the  same  Statute, 
which  directs  him  **  to  embrace  in  his  Report  to  the 
Legislature  an  abstract  of  the  Annual  Reports  of  the 
several  District  Attornies,"  which  by  law  they  are  re- 
quired to  make  in  detail  to  the  Attorney  General,  I  have 
prepared  the  several  papers  marked  B  C  D  E  &  F, 
which  contain  an  abstract  of  the  report  of  each  of  said 
officers.  To  these  are  added  the  Tabular  Statements 
marked  G  &  H,  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  more  ex- 
actly the  statements,  which  the  Statute  intends  should 
be  collected  and  preserved. 


6    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

In  obedience  to  the  further  command  of  the  aforesaid 
Statute,  which  enacts  that  the  Attorney  General  ''  shall 
annually  present  to  the  Legislature  such  observations 
and  statements,  as  in  his  opinion  the  criminal  jurispru- 
dence, and  the  proper  and  economical  administration  of 
the  criminal  law  warrant  and  require,"  1  have  the  honor 
most  respectfully  to  state, — 

L  That  these  several  papers  are  made  to  conform  to 
the  terms  of  the  law.  I  have  not  deemed  myself  author- 
ized, in  this  or  former  reports,  to  present  an  abstract  of 
the  Attorney  General's  employments,  when  the  Statute 
provides  that  they  shall  be  reported  in  detail;  nor  to 
give  a  detail  of  the  labors  of  the  District  Attornies,  when 
the  Statute  requires  that  an  abstract  shall  be  furnished. 

n.  These  several  exhibits  are  made  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible to  conform  to  those  Tables,  which,  in  Europe,  are 
denominated  "  Statistics  of  Crime."  It  is  not  known 
that  any  others  are  prepared  in  the  United  States. 
Although  only  two  previous  reports  have  been  made 
under  this  law,  one  of  them  for  the  period  of  only  a  few 
months,  they  have  attracted  considerable  attention  at 
home  and  abroad.  Copies  have  been  sought  for  in 
England,  France,  and  Germany,  by  political  economists 
and  statesmen,  who  regard  the  subject  matter  of  them  as 
of  vast  importance,  not  merely  to  the  pecuniary  interests, 
but  to  the  permanent  welfare  of  society.  It  is  not  yet 
well  understood  by  them,  how  far  personal  liberty  and 
personal  security  can  consist  with  each  other,  or  to  what 
extent  freedom  of  individual  action  is  compatable  with 
the  dominion  of  laws.  Nor  is  it  a  subject  of  less  intense 
anxiety  with  these  philanthropists  to  ascertain,  whether 
the  mild  and  humane  code  of  criminal  punishments,  here 
established,  will  secure  those  great  objects  of  civil  soci- 


1835  SENATE— No.  1.  7 

ety,  which  elsewhere,  but  in  vain,  have  been  nurtured  in 
blood. 

The  department  of  criminal  justice  in  the  United 
States,  is  one  of  the  political  institutions  of  our  country 
which  give  a  strong  cast  to  our  national  character. 
Whoever  looks  upon  it  as  the  mere  instrument  of  inflict- 
ing punishment  on  an  individual  on  trial,  takes  a  very 
narrow  and  false  view  of  its  capacity  and  power.  It  is 
not  so  considered  abroad.  It  should  be  more  wisely 
estimated  at  home.  It  is  the  protector,  the  preserver, 
the  vindicator  of  those  rights,  for  which  society  is  estab- 
lished, by  directing  but  not  subjugating  the  rational  lib- 
erty of  the  citizen.  In  the  great  experiment  of  freedom 
and  the  extension  of  the  rights  of  man,  this  institution, 
which  elsewhere  has  been  used  for  their  overthrow,  is 
here  erected  for  their  defence  ;  and  to  the  character  and 
condition  of  this  institution  in  Massachusetts,  as  among 
the  elder  and  enlightened  members  of  the  American 
confederacy,  the  most  careful  observation  is  turned  to 
discover  how  favorably  it  has  been  exerted,  and  how 
firmly  it  is  sustained. 

III.  This  Report  cannot  by  itself  be  a  complete  his- 
tory of  crime.  It  does  not  pretend  to  be.  It  purports 
to  speak  only  of  proceedings  in  Courts  of  criminal  jus- 
tice. A  vast  proportion  of  actual  crime  is  never  the 
subject  of  judicial  animadversion.  The  criminal  is  un- 
known, or  escapes,  or  is  never  prosecuted,  or  is  protect- 
ed from  punishment  by  the  connivance  of  witnesses  or 
the  exertion  of  friends,  or  at  times  by  the  prevalence  of 
a  bad  state  of  public  feeling. 

We  know  but  too  well  that  the  long  and  melancholy 
catalogue  of  offences,  which  are  enumerated  in  this  re- 
port, is   but  a  partial  approximation  to  the  sum  total  of 


8    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

annual  crimes.  Infantacide  and  other  murders,  highway 
robberies,  burglaries,  arson,  larcenies  in  aggravated  form, 
forgeries,  counterfeitings,  perjuries,  and  a  host  of  misde- 
meanors, which  derange  and  disturb  society,  have  been 
perpetrated  in  this  Commonwealth  during  the  year,  in 
many  instances  without  detection.  The  time  and  place 
may  be  fixed  with  certainty,  but  the  actors  are  yet  un- 
whipped  of  justice. 

IV.  This  and  former  reports  do  not  present  of  them- 
selves an  exact  account  of  the  labor  and  service  perform- 
ed by  the  prosecuting  officers. 

The  details,  for  such  a  purpose,  are  not  to  be  taken  by 
numbers.  They  must  be  compared  with  other  matters, 
for  the  purpose  of  extracting  from  them  this  useful  piece 
of  information. 

Many  prosecutions  are  brief,  simple,  and  easy.  The 
forms  of  presenting  them  are  short,  and  the  process  by 
which  they  are  conducted  scarcely  imposes  any  serious 
responsibility.  Others  are  difficult,  complicated  and  pro- 
tracted. These  tax  every  faculty  of  mind  and  exhaust 
every  energy  of  body,  requiring  an  exactness  and  assidu- 
ity that  is  most  wearisome  and  overpowering  to  the  coun- 
sel engaged. 

The  injustice  of  estimating  the  professional  or  physi- 
cal labor  required  in  the  service  of  the  Commonwealth, 
by  the  mere  numerical  amount  of  the  cases  to  which  it 
is  applied,  is  apparent  in  every  line  of  these  returns. 
Thus  the  attorney  of  the  Southern  District  may  be  gone 
four  days  among  the  islands  in  his  district  and  put  but 
one,  or  at  most,  two  cases  in  his  report,  while,  when  the 
court  sits  near  his  residence,  he  would  in  the  same  time 
have  completed  half  the  business  of  a  common  term, 
which  on  an  average  brings  from  twenty  to  thirty  cases. 


1835  SENATE— No.  I.  9 

Again,  the  Attorney  General  was  absent  from  home  ten 
days  to  attend  the  trial  of  two  cases  in  the  county  of 
Hampden  in  the  month  of  September,  at  the  hearing  of 
which  the  court  was  in  session  fourteen  hours  a  day. 
During  the  same  month  the  attorney  in  Suffollc  has 
placed  to  his  credit  twenty-one  cases,  begun  and  ended 
at  a  court  which  opened  on  the  first  day  and  finished  on 
the  fifth.* 

Persons  accustomed  to  judicial  proceedings  see  this 
operation  at  a  glance,  and  acquire  from  these  statistics, 
when  the  proper  estimate  is  made  of  them,  useful  infor- 
mation as  to  the  state  of  society  ;  competent  knowledge 
of  the  practical  operation  of  the  laws  ;  a  general  idea  of 
the  labor  and  responsibility  of  directing  the  machinery  of 
justice,  and  of  the  amendments,  which  from  time  to  time 
are  required,  for  its  more  useful  application.  The  legis- 
lature will  be  able  to  obtain  from  them,  after  a  sufficient 
series  shall  have  been  presented,  a  knowledge  of  the  de- 
fence which  their  wisdom  has  erected  against  the  danger- 

*  These  reports  must  be  read  right,  in  order  that  they  should  impart  cor- 
rect information.  In  a  report  made  the  last  year  to  the  Senate,  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Claims,  [See  Doc.  No.  56  Senate,  1834,]  it  is  said,  "  Upon  examina- 
tion of  the  Attorney  General's  report,  it  will  be  seen  that  after  deducting  cases 
were  no  bills  were  found,  the  whole  number  of  indictments  and  other  pro- 
cesses for  the  year,  was  1178,  half  of  which  is  589.  But  in  the  county  of 
Suffolk  alone,  515  of  these  indictments  and  processes  were  found  and  tried, 
being  only  74  less  than  half  of  the  whole  number  of  indictments  and  pro- 
cesses found  and  tried  throughout  the  Commonwealth."  Every  figure  in 
this  statement  is  wrong.  The  whole  number  of  indictments  and  processes, 
after  deducting  cases  where  no  bills  were  found,  was,  by  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral's Report,  1031,  of  which  516  would  be  half.  The  whole  number  credit- 
ed to  the  County  Attorney  of  Suffolk  was  497,  and  not  515— but  of  these 
497  there  were  115  peace  processes  on  which  no  bills  were  found,  so  that 
his  total  number  of  bills  drawn  was  382,  and  not  515,  being  one  hundred 
and  thirty  three,  or  above  one  third  less  than  the  number  supposed  by  the 
Committee  of  Claims.  Justice  to  other  gentlemen  requires  this  corrrec- 
tion. 

2 


10    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

ous  and  lawless  members  of  the  community,  and  the  ca- 
pacity and  vigilance  of  the  sentinels  whom  the  Executive 
has  placed  upon  the  ramparts. 

V.  This  report  is  made  under  that  system  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  which  was  established  in  1832, 
and  began  its  operation  in  June  of  that  year ;  but  which 
has  not  yet  been  long  enough  in  force  to  develope  all 
its  advantages  or  defects.  It  will  receive  illustration 
from  the  official  reports  of  cases  argued  in  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court,  when  in  the  course  of  publication  they 
shall  arrive  at  the  period  of  the  operation  of  the  present 
system.  At  present,  no  case  occurring  under  this  sys- 
tem, although  many  have  been  discussed  at  great  length 
before  that  court,  are  contained  in  the  printed  volumes 
of  its  reports.  When  the  report  of  these  cases  shall  ap- 
pear, the  utility  and  the  effect  of  the  system  in  its 
promptitude  and  economy,  will  be  better  seen  ;  amend- 
ments, suggested  by  experience,  more  easily  made,  and 
erroneous  impressions,  if  any  have  been  hastily  formed, 
be  the  more  readily  effaced. 

It  may,  however,  be  now  confidently  stated,  that  if 
this  or  some  similar  system  had  not  been  adopted,  the 
current  of  justice  in  civil  actions  would  have  been  com- 
pletely obstructed.  The  Supreme  Court  in  some  of  the 
counties  would  have  been  chiefly  occupied  as  a  court 
of  criminal  jurisdiction.  It  will  deserve  consideration 
whether  more  may  not  be  done  to  relieve  that  court. 

One  of  the  chief  defects  of  the  present  system  is,  that 
it  is  not  uniform  throughout  the  Cornmomvealth,  This 
defect  may  be  very  easily  remedied  with  the  double  advan- 
tage of  doing  equal  and  exact  justice  in  one  uniform  and 
regular  mode,  and  producing  a  large  diminution  of  ex- 
pense. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  11 

VI.  While  this  system  was  still  in  experiment,  and  be- 
fore its  operations  had  developed  themselves,  it  pleased 
the  Legislature  of  1834,  to  entertain  a  proposition,  and 
to  pass  two  acts  of  a  character  most  materially  to  affect 
it.  The  proposition  to  abolish  the  office  of  Attorney 
General,  and  the  two  laws  of  1834,  chap.  200,  and  202, 
are  here  intended. 

It  is  my  official  duty,  notwithstanding  any  supposed 
personal  interest  in  these  matters,  to  submit  to  the  Leg- 
islature such  observations  concerning  them  '^  as  the  pro- 
per and  economical  administration  of  the  criminal  law 
may  warrant  and  require." 

I  shall  discharge  this  duty  with  fidelity,  respectfully, 
but  plainly.  At  the  same  time  I  beg  to  have  it  under- 
stood that  the  present  Attorney  General  has  little  more 
interest  in  the  subject  than  any  other  citizen  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. The  emolument  of  the  office  never  at  its 
highest  rate  exceeded  the  half  of  what  individual  citizens 
would  have  felt  bound  to  pay  for  similar  services.  The 
industry  and  labor  demanded  for  the  public  service  could 
not  fail  to  attract  higher  rewards,  if  directed  to  private 
practice,  while  the  inevitable  consequence  of  any  consid- 
rable  engagement  for  the  public  is  to  transfer  the  most 
lucrative  professional  business  to  other  hands.  And  if 
the  honor  of  the  station  is  the  current  coin  with  which 
the  Commonwealth  would  be  willing  to  pay  its  profes- 
sional agents,  this,  it  must  be  conceded,  is  very  much 
alloyed,  when  the  Legislature  undertakes  to  deny  the  ne- 
cessity, or  to  underate  the  value  of  the  duty  it  yet  thinks 
proper  to  demand. 

VII.  The  office  of  Attorney  General,  with  specific  du- 
ties, existed  in  Massachusetts  for  more  than  one  hundred 
years  before  the  establishment  of  the  present  form  of 


12        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.       Jan 

government,  and  has  continued  through  all  the  changes 
of  our  political  history.  It  is  recognized  and  confirmed  by 
the  constitution  of  the  Commonwealth.  So  long  as  there 
are  duties  to  be  performed,  which  are  the  appropriate 
functions  of  such  an  office — and  that  will  be  until  the  na- 
ture of  man  is  changed,  or  the  Millenium  shall  arrive — so 
long  it  cannot  be  abolished,  without  a  violation  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution. 

The  same  Constitution  which  presupposes  the  exist- 
ence of  such  an  officer,  renders  him  ineligible  to  a  seat  in 
either  branch  of  the  Legislature  ;  either  on  the  presump- 
tion that  his  time  must  be  mainly  employed  in  official 
avocations,  or  because  of  that  laudable  jealousy  of  exec- 
utive influence  which  has  always  existed  among  the  peo- 
ple ; — probably  by  the  joint  operation  of  both  these 
causes.  But  it  could  never  be  deemed  consistent  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  to  transfer  these  duties  to 
some  other  public  agent,  with  a  higher  salary,  and  a  dif- 
ferent name,  whom  the  Legislature  could  not  exclude 
from  being  eligible  ;  thereby  evading  the  provision  which 
the  Constitution  meant  to  establish. 

The  power  and  duties  of  the  Attorney  General,  under 
the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  Commonwealth,  have 
always  been  and  yet  are  of  a  high  and  important  charac- 
ter, and  the  whole  people  have  a  deep  and  permanent  in- 
terest in  their  faithful  and  correct  performance. 

By  force  of  his  commission  and  the  laws  and  usages 
of  the  state,  he  is  charged  with  the  entire  control  of  all 
prosecutions  for  crime,  ivhenever  or  wherever  instituted 
within  the  Commonivealih,  He  is  virtute  officii,  entrusted 
in  many  cases,  and  to  a  considerable  extent,  with  the 
liberty  and  property,  and  in  some  instances,  with  the  life 


1835.  SENATE— No.   1.  13 

of  a  fellow  citizen,  with  no  other  responsibility  than 
what  he  owes  to  God,  his  conscience,  and  the  laws. 

The  power  exists  with  him  to  conduct  a  prosecution  or 
discharge  it,  and  to  revise  and  control,  whenever  he 
chooses  to  exercise  a  direct  agency  in  regard  to  them,  all 
prosecutions  in  the  name  of  the  Commonwealth. 

This  power,  which  like  all  others  in  the  last  resort, 
must  be  placed  somewhere,  the  Constitution  reposes  in 
the  hands  of  the  Attorney  General  of  the  Commonwealth, 
and  to  guard  against  the  abuse  of  this  power,  and  to  pre- 
serve the  rights  of  the  people  for  whose  benefit  it  is  to  be 
exercised,  the  Supreme  Executive  is  directed  to  see  that 
it  is  placed  in  competent  and  faithful  hands.  If  for  a 
moment  this  power  was  to  cease,  the  community  must 
suffer  ;  and  if  by  removing  it  from  the  office  to  which  it 
constitutionally  belongs,  it  was  to  be  divided  among  sev- 
eral individuals,  each  of  whom  in  his  own  local  district 
would  have  the  same  power  to  the  same  extent,  the  se- 
curity of  the  innocent  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  vindica- 
tion of  the  laws  on  the  other,  would  be  entirely  in  a  dif- 
ferent condition  from  that,  which  was  contemplated  by 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  earlier  statesmen 
of  the  country. 

In  addition  to  the  duties  of  a  public  prosecutor,  the  At- 
torney General  is  charged  with  the  care  and  direction, 
within  the  State,  of  all  civil  process  to  which  the  State 
is  a  party,  or  may  be  indirectly  interested.  The  interests 
of  the  State  have  been  at  times,  and  may  be  again,  of 
very  great  importance  in  courts  of  justice.  The  State  is 
a  large  proprietor  both  of  real  and  personal  estate,  has 
great  demands  in  the  shape  of  taxes,  or  upon  those  whose 
duty  it  is  to  collect  and  pay  them  into  the  public  treasury, 
and  about  which  questions   are  continually  arising  more 


U        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.      Jan 

or  less  intricate  ;  has  bonds  of  various  public  functiona- 
ries, licensed  persons  and  debtors  to  be  examined  and 
claimed,  and  incidental  matters  growing  out  of  its  vast 
and  increasing  relations,  which  must  be  subjected  to  the 
examination  of  judicial  courts.  The  statute  of  1832  has 
included  his  compensation  for  attending  to  the  civil 
business  of  the  State  in  the  amount  of  his  annual  salary. 
Although  it  was  always  the  duty  of  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral to  do  such  civil  business  in  his  profession  as  the 
State  required,  it  was  heretofore  the  subject  of  a  separate 
charge,  and  there  have  been  paid  large  sums  from  time 
to  time  for  this  necessary  occupation.  The  policy  of  the 
new  system  was  to  include  it  as  a  part  of  the  duty  for 
which  the  salary  was  granted,  and  cut  off  all  vexatious 
claims  for  extraordinary  services. 

The  officer  of  the  Constitution — as  his  name  implies — 
is  charged  with  the  duty  of  superintending  all  these  mis- 
cellaneous affairs,  independent  of  any  statute  provisions 
by  which  other  duties  are  assigned  to  him. 

As  it  is  impossible  that  any  one  individual  should  per- 
sonally attend  to  these  multifarious  and  important  con- 
cerns, the  Legislature  has  from  time  to  time  appoint- 
ed assistants,  to  whom  they  have  assigned  more  or  less 
of  the  inferior  portions  of  service,  under  his  direction  ; 
but  as  by  the  intention  of  the  Constitution  this  duty  is 
his  duty,  to  be  superintended  by  him  and  performed  by 
him  so  far  as  his  personal  application  to  it  may  reasona- 
bly be  required,  and  to  be  entrusted  to  others  only  when 
he  cannot  discharge  it  himself,  by  reason  of  other  or 
higher  engagements,  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  the 
appointment  of  these  subordinate  officers  should  never 
supercede  that  of  the  principal. 

If  in  any  division  of  labor  an  unequal  appropriation  has 


1835.  SENATE-^No.  1.  15 

been  made,  so  that  more  is  taken  from  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, and  more  given  to  others,  than  a  just  regard  to  per- 
sonal and  public  convenience  requires,  it  is  a  sufficient 
reason  for  making  a  new  and  more  exact  distribution,  or 
diminishing  the  number  of  the  subordinate  agents,  but 
none  at  all  for  abolishing  the  principal  officer,  whom,  by 
the  intendment  of  the  Constitution,  they  are  not  to  super- 
cede but  assist. 

Vlli.  The  Attorney  General  of  the  Commonwealth 
always  has  and  yet  does  constantly  perform  all  the  gen- 
eral duties  thus  described. 

The  statute  of  1832  enacts  that  the  Attorney  General 
when  present  shall  in  any  court  have  the  direction  and 
control  of  prosecutions  and  suits  in  behalf  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. But  this  is  a  mere  enactment  of  what,  in- 
dependent of  any  statute,  had  always  been  the  established 
law  of  the  land.  In  pursuance  of  his  general  duties  the 
present  Attorney  General,  in  a  circular  to  the  local  offi- 
cers, soon  after  his  appointment,  addressed  them  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  1  avail  myself  of  this  occasion  to  request,  that  when- 
ever any  professional  or  other  consideration  renders  the 
management  of  any  particular  case  for  the  Common- 
wealth personally  objectionable  to  you,  and  especially 
where  any  excitement  exists  in  the  community,  or  the 
enforcementof  public  justice  requires  in  your  opinion  the 
aid  of  additional  council,  you  would  seasonably  and  free- 
ly make  it  known  to  me,  that  1  may  be  prepared  to  ren- 
der any  assistance  that  may  be  practicable. 

"  It  is  not  my  inclination  to  limit  my  official  labors  by 
the  strict  letter  of  the  law  which  prescribes  them,  but  en- 
tering into  the  spirit  of  the  Legislature,  which  intended 
to  give  force  and  efficiency  to  the  system,  I  shall  be  ready 


16    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

to  discharge  at  any  time  and  at  any  place  those  implied 
duties,  which  the  public  exigency  requires,  or  the  reason- 
able convenience  of  my  colleagues  may  give  them  a  right 
to  expect." 

The  services,  thus  profered,  are  not  enjoined  by  the 
statute  ;  the  power  to  perform  them  is  alone  indicated  by 
that  law.  But  the  obligation  to  perform  them  and  the 
claim  of  the  Commonwealth  to  expect  their  performance 
rests  on  the  general  constitutional  character  of  the  office 
and  the  fidelity  of  the  officer. 

A  general  superintendence  and  direction  of  the  de- 
partment by  one  head,  and  the  actual  appropriation  of 
his  time  to  such  of  its  details  as  circumstances  demand, 
are  required  by  the  public  interests,  and  will  necessarily 
vary,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  degree  and  difficulty  of 
the  labor  they  impose. 

If  an  Attorney  General  should  look  no  where  but  to 
the  statute  of  1832,  and  to  other  special  statutes,  for  a 
knowledge  of  his  duties,  and  if  the  public  would  be  sat- 
fied  with  a  literal  compliance  with  their  limiied  requisi- 
tions, his  task  would  be  comparatively  light,  and  his  ser- 
vices more  easily  dispensed  with.  But  it  is  not  so. 
The  statutes  describe  but  an  outline  of  these  duties,  and 
leave  to  the  common-law  obligation  of  the  officer  to  put 
himself  wherever  the  public  justice  demands  that  he 
should  be  found, — to  be  personally  present  in  any  court 
where  high  and  important  questions  of  public  interest  to 
the  Commonwealth  are  to  be  discussed  ;  to  appear  for 
the  State,  where  the  novelty  or  the  intricacy  of  a  cause 
presents  difficulties  that  the  experience  of  older,  or  the 
effi)rts  of  united  counsel  may  best  overcome;  to  be  found 
where  temporary  excitement  interrupts  the  ordinary 
march  of  justice,  or  where  the  personal  relations  of  the 


1835.  SENATE— No.   1.  17 

local  officer  render  a  discharge  of  his  usual  duties  incon- 
venient or  embarrassing. 

There  is  not  in  the  existing  Statutes  any  direction  to  the 
Attorney  General  to  attend  any  nisi  prius  term  of  the 
Supreme  Judicial  Court,  or  any  term  of  the  Common 
Pleas,  or  any  Court  of  Probate,  or  any  session  of  Justices 
of  the  Peace,  and  yet  in  all  these  places  the  State  has 
occasionally  deep  interests.  It  would  not  be  possible  to 
impose  upon  any  officer  the  duty  of  attending  in  all  such 
Courts,  because  in  the  nature  of  things,  it  could  not  al- 
ways be  performed;  or  if  it  could,  yet,  as  this  attendance 
would  not  always  be  necessary,  such  an  unconditional 
obligation  would  be  useless.  But  as  it  is  sometimes  im- 
portant, it  must  not  at  those  times  be  omitted.  Under 
the  general  duty  of  superintending  the  concerns  of  che 
Commonwealth,  as  its  general  Attorney,  this  service  is 
expected  of  the  head  of  the  department,  and  the  ame,  the 
place,  the  circumstances  which  require  its  exercise,  are  to 
be  decided  by  that  officer  upon  his  own  judgment  and 
fidelity,  and  under  the  responsibility  of  his  station. 

The  general  superintending  power  inherent  in  the  office 
of  Attorney  General,  is  the  highest  and  most  important 
part  of  its  constitutional  and  legal  character,  and  on  the 
due  exercise  of  it  the  State  is  most  particularly  interested. 
It  involves  a  large  latitude  of  discretion,  and  the  compe- 
tency of  the  officer  for  his  situation,  and  the  value  which 
the  public  receive  from  his  services,  will  depend  on  his 
willingness  to  do  this  ever  varying  portion  of  the  public 
business,  and  on  the  judgment  and  fidelity  by  w^hich  his 
exertions  are  directed. 

In  the  former  and  present  reports  the  operation  of  this 
sentiment  of  duty  on  the  present  incumbent,  amply  ap- 
pears.    Much  of  this  and  former  reports  of  services  ran- 


18    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

dered  by  him  to  the  Commonwealth,  consists  of  services 
resulting  from  the  nature  and  design  of  the  office,  the 
calls  of  public  justice,  and  the  supposed  interests  of  the 
Commonwealth,  and  not  merely  of  matters  enjoined  and 
set  down  by  statutory  provisions  of  laws ;  and  he  feels  some 
pride — which,  in  reference  to  the  proceedings  of  the  last 
Legislature,  he  hopes  it  may  not  be  deemed  an  infringe- 
ment of  propriety  to  avow  —  that  these  reports  will  show 
that  he  has  never  hesitated  to  assume  and  perform  in  de- 
tail, whatever  business  in  his  department  the  public 
exigency  required,  and  that  he  has  not  shrunk  from  the 
exercise  of  any  part  of  these  duties,  even  since  a 
reasonable  excuse  has  been  given  him  for  measur- 
iiig  his  exertions  by  the  narrowest  requirements  of  the 
laws. 

IX.  The  duties  of  the  Attorney  General,  on  the  con- 
struction here  given  to  them,  will  constantly  fluctuate. 
It  can  hardly  be  expected  that  the  State  will  see  two  such 
quiet  years  as  1832,  1833,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  its  terri- 
tory will  not  again  be  desecrated  by  such  horrible  and 
flagitious  crimes  as  are  recorded  in  the  annals  of  the  year 
1 834  ;  but  the  great  increase  and  prevalence  of  crime  is 
not  the  result  of  accidental  or  temporary  causes.  The 
influx  of  desperate  foreigners,  attracted  by  the  wealth  to 
be  plundered,  enroMraged  rather  than  deterred  by  the 
mildness  of  the  laws,  and  depending  for  their  escape  from 
all  punishment,  on  the  ingenious  use  they  can  make  of  the 
property  they  may  unlawhlly  obtain,  will  continue  to 
give  employment  to  courts  of  justice.  At  home,  too,  and 
among  the  native  population,  are  deep  and  growing  causes 
for  crime,  serious  and  alarming  to  a  degree  heretofore 
unknown.  While  the  prospect  is  a  discouraging  one  over 
the  whole  Commonwealth,  the  outbreak  may,  as  in  past 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  19 

jears,  be  greater  in  one  quarter  than  another.*  Whether 
any  of  the  defences  established  for  common  security,  can 
be  reasonably  changed  or  thrown  down,  is  a  question  of 
much  more  serious  consequence  to  the  public  than  it  can 
be  to  any  individual  citizen. 

X.  Under  the  prescribed  and  implied  duties  of  his  of- 
fice, the  Attorney  General,  during  the  past  year  ending 
on  the  31st  of  October,  1834,  has  been  required  officially 
to  attend  personally  to  three  hundred  separate  and  distinct 
matters  on  the  part  of  the  Commonwealth.  Many  of 
them  were  of  the  highest  and  most  difficult  kind,  inclu- 
ding the  actual  trial  by  jury  before  the  Supreme  Court, 
of  six  capital  cases,  of  which  no  man  may  speak  lightly 
who  has  a  decent  knowledge  of  professional  labor  or  per- 
sonal responsibility.  He  has  among  a  multitude  of  other 
official  requisitions,  conducted  the  examination  of  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  witnesses,t  prepared  sixteen  writ- 
ten opinions  on  questions  of  law,  maintained  a  correspon- 
dence wdth  other  public  functionaries,  and  with  citizens 
of  this  and  other  States,  who  had,  or  thought  they  had,  the 
right  to  lay  their  several  cases  before  him.  He  has 
collected  and  paid  into  the  treasury  the  sum  of  five  hun- 
dred and  forty-six  dollars,  and  obtained  another  judgment 
from  which  the  Commonwealth  will  receive  about  nine 

*  These  changes  are  constantly  occurring.  Thus,  notwithstanding  the 
great  increase  of  criminal  businesy  through  the  Commonwealth,  the  Muni- 
cipal Court  in  Boston,  which,  in  1833,  was  in  session  for  one  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  days,  was  enabled,  in  1834,  to  complete  its  business  in  ninety- 
seven  days. 

•j-The  number  of  witnesses  examined  furnishes  but  httle  information, 
without  some  acquaintance  with  the  cause.  On  the  circuits  of  the  Common 
Pleas,  the  testimony  of  one  hundred  witnesses  is  often  taken  in  three  days. 
In  the  trials  in  the  Supreme  Court,  the  examination  of  half  the  number* 
lasted  for  a  week. 


20    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

hundred  dollars  more.  In  the  performance  of  these  du- 
ties, he  has  travelled  between  five  and  six  hundred  miles 
into  almost  all  parts  of  the  State.  What  has  occurred 
since  the  31st  October,  does  not  belong  to  this  report,  but 
the  judicial  year  opened  with  a  certainty  of  many  capital 
trials  in  different  counties,  and  the  revision  of  all  those 
legal  questions  which  past  operations  have  been  preparing 
for  argument. 

Whether,  when  these  various  avocations  are  duly  con- 
sidered, in  relation  to  time,  place  or  personal  responsi- 
bility, the  interests  involved  in  many  of  them,  the  con- 
tentious and  persevering  opposition  that  is  made  to 
every  movement  of  a  public  prosecutor,  the  rank  and 
ability  of  the  counsel  by  whom  he  is  every  where  oppo- 
sed, and  the  professional  reputation  which  the  represen- 
tative of  the  Commonwealth  must  endeavor^  at  any  ex- 
pense of  time,  labor,  study  and  industry,  to  maintain  ; 
whether,  these  things  considered,  the  office  of  Attorney 
General  is  a  useless  one,  or  the  place  a  sinecure,  the 
Legislature  is  respectfully  invited,  on  a  revision  of  the 
subject,  to  decide. 

XL  The  Attorney  General  is  by  the  Constitution,  an- 
cient usage,  and  the  general  policy  and  provisions  of 
law,  the  legal  adviser  of  the  Supreme  Executive  of  the 
State.  The  exercise  of  the  duty  thus  imposed  on  this 
public  officer,  has  been  in  many  former  periods  of  the 
history  of  the  Commonwealth,  very  frequent  and  neces- 
sary. Indeed,  unless  it  is  intended  to  reserve  the  Chair 
of  State  for  the  exclusive  possession  of  a  professionally 
educated  lawyer,  it  is  not  easy  to  perceive  how  this  ad- 
junct to  that  high  station  can  be  easily  dispensed  with. 
If  to  almost  every  municipal  corporation  such  assistance 
is  more  or  less  required,  the  State,  in  its  multifarious 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  21 

concerns,  and  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State,  in  the 
execution  of  his  complicated  and  intricate  duties,  must 
frequently  have  recourse  to  the  official  aids  by  which  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws  have  surrounded  him. 

The  statute  of  1832,  reaffirms  and  continues  the  duty 
thus  originally  appointed,  not  as  a  new  one,  but  as  com- 
ing within  the  general  scope  of  those  services  for  which 
the  salary  was  established,  instead  of  permitting  the 
compensation,  as  had  formerly  been  the  case,  to  be 
made  by  special  remuneration  or  occasional  grants. 

In  so  doing,  the  Legislature  of  1832  followed  out  the 
ancient  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  wuth  the  amend- 
ments which  modern  economy  had  provided,  and  a  sen- 
sible policy  sustained. 

The  whole  of  the  provisions  of  the  law  in  this  respect, 
look  with  a  wise  forecast,  not  only  to  the  common  course 
of  affairs,  when  this  duty  may  be  an  occasional  task,  but 
to  a  state  of  things  occurring  at  times  in  all  govern- 
ments and  among  all  people,  and  not  to  be  avoided  in 
our  most  happy  republic,  when  public  peace  and  indi- 
vidual security  and  the  supremacy  of  the  laws,  may 
require  its  frequent  and  responsible  exercise. 

Itwas  a  prudent  and  comprehensive  forethought  which 
incorporated  this  provision  into  the  law,  and  it  can  only 
be  a  narrow  and  contracted  illiberality  of  judgment  that 
would  measure  its  advantages  to  the  State  by  the  expe- 
rience of  any  single  year  of  comparative  quietness  and 
peace. 

But,  during  common  years,  its  benefits  are  apparent. 
This  and  the  former  reports  show  how  extensively  the 
power  to  put  this  duty  in  operation  has  been  used  by 
the  distinguished  lawyers  who  have  filled  the  Executive 
Chair,  and  whose  high  intellectual  and  professional  cha- 


22        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.      Jan 

racter  might  rather  give  their  opinions  the  force  of  law, 
than  induce  them  to  seek  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  from 
another  source.  But  if  these  accomplished  statesmen  and 
jurists  have  found  an  advantage  in  requiring  the  assist- 
ance of  the  law  officer  of  the  State,  it  is  not  easy  to  sup- 
pose that  his  duty  can  ever  be  an  useless  appendage. 

All  public  functionaries,  of  every  degree,  are,  in  our 
government  of  laws,  bound  by  the  force  of  their  positive 
provisions,  and  by  the  forms,  rules  and  manner  which 
they  prescribe.  The  efforts  which  have  professedly 
been  intended  to  simplify  the  law,  have  done  much  to 
complicate  and  involve  it,  and  to  give  its  technicalities 
as  much  importance  as  its  principles.  Hence  it  is,  that 
a  careful  acquaintance  and  familiarity  with  usages  and 
customs  as  well  as  the  Statute  Book,  becomes  necessary 
to  the  due  administration  of  any  department  of  govern- 
ment. When  such  men  as  have  been  the  Governors  of 
the  Commonwealth,  call  for  a  legal  opinion  from  the 
Attorney  General,  the  call  presupposes  a  case  of  doubt 
and  difficulty,  and  dem^ands  investigation  and  care. 

XII.  The  Statute  of  1832  adds  new  duties  to  this 
office.  By  that  Statute  it  is  made  the  duty  of  the  Attor- 
ney General  "  to  be  always  in  attendance  on  the  call  of 
the  Legislature  during  their  sessions,  and  to  give  his 
opinions  upon  all  questions  of  law  submitted  to  him  by 
either  branch  of  the  Legislature,  and  his  aid  and  advice 
in  the  arrangement  and  preparation  of  Legislative  docu- 
ments and  business,  when  thereto  required  by  either 
branch  of  the  Legislature." 

This  is  a  new  requisition,  never  before  considered  part 
of  the  Attorney  General's  duty.  The  history  of  the  Com- 
monwealth is  full  of  instances  in  which  the  Legislature 
have  had  occasion  for  the  professional  services  of  a  lawyer. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  23 

Most  generally  they  have  applied  to  the  person  holding 
the  office  of  Attorney  General,  but  always  with  the  un- 
derstanding that  the  duty  required  was  extra-official, 
and  entitled  him  to  special  compensation ;  and  large 
sums  have,  at  various  times,  been  drawn  from  the  Treas- 
ury on  this  account.  It  is  now  in  the  furtherance  of  the 
general  policy  of  the  Statute,  incorporated  as  a  part  of 
his  ordinary  public  service. 

The  Legislature  of  1833  very  freely  put  their  power 
in  operation,  and  "  the  Exposition  of  the  rights  of  the 
Commonwealth  to  the  ferries  in  Boston  harbor,"  print- 
ed Document  of  the  House,  No.  43,  the  Lottery  Com- 
mittee's Report,  Doc.  House,  No.  44,  and  some  others, 
testify  to  the  character  of  the  labor  assigned  to  this 
officer. 

The  Legislature  of  1834  did  not  release  him  from 
the  necessity  of  being  in  attendance,  but  did  not  require 
of  him  the  discharge  of  any  specific  labor.  And  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  that  his  official  annual  report,  required 
by  law,  and  containing,  as  is  now  most  respectfully  sub- 
mitted, certain  matters  of  practical  expediency  and  of 
economical  character,  was  never  read  in  either  house, 
nor  referred  to  any  Committee  of  either  branch  of  the 
Legislature,  although  most  important  questions  in  con- 
nection with  the  office  and  duties  of  Attorney  General 
were  discussed  and  decided. 

But  the  value  to  the  Commonwealth  of  the  Statute 
provision  now  under  consideration,  is  quite  as  well  illus- 
trated by  its  neglect  as  its  use. 

By  one  of  those  accidents,  against  which  this  provision 
of  the  law  was  intended  to  guard,  the  Legislature  of 
1834,  no  doubt  most  unintentionally,  did  in  terms  repeal 
out  of  office  the  whole  government  of  the  State  Luna- 


24    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

tic    Hospital    at   Worcester,    and    left   the    Institution 
without  any  legal  supervision  ! 

The  accident  was  remedied  by  new  nominations  and 
appointments,  when  the  fact  became  known, — but 
whether  the  liability  of  certain  towns  to  contribute  to 
the  expenses  of  the  State  in  this  behalf,  which  liability 
existed  by  the  former  law,  ceased  with  its  repeal,  no 
reservation  having  been  made  of  it,  and  whether  it  can 
now  be  revived  or  is  lost,  is  a  question  yet  to  be  settled 
at  the  expense  of  one  or  more  law  suits,  and  an  uncer- 
tain delay. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  case  which  affords  an  illustration 
of  the  subject.  Most  of  the  penal  laws  would  be  equally 
pertinent. 

But  if  the  Legislature  see  fit  to  dispense  with  the 
services  of  the  Attorney  General,  during  their  sessions, 
it  is  respectfully  submitted  that  justice  requires  of  them 
to  dispense  with  his  attendance  ;  or  if  they  require  his 
attendance,  then  to  consider  and  remunerate  him  for 
the  tax  they  impose  on  his  time,  and  the  restraint  to 
which  he  is  subjected,  in  the  busiest  part  of  the  year, 
not  the  less  irksome,  if  it  is  apparently  useless,  and  be- 
coming the  more  tedious  when  positively  without  em- 
ployment. 

When  a  public  officer,  of  whom  so  grave  a  duty  may 
be  exacted  as  that  of  giving  advice  and  aid  to  the  Le- 
gislative body  of  the  Commonwealth,  is  liable  every  day 
to  be  put  in  requisition  for  the  performance  of  it,  he 
must  keep  himself  constantly  prepared  for  the  proper 
demands  of  the  service.  He  must  make  himself  famil- 
iarly acquainted  with  the  course  of  business  in  both 
branches,  the  measures  proposed,  the  objections  started, 
and   the  general  course  of  debate.     He  must  possess 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  25 

and  examine  the  printed  documents  of  each  House,  and 
be  ready  to  bring  to  the  service  of  either,  on  a  sudden 
call,  whatever  his  industry,  his  talents,  or  his  experi- 
ence may  entitle  them  to  expect,  or  enable  him  to  com- 
mand. 

This  has  been  the  endeavor  of  the  present  officer,  to 
the  extent  of  his  ability,  and  it  is  a  poor  remuneration 
for  the  compulsory  and  fatiguing  duty  of  attendance, 
and  the  wearisomeness  and  study  of  preparation,  to  be 
told  that  the  attendance  was  wholly  profitless  to  the 
State.  The  time  and  the  preparation,  if  otherwise  be- 
stowed, would  not  have  been  useless  to  him ;  he  ven- 
tures humbly  to  suggest  the  possibility  of  their  having 
been — if  the  Legislature  had  so  pleased — in  some  small 
degree,  profitable  to  the  State.  Indeed,  so  important 
and  useful  is  it  considered  in  some  other  States,  as  with 
the  other  branch  last  before-mentioned,  to  be  of  them- 
selves a  sufficient  employment  for  the  officer  who  is 
exonerated,  except  under  peculiar  circumstances,  from 
other  public  service. 

XIII.  The  Attorney  General  is  to  advise  the  local  law- 
officers  in  all  matters  appertaining  to  their  duties,  when- 
ever he  shall  be  applied  to  therefor. 

This  also  is  a  new  duty,  and  all  the  gentlemen  con- 
cerned have  taken  advantage  of  this  provision  of  the  law. 

The  consultation  and  advice  thus  rendered,  being  in  a 
good  degree  of  a  confidential  character,  have  never  been 
stated  in  detail  in  the  Attorney  General's  report. 

Application  is  made  only  in  cases  of  doubt  and 
embarrassment,  when  a  measure  is  to  be  taken,  of  which 
he  who  advises  must  assume  the  responsibility. 

No  gentlemen  could  less  need  advice  and  instruction 
than  the  distinguished  and  able  officers,  whom  the  good 


26    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

fortune  of  the  State  enables  the  people  to  retain  in  their 
service  in  each  of  the  local  Districts.  But  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  criminal  law,  under  this  government,  is  no 
easy  task.  Intricate  and  complicated  matters  are  con- 
stantly presenting  themselves,  which  experience  only  can 
explain.  This  experience  ought  to  be  found  in  the  head 
of  the  department. 

The  places  of  the  District  Attornies,  now  so  ably  and 
honorably  occupied,  must  in  a  short  time  be  held  by  the 
junior  members  of  the  Bar.  They  cannot  be  retained 
by  any  gentleman  for  a  considerable  period  of  time — 
certainly  not  without  a  large  addition  to  their  present 
compensation.  Lawyers  find  that  public  business  drives 
away  private  practice,  and  that  they  must  soon  choose 
betw^een  one  class  of  clients  or  another.  The  office  of  a 
District  Attorney  is  an  admirable  one  to  bring  a  young 
man  into  notice,  but  when  opportunity  has  been  given 
him  to  command  public  attention,  it  has  for  him  fulfilled 
its  purpose.  His  abilities  are  better  rewarded  by  private 
suitors.  The  Commonwealth  is  a  hard  master.  Its 
requisitions  cannot  be  delayed  or  avoided.  It  cuts  off 
its  agents  from  one  source  of  emolument  by  positive  law, 
and  establishes  an  implied  proscription  by  that  delicacy 
of  feeling  which  it  ought  always  to  cherish.  It  takes  a 
man  too  much  from  home.  It  occupies  an  undue  por- 
tion of  his  time.  It  subjects  him  to  expenses.  It  ad- 
mits no  compromise  with  other  engagements.  It  brings 
him  into  collision  with  regular  clients,  and  with  large 
classes  of  citizens,  who  come  occasionally  under  the 
animadversion  of  the  laws.  It  pays  for  the  services  it 
exacts  at  wholesale  rates,  and  claims  an  immense  dis- 
count from  customary  prices. 

The  law  of   1832,  aware  of  these  facts,  looked  to 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  27 

those  changes  which  might  be  expected,  and  provided 
for  the  time  when  inexperienced  men  would  succeed 
the  learned  and  accomplished  individuals  first  appoint- 
ed, and  when  the  advice  and  instructions  which  these 
eminent  Lawyers  find  it  convenient  sometimes  to  solicit, 
must,  of  necessity,  be  multiplied  in  the  noviciate  of  their 
probable  successors. 

Two  Statutes,  passed  at  the  last  session  of  the  Legis- 
ture.  Chapters  155  and  199  of  1834,  have  increased 
materially  the  duties  of  the  Attorney  General. 

XIV.  The  argument  urged  in  the  last  legislature  for 
abolishing  the  office  of  Attorney  General,  was  that  of 
economy.  The  expense  of  his  salary — it  was  said — 
might  be  saved.  But  this  is  obviously  falacious.  If 
any  considerable  part  of  his  duties  are  necessary,  they 
must  be  performed  by  somebody,  and  whoever  performs 
them  may  expect  to  be  paid. 

Can  they  be  transferred  to  the  local  officers  ?  Their 
time  is  fully  occupied.  Tn  a  comparison  of  their  duties, 
there  is  much  difference  in  point  of  labor,  but  most  of 
them  are  crowded  with  public  business.  To  add  more 
would  be  oppressive ;  to  add  any  without  further  com- 
pensation, would  be  unjust. 

Many  of  the  duties  which  are  discharged  by  the 
Attorney  General,  fall  properly  into  no  particular  Dis- 
trict, and  he,  to  whom  they  should  be  assigned,  would 
be  in  fact  Attorney  General,  in  evasion  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, under  another  name.  Others  are  to  be  done  at 
special  courts,  which  are  not  arranged  with  the  existing 
terms  for  ordinary  business.  A  new  appointment  of  the 
whole  business  of  the  State,  in  the  Supreme  and  Com- 
mon Pleas  Court,  would  have  to  be  provided  for,  in 
subservience  to  this  particular  department.     This  is  a 


28    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

practical  difficulty,  which  it  is  well  to  understand.  In- 
deed, the  office  of  Attorney  General  is  made  so  inti- 
mately a  part  of  the  system  established  in  1832,  that  no 
change  can  be  made  in  it  without  involving  the  neces- 
sity of  a  revision  of  the  whole  system.  The  mere  aboli- 
tion of  it,  without  other  provisions  of  an  essential  and 
extensive  character,  would  throw  the  whole  proceedings 
under  that  system  into  inextricable  confusion. 

In  any  event,  if  the  office  were  abolished  the  salary 
must  be  divided  among  other  persons,  and  in  addition, 
either  now  or  very  soon,  a  new  District  must  be  carved 
out  of  the  present  ones,  and  a  new  District  Attorney 
appointed  within  it. 

This  matter  of  expense  is  worthy  of  further  remark, 
because  the  expense  to  the  Commonwealth  for  its  attor- 
nies  has  not  for  fifty  years  been  so  small  as  established 
by  the  law  of  1832,  and  never  can  he  again. 

When  the  law  of  1832  was  enacted  the  salaries  of  all 
the  prosecuting  officers  of  the  Commonwealth,  then  exist- 
ing, was  ;^7200,  but  as  the  prescribed  duties  of  the 
County  Attornies  did  not  embrace  all  the  services  which 
the  public  had  need  to  require,  special  allowances  were 
made  to  them,  from  time  to  time,  and  fees  in  addition  to 
their  annual  compensation  in  some  cases  were  by  law 
taxed  for  them,  not  less,  in  the  whole,  than  one  thousand 
dollars  per  annum, — and  liable  to  much  enlargement  and 
probable  abuse.* 

Besides,  these  salaries  were  established  in  1830,  on  an 
average  of  the  criminal  business  of  five  former  years.  In 
some  counties  it  had  surprisingly  increased,  and  a  general 
sentiment  prevailed  that  a  considerable  addition  must  be 

*See  the  printed  Documents  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  No.  1,  of 
May  session,  1831. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  29 

made  to  the  expense  to  secure  competent  service ;  a 
sentiment  remarkably  verified  by  the  fact  that  in  the  only 
county  [Suftblk]  left  untouched  by  the  law  of  1832,  an  ad- 
dition of  fifty  per  cent,  to  the  then  established  salary,  has 
since  been  made.  A  year  could  not  have  elapsed  before  at 
least  one  thousand  dollars  must  have  been  added  for  the 
services  of  the  County  Atiornies,  if  the  law  of  1832  had 
not  changed  the  whole  system.  At  the  date  of  this  law 
the  actual  annual  compensation  of  prosecuting  officers,  in- 
cluding salaries,  fees  and  extras,  amounted  to  a  sum  ex- 
ceeding nine  thousand  dollars,  divided  unequally  among 
sixteen  officers.  After  the  law  of  1832  was  enacted  the 
amount  provided  for  all  the  prosecuting  officers,  was  seven 
thousand  dollars,  divided  among  six  individuals.  A 
saving  was  thus  made  of  two  thousand  dollars  a  year,  be- 
sides cutting  off  an  unmeasured  demand  for  extra  servi- 
ces, and  securing  a  greater  extent  of  duty  of  a  kind  which 
before  the  passing  of  this  law,  had  always  been  admitted 
to  be  a  separate  charge  to  the  state. 

In  looking  further  at  this  subject  of  expense  it  is  pro- 
per to  state  that  a  reasonable  regard  for  their  agents  re- 
quires the  Commonwealth  always  to  have  two  counsel  at 
every  capital  trial.  In  consequence  of  the  pressure  of 
other  engagements  on  his  colleagues,  the  Attorney  Gen* 
eral  has  conducted  several  of  these  trials  without  assist- 
ance, but  it  is  not  reasonable  to  expect  it  to  be  done. 
The  elaborate  mode  in  which  all  capital  trials  are  con- 
ducted, renders  two  counsel  necessary,  for  the  due  admin- 
istration of  public  justice.  The  defendant  is  always  al- 
lowed the  assistance  of  two  counsel.  The  funds  of  the 
State  are  put  at  his  command  to  obtain  testimony,  and 
it  seems  to  be  a  matter  of  pride  with  those  who  manage 
his   defence   to  exert  the  most  unwearied  industry  in 


30    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

seeking  for  evidence,  whenever  it  can  have  any  possible 
bearing  upon  the  cause  at  issue.  From  two  to  ten  days 
are  spent  in  one  case;  and  the  Court,  feehngthe  pressure 
of  the  time  on  their  other  avocations,  have  frequently 
been  in  session  twelve  and  fourteen  hours  a  day,  leaving 
after  their  adjournment  two  or  three  hours  labor  to  be 
performed  by  the  public  officer,  in  preparation  for  the 
next  mornings  work.  Other  trials  are  also  of  great 
length  ;  that  of  Sneliing  occupied  the  Jury  in  the  Su- 
preme Court,  with  only  the  intermission  of  the  Sabbath, 
from  the  27th  of  December  1833,  to  the  3d  of  January 
1834,  both  days  inclusive,  and  the  case,  from  its  com- 
mencement to  its  close,  consumed  twenty  days  of  judicial 
time.  When  such  cases  occur,  the  local  officers  have  a 
right  to  expect  relief,  and  they  have  never  asked  it  in  vain. 

I  know  not  what  compensation  the  Legislature  would 
think  should  reasonably  be  paid  for  conducting  such 
trials  as  those  of  Locke,  at  Cambridge,  or  Hunt,  at 
Plymouth,  or  Elliot  or  Mallory,  at  Springfield,  or  Wade 
or  Glynn,  at  Dedham  ;  but  if  special  counsel  had  been 
retained  in  these  cases,  by  the  State,  the  demand  on  the 
treasury  could  not  in  justice  have  been  much  less  than 
the  Attorney  General's  salary  for  the  year  ;  and  if  the 
duty  had  been  assigned  to  the  District  Attornies  it 
would  have  entitled  them,  on  every  principle  of  equity, 
to  an  equal  additional  compensation. 

But  it  is  a  matter  of  great  public  policy  that  the  State 
should  pay  its  regular  agents  by  stated  salaries,  and  not 
by  occasional  grants,  and  should  not  leave  open  a  door 
to  claims  for  extra  services,  which  may  oftener  be  set- 
tled by  favor  than  justice.  To  preserve  this  policy  it  is 
necessary  to  make  the  establishment  strong  enough  to 
<io  the  public  business,  and  to  fix  the  compensation  by 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  31 

some  scale  of  equality  between  the  service  and  its  re- 
ward. Neither  is  it  a  politic  question  to  ask  at  how  low 
rate  the  work  can  be  done,  but  at  what  rate  it  becomes 
the  character  of  the  State  to  remunerate  the  workmen 
it  employs.  The  seats  of  the  Legislature  would  proba- 
bly be  filled  by  patriotic  citizens  if  no  daily  compensa- 
tion was  allowed  by  law,  but  it  is  not  on  that  account 
any  breach  of  a  wise  economy  to  pay  the  members  for 
their  travel  and  attendance  in  doing  the  business  of  the 
State. 

It  was  not  supposed  that  the  duties  of  the  Attorney 
General  would  be  less  under  the  nevv  law  than  the  old 
one,  although  they  were  in  a  considerable  degree 
changed,  but  it  was  supposed  he  would  have  less  occa- 
sion to  travel,  and  be  put  to  less  expense  on  that  account, 
and  accordingly  the  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars,  for- 
merly paid  to  that  officer,  was  reduced  to  eighteen  hun- 
dred dollars,  under  the  new  system  of  1832.  But  this 
supposition  proves  to  be  erroneous. 

My  predecessor,  under  an  order  of  the  Legislature  of 
1831,  reported  that  the  sum  total  of  his  travel  for  the 
five  preceding  years,  had  been  2758  miles,  or  an  aver- 
age of  552  miles  the  year.  The  sum  total  of  my  travel 
from  the  date  of  my  appointment  in  June,  1832,  to  No- 
vember 1,  1834,  is  1913  miles,  exceeding  seven  hundred 
miles  per  year. 

Neither  does  the  change  above  alluded  to,  in  the  least 
diminish  the  labor  formerly  assigned  to  the  office,  but 
adds  to  its  responsibility  and  weight.  The  mere  routine 
of  ordinary  business  at  the  Courts,  the  drawing  of  the 
common  indictments,  and  the  conducting  the  usual  crim- 
inal trials,  from  which  the  Attorney  General  is  now  in  a 
great  measure  relieved,  is  a  comparatively  insignificant 


32    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

affair.  The  whole  duty  of  supervision  remains.  It  is 
this  which  is  onerous.  It  is  when  new  and  great  occa- 
sions present  themselves,  that  the  interests  of  the  State 
are  to  be  vindicated,  and  the  labor  of  the  public  servants 
to  be  estimated.  The  hundred  witnesses,  and  the  thirty 
indictments,  and  the  dozen  trials,  which  make  together 
the  common  business  of  a  term,  are  far  less  weighty  and 
perplexing  than  the  preparation  and  prosecution  of  a 
single  capital  trial,  or  the  argument  of  an  intricate  ques- 
tion of  law. 

Neither,  if  the  services  be  measured  by  time,  will  the 
case  be  changed.  The  duties,  which  the  chief  public 
prosecuting  officer  is  charged  with,  can  never  be  subor- 
dinate to  any  other  avocations.  They  will  occupy  the 
principal  share  of  his  attention,  and  it  is  of  very  little 
moment,  whether  to  the  aggregate  of  his  engagements 
there  be  added  a  few  cases  more  or  less,  or  the  em- 
ployment of  a  few  more  days. 

XV.  It  is  probably  owing  to  considerations  of  the  kind 
above  presented,  that  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  the  Judiciary  Committee  of 
the  Senate,  and  a  subsequent  Special  Committee  of  the 
Senate  of  the  last  year,  reported  against  the  proposition 
to  abolish  the  office  of  Attorney  General,  and  that  it  did 
not  finally  prevail.  But  after  it  was  so  decided,  the  law 
to  which  I  have  before  adverted  to,  ch.  200  of  1834,  was 
enacted,  to  which  I  am  now  most  respectfully  to  ask 
your  attention. 

This  law  was  introduced  into  the  Senate  on  the  mo- 
tion of  an  individual  member  for  leave  to  bring  it  in — 
was  not  reported  by  or  referred  to  any  preliminary  com- 
mittee in  the  usual  form  of  proceeding — was  first  pro- 
posed at  the  very  heel  of  the  session,  and  passed,  as  it  is 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  33 

believed,  under  an  entire  misapprehension  of  the  subject, 
and  when  no  opportunity  was  afforded  to  inquire,  exam- 
ine or  explain.  It  is  of  a  more  injurious  effect  than  the 
reduction  of  the  few  hundred  dollars,  which  it  takes  from 
the  annual  compensation  of  the  Attorney  General.  In 
connection  with  the  Statute,  chap.  202,  of  the  same 
year,  it  impairs  the  whole  system  of  administering  the 
criminal  law,  by  reversing  the  proper  relation  of  the  of- 
ficers concerned  in  it.  The  two  acts,  one  increasing  the 
compensation  of  the  County  Attorney  in  Suffolk,  the 
other  diminishing  that  of  the  Attorney  General,  raise  the 
subordinate  officer  above  the  principal.  By  affixing  a 
greater  compensation  to  the  lower  than  the  higher  public 
servant,  they  derange  that  order  which  is  indispensable 
for  the  harmonious  and  profitable  economy  of  the  sys- 
tem. 

I  do  not  mean  to  question  the  claims  of  the  Attorney 
in  Suffolk  to  this  unwonted  liberality  of  the  Legislature. 
I  had  long  enough  the  honor  to  fill  the  station  he  occu- 
pies, to  know  and  appreciate  all  its  difficulties,  under 
circumstances  much  more  in  conflict  with  personal  con- 
venience, than  any  that  have  since  occurred.  This,  and 
subsequent  experience,  has  enabled  me  to  know,  that  if 
the  professional  labor  is  in  some  respects  more,  it  is  in 
others  much  less  than  that  of  the  other  Attornies.  It  is 
all  done  at  home.  It  involves  no  expense  of  travel.  It 
is  freed  from  a  most  oppressive  and  wearisome  task,  to 
which  the  other  officers  are  subjected  ;  I  mean  the  ex- 
amination of  the  justices'  taxation  of  cost,  and  the  per- 
plexity of  revising  and  correcting  them. 

This  service,  which  falls  elsewhere  on  the  District 
Attornies,  is,  in  Suffolk,  committed  to  a  Board  of  Ac- 
counts, to  whom  are  paid  fifteen  dollars  per  day,  while 

5 


34        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.      Jan 

engaged  in  the  duty,  or  by  actual  employment  of  time, 
about  five  dollars  an  hour. 

The  derangement  thus  made,  by  giving  a  higher  com- 
pensation to  the  local  officer  than  is  paid  to  the  head  of 
the  department,  implies  that  the  duties  of  the  subordi- 
nate are  either  more  important,  more  difficult,  or  a  more 
serious  claim  on  his  time,  than  those  which  are  assigned 
to  the  principal.  All  these  suppositions  are  erroneous. 
But  if  any  of  them  be  true,  they  afford  to  that  officer  a 
claim  to  be  relieved  from  his  extraordinary  duties — not 
to  be  elevated  beyond  his  proper  sphere  in  the  system 
of  which  he  is  a  part. 

If  it  had  seemed  right  to  the  Legislature  so  to  do,  the 
mode  of  adjusting  the  business  was  very  apparent.  The 
informations  against  State  Prison  convicts — a  branch  of 
his  present  duty,  which  was  represented  as  one  reason 
for  enlarging  his  salary* — are  properly  within  the  Attor- 
ney General's  particular  sphere,  and  might  be  assigned 
to  him  with  great  propriety.  The  jury  trials  in  the  Su- 
preme Court,  which  was  another  item  in  this  account — 
so  long  as  the  anomaly  of  one  judicial  system  in  Suffolk, 
and  another  for  the  rest  of  the  State,  is  suffered  to  re- 
main— might  also  be  transferred  to  him,  and  the  duties  of 
the  County  Attorney,  thus  diminished,  would  fall  consid- 
erably under  those  in  some  of  the  other  Districts. 

XVI.  In  making  these  observations  I  discharge  a 
public  duty.  I  know  from  experience,  and  an  intimate 
association  with  my  immediate  predecessors,  that  the 
place  which  I  have  the  honor  now  to  fill  is  full  of  labor 
and  responsibility  ;  that  the  public  is  concerned  in  its  pre- 
servation, in  its  efficiency  and  its  character  ;  and  that  the 

*  See  Report  of  Com.  of  Claims.    Doc.  of  Senate,  No.  56  of  1834. 


1836.  SENATE— No.  1.  35 

discharge  of  its  appropriate  duties  entitles  the  officer  per- 
forming them  to  an  honorable  compensation.  The  in- 
terest of  the  Commonwealth  is  concerned  that  he  should 
be,  what  the  constitution  and  the  law  intends  he  should 
be,  not  merely  the  nominal  but  the  actual  head  of  the 
department  of  criminal  justice  ;  that  if  more  duty 
can  reasonably  be  performed  by  him,  it  should  be  taken 
from  the  subordinates,  and  assigned  to  him  ;  but  that 
before  any  alteration  is  made  in  this  particular  it  should 
be  well  ascertained  whether  as  much  is  not  now  requir- 
ed of  him  as  it  is  reasonable  to  demand,  and  whether 
the  weight  of  those  matters  which  are  placed  upon  him 
does  not  make  up  for  any  deficiency  in  actual  numbers, 
— whether  there  is  not  already  ample  occupation  for  his 
time  in  those  avocations,  which  the  condition  of  the 
country  is  constantly  increasing,  and  to  which  in  the 
criminal,  civil  and  advisory  relations  of  his  office  he  is 
called  to  attend  ? 

No  man,  who  looks  at  the  condition  of  society  among 
us,  believes  this  to  be  a  moment  in  which  any  relaxa- 
tion can  be  permitted  in  the  vigor  of  the  laws,  or  the 
power  to  enforce  them  ;  or  that  the  prospect  is  a  flat- 
tering one  that  the  law  officers  are  to  lead  a  life  of  in- 
activity. The  attention  of  men  is  to  be  called  to  the 
duty  of  resisting  a  wicked  and  furious  spirit  of  intoler- 
ance, irreligion  and  disorder  which  is  bidding  defiance 
to  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  the  laws  of  God.  The 
public  mind  is  to  be  brought  back  to  a  recognition  and 
to  a  support  of  those  moral  and  political  principles,  on 
which  our  institutions  depend,  and  without  whose  oper- 
ating influence  they  must  speedily  decay. 

It  is  necessary  in  this  work  to   begin   at  home  ;    to 
preserve  the  established  system  of  order  and  the  an- 


36    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

cient  and  time-honored  means  by  which  it  is  sustained. 
The  supremacy  of  the  laws  is  no  idle  sound  that  can 
be  permitted  to  reverberate  as  the  watchword  of  a  par- 
ty. It  is  the  war-cry  that  should  gather  the  whole  peo- 
ple in  arms,  not  to  rally  round  this  or  the  other  favorite 
object,  but  to  protect  the  temple  of  national  freedom 
from  desecration  and  ruin. 

A  firm  yet  humane  administration  of  criminal  juris- 
prudence is  essential  to  the  security  of  the  Common- 
wealth ;  and  the  institutions  and  the  agents  by  which  it 
has  been  conducted  are  more  than  ever  indispensable 
to  the  public  peace. 

I  beg  leave  therefore  in  conclusion  of  this  part  of 
the  report  most  respectfully  to  submit  to  the  Legisla- 
ture that  the  Statutes  aforementioned  are  inconsistent, 
contradictory,  and  injurious  to  the  public  service  ;  and 
that  one  of  them — at  the  election  of  the  Legislature 
ought  to  be  repealed. 

On  this  subject  I  have  no  personal  favor  to  solicit. — 
When  from  the  compensation  now  provided  are  deducted 
the  expenses  of  travel  and  attendance  at  distant  Courts, 
and  other  incidental  expenses  for  which  no  provision  is 
made  by  law,  together  with  such  charges  for  Clerk  hire 
as  the  new  and  peculiar  avocations  of  the  office  require, 
its  net  annual  emoluments  will  be  found  too  insignifi- 
cant to  be  a  matter  of  solicitude. 

But  the  duties,  which  the  State  requires,  cannot  be 
diminished,  although  the  office  and  the  officer  may  be 
changed.  In  the  performance  of  these  duties  there  are 
no  powers  or  faculties  of  the  human  mind  which  are 
not  called  into  exercise,  and  no  place  where  the   exer- 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  37 

cise  of  them  can  be  more  useful  to  the  great  interests 
of  the  people. 

The  Commonwealth  is  vastly  less  concerned  in  the 
result  of  a  cause  than  in  the  manner  in  which  it  is  con- 
ducted. An  acquittal  discharges  an  innocent  man,  and 
a  conviction  punishes  a  guilty  one,  and  the  objects  of 
pubhc  justice  are  in  either  case  maintained.  But  trials 
in  criminal  courts  are  exciting  scenes.  They  do  much 
to  promote  the  cause  of  good  morals  or  to  injure  it ;  to 
uphold  and  maintain  elevated  principles  of  social  and 
political  duty,  an  attachment  to  republican  habits,  and 
a  high  sense  of  individual  responsibility,  or  to  diminish 
the  veneration  which  should  be  felt  for  the  institutions 
of  the  country. 

There  are  practical  and  abiding  lessons  taught  in 
these  trials,  which  influence  society.  Impressions  are 
made,  which  last  for  a  life.  Effects  are  produced, 
which  could  be  in  no  way  so  well  calculated  for  perpet- 
ual remembrance. 

But  the  service  which  the  State  demands  it  must 
profess  to  value.  The  individual  whom  it  selects  to 
perform  this  service,  must  be  honored  in  his  labor,  or 
the  task  cannot  he  done.  If  the  people  countenance  the 
idea  that  the  service  is  a  small  one,  they  take  from  their 
agent  the  armour,  which  he  should  wear  for  their  de- 
fence. 

So  long  as  by  positive  statues  the  hfe  of  a  fellow  be- 
ing may  in  due  course  of  judicial  proceedings  be  for- 
feited to  the  law,  so  long  the  administration  of  that 
law  must  be  a  scene  of  deep  and  solemn  responsibility. 
The  humanity  of  the  Massachusetts  code  presupposes 
the  accused  person  innocent,  and  surrounds  him  with 
every  necessary  means  of  defence.     The  representative 


38    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

of  the  people  in  like  manner  should  not  be  destitute  of 
their  sustaining  arm,  in  whose  cause  his  exertions  are 
required. 

It  cannot  be  a  humane  or  a  wise  or  an  economical 
policy  that  would  exclude  from  the  service  of  the  State  a 
large  proportion  of  those  citizens  who,  having  the  abili- 
ty to  be  useful  to  the  public,  are  obliged  to  make  that 
ability  useful  to  themselves. 

XVII.  The  public  interests  in  the  hands  of  the  At- 
torney General  would  be  more  readily  promoted  if  he 
was  entrusted  with  means  for  inquiry  and  examination. 
I  allude  chiefly  to  such  civil  suits  as  he  is  required  to 
institute  and  sustain. 

Several  matters,  in  the  schedules,  hereto  annexed,  are 
yet  in  suspense  for  want  of  the  means  to  procure  infor- 
mation, which  in  private  cases  a  client  obtains  for  his 
lawyer,  before  he  is  expected  to  give  an  opinion. 

The  Commonwealth  claims  to  be  entitled  to  property 
of  persons  dying  without  legal  heirs,  and  to  real  estate 
acquired  by  aliens ;  and  a  statute  directs  the  Attorney 
General  on  inquiry  to  determine  the  facts,  and  then 
proceed  with  process  according  to  the  forms  of  law  ; 
but  it  supplies  him  with  no  means  to  obtain  the  proper 
evidence. 

Whether  a  small  contingent  fund  could  be  safely  ap- 
propriated to  these  and  similar  objects  is  submitted  to 
the  consideration  of  the  Legislature. 

Such  appropriations  have  repeatedly  been  made  on 
special  occasions,  but  the  difficulty  is  that  before  an  ap- 
propriation can  be  made,  the  opportunity  for  its  profita- 
ble employment  passes  away.  The  efficiency  of  the 
public  service  and  the  wisest  economy  both  concur  in 
this,  that  the  public  agents  should  be  furnished  with  all 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  39 

necessary  means  and  held  to  the  strictest  accountability 
for  their  use. 

XVIII.  Various  provisions  in  the  criminal  law  require 
modification,  and  the  whole  body  of  improvements  adopt- 
ed under  the  advice  of  the  Commissioners  in  England, 
for  the  revision  of  the  code,  commend  themselves  to  the 
notice  of  the  Legislature,  for  their  wisdom,  utility,  hu- 
manity and  firmness.  Besides  these,  our  laws  in  rela- 
tion to  riots,  and  the  means  of  suppressing  them,  against 
duelling  and  sending  a  challenge  to  fight,  and  some  pro- 
visions in  the  law  of  libel,  and  the  license  laws  require  re- 
vision. But  I  may  be  excused  from  multiplying  sugges- 
tions of  this  sort  until  those,  which  I  have  before  had 
the  honor  to  present,  shall  have  received  the  attention  of 
the  Legislature. 

XIX.  Notwithstanding  all  the  discouragements  which 
arise  on  a  review  of  the  state  of  the  criminal  law,  of  the 
multiplicity  and  increase  of  crime,  and  of  the  inadequa- 
cy of  the  judicial  department  to  control  it,  there  will  be 
cause  of  great  gratulation  if  the  heart  of  our  society  can 
be  kept  sound  ;  if  the  people  will  continue  their  ancient 
attachment  to  the  social,  civil  and  religious  institutions 
of  the  country,  and  remain  sensible  to  the  truth  of  the 
admonition  given  by  Lafayette  to  his  countrymen,  that 

PUBLIC  ORDER  SHOULD  BE  AS  DEAR  TO   A  H^ISE  PEOPLE  AS 
PUBLIC  LIBERTY. 

JAMES  T.  AUSTIN, 

Attorney  General 


40        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.       Jan 

[A.] 
OFFICIAL  DUTIES 

OF   THE  ' 

ATTORNEY   GEl^ERAL, 

FROM 

NOVEMBER  1,  1833,  TO  NOVEMBER  1,  1834. 

IN  COURT. 


SUFFOLK. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — November  Term,  1833. 

Commonwealth  vs,  William  J.  Snelling,  Applt.  Indict- 
ed for  a  libel.  Motion  for  defendant  to  file  bill  of 
particulars.  Argued.  Ordered.  Motions  for  plead- 
ing. Argued.  Trial  of  issue  bj  jury.  Verdict — 
Guilty.  Case  reserved  on  report  of  the  Judge.  Con- 
tinued. 

Commonwealth  ^5.  Sylvester  Center,  Applt.  Indicted 
for  illegally  keeping  gun  powder.  Trial  of  issue  by 
jury.  Verdict,  guilty  on  one  count  in  the  indictment. 
Not  guilty  on  one  other  count.  Sentenced.  Fine 
$100  and  costs.     Paid  to  the  Sheriff. 

Commonwealth  vs,  James  E.  Hewes.  On  the  lottery  law. 
Same  vs,  same. 


1835.  SENATE— No.   1.  41 

Commonwealth  vs.  Joseph  Diamond. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Same  vs.  same. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Five  indictments  for  breaches  of  the  lottery  law. 
Defendant  guilty.  Fined  ^20  in  each  case,  and  costs 
amounting  to  ^118  19. 

Commonwealth  vs,  Benjamin  Eaton. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Five  indictments  on  the  lottery  laws.  General  de- 
murrer in  each  case.     Continued. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Cutler  Eames. 
Same  vs,         same. 

Indictment  on  lottery  laws.     Defaulted. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Elijah  Williams. 

Same  vs,  same. 

Same  vs.  same. 

Indictments  on  lottery  law.  General  demurrers.  Con- 
tinued. 

MIDDLESEX. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — December,  1833. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Aaron  Locke.  Indicted  for  murder. 
Trial.  Verdict  not  guilty,  by  reason  of  insanity. 
Prisoner  ordered  to  be  confined  in  the  State  Lunatic 
Hospital,  at  Worcester. 


42        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.      Jan 

NORFOLK. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court. 

Commonwealth  appellant  from  the  decree  of  the  Judge 
of  Probate,  in  the  case  of  Fisher  Kingsbury,  Admin- 
istrator.    Considered.     Continued. 

SUFFOLK. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — March  Term,  1834. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Joseph  Increase  Sumner  Peder. 
Murder.  Examination  before  Grand  Jury.  No  bill. 
Prisoner  discharged. 

Commonwealth  vs.  George  Harvey  Barnes.  Larceny 
of  315,000  from  the  Piscataqua  Bank.  Examined  by 
Grand  Jury.  Bill  ordered.  Returned  to  Municipal 
Court. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Enoch  Howes  and  al.  Lottery  law. 
Argued.     Judgment  for  defendants. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Dyer  Vespasian.  A  prisoner  in  the 
State  Prison,  under  a  judgment  of  Supreme  Judicial 
Court,  rendered  in  Middlesex,  in  October,  1821. 
Sentenced  for  life.  Petitioner  for  writ  of  certiorari, 
and  inspection  of  errors.  Writ  issued.  Questions  on 
the  record  argued.  Motion  for  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
and  discharge.  Judgment  reversed  by  the  court. 
Prisoner  discharged. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  43 

Commonwealth  vs.  Isaac  J.  Torrey.     Same  proceedings. 
Judgment  reversed.     Prisoner  released. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Philip  Haskins.     Same  proceedings. 
Judgment  reversed.     Prisoner  released. 

Commonwealth  vs.   Simon   Cook.     Same  proceedings. 
Judgment  reversed.     Prisoner  released. 

Commonwealth  sci.  fac.  vs.  Franklin  Dexter.     Bail,  &c. 
Demurrer  overruled.     Motion  to  be  heard  in  chance- 
ry,  granted    to    defendant.     Argued.     Judgment  for 
penalty  without  reduction. 
Amount  paid  by  defendant  for  penalty,        -       $500  00 
Costs, 46  62 


Paid  by  the  Attorney  General  to  the  >  _  ^p.aq  62 
Treasurer  of  the  Commonwealth,  ) 

Commonwealth  vs.  William  J.  Snelling,  for  a  libel  on 
Judge  Whitman.  Argued  on  the  case  reserved — post- 
poned until  the  adjournment.  Exceptions  then  over- 
ruled. Judgment  on  verdict.  Sentence,  three  months' 
imprisonment  in  common  jail,  and  to  pay  costs,  taxed 
at  ^90  11. 

Commonwealth  vs.  WilHam  J.  Snelling,  for  another  libel. 
Argued  on  case  reserved.  Exceptions  to  verdict 
overruled.  Judgment.  Sentence,  fifteen  months'  im- 
prisonment in  common  jail  and  to  pay  costs,  taxed  at 
^106   13. 

Commonwealth  ^5.  Benjamin  Eaton.  Five  indictments. 
Argued  on  the  demurrer.  Demurrers  overruled.   Sen- 


44        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.      Jan 

tence,  defendant  to  pay  fine  and  costs,  amounting  to 

^127  56. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Elijah  Williams.  Demurrers  argued. 
Overruled.     Continued  for  sentence. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Saunders. 

Same  ^5.     same. 

Same  vs.  Nathaniel  R.  Meder. 

Same  vs.  same.  Sureties  on  re- 

cognizance.    Judgment  for  Commonwealth. 

MIDDLESEX. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — April  Term,  1834. 

Commonwealth  ^5.  George  Ramsdale,  App'lt.  Perjury. 
Trial  of  the  same  by  jury.     Verdict  not  guilty. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Tarrant  P.  Merriam,  App'lt.  Adul- 
tery. Judgment  on  verdict.  Sentence,  ten  days  sol- 
itary confinement  and  one  year  hard  labor  in  the  State 
Prison. 

PLYMOUTH. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — Special  Session — June,    1834. 

Commonwealth  vs.  John  H.  Hunt.  Murder.  Trial. 
Verdict,  guilty  of  manslaughter.  Sentence,  ten  days' 
solitary  confinement,  seven  years'  hard  labor  in  the 
State  Prison. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Robert  Inglee  and  others.  Riot. 
Motion  for  new  trial — argued  in  part.  Continued  to 
next  term  in  Bristol. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  45 

SUFFOLK. 

Police  Court — City  of  Bostoii. 

Citation  to  attend  the  petition  of  Benjamin  Eaton,  im- 
prisoned for  fine  and  costs  on  sentences  of  Supreme 
Court,  for  liberation.     Examined — refused. 

MIDDESEX. 

Justices^  Court — \Sth  to  27th  August. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Henry  Buck.  Charged  capitally 
with  arson  and  burglary,  with  others,  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Ursuline  Convent,  on  the  night  of  11th 
August.  Admitted  to  testify  as  a  witness  for  the 
Commonwealth.     Committed. 

Commonwealth  vs.  George  F.  Roulstone.  As  above. 
Discharged. 

The  preliminary  examination  of  several  of  the  persons 
subsequently   indicted,  was  attended  to  and  the  several 

persons  committed. 

Court  of  Common  Pleas  at  Concord — Sept.  Term,  1 834. 

Commonwealth  vs.  John  R.  Buzzell.     Capitally  indicted 

for  arson  and  burglary. 

Same  vs.  same,  second  indictment. 
Commonwealth  vs.  Prescott  P.  Pond. 
Same  vs.  same. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Marvin  Marcy,  Jr. 
Same         vs.  same. 


46    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

Commonwealth  ^5.  William  Mason,  Jr. 
Same  vs.  same. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Sargent  Blaisdell. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Isaac  Parker. 
Same  vs.         same. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Alvah  Kelley. 
Same         vs.         same. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Wilder  S.  Thurston. 
Same         vs.  same. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Henry  Buck. 

Indictments  presented  and   certified  to  the  next  Su- 
preme Judicial  Court  in  said  County,  in  October. 
Commonwealth  vs.  Henry  Buck.     Indicted  for  second 

degree  of  above  offences. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Nathaniel  Budd,  Jr. 
Commonwealth  vs.  Aaron  Hadley. 
Commonwealth  vs.  Ephraim  G.  Holwell. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Thomas  Dillon.     Indicted  as  above. 

Defendants  not  arrested.     Warrants  in  hands  of  the 

officers. 

Memo. — In  the  Supreme  Court  in  October,  such  of 
the  above  named  persons  as  were  in  custody,  were  ar- 
raigned, and  after  the  disposal  of  several  preliminary  mo- 
tions, the  2d  December  was  assigned  for  the  commence- 
ment of  the  trials. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  47 

Commonwealth    vs.    Edward    S.    Spear.       Accused    as 
above.     Examination  by  Grand  Jury.     No  bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Jacob  Chandler.  As  above.  No 
bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Augustus  Gernlin.  As  above.  No 
bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  William  Young.    As  above.    No  bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  James  H.  Conant.  As  above.  No 
bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  James  Belknap.     As  above.    No  bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  James  Freeman.    As  above.  No  bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  William  D.  Lewis.  Accessory  after 
the  fact.     No  bill. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Caleb  French.     As  above.     No  bill. 

Other  persons  were  also  complained  of  either  as  prin- 
cipals in  the  first  degree,  or  as  aiders  and  abetters  or 
advisers,  in  the  felonies  above  mentioned.  But  as  the 
cases  are  yet  unfinished,  and  may  be  subjected  to  the 
further  action  of  the  Grand  Jury,  before  whom  all  the 
evidence  has  not  yet  been  produced,  a  more  particular 
detail  cannot  properly  be  made. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Sophia  Emery,  an  absconding  wit- 
ness. Process  for  contempt  of  court.  Defendant  re- 
cognized. 


48    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

Commonwealth  vs,  Margaret  Hull.  Same.  Defendant 
excused. 

HAMPDEN. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — September  Term,  1 834. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Moses  Elliot.  Murder.  Trial. 
Verdict,  not  guilty. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Simeon  Mallory.  Burglary  in  first 
degree.     Verdict,  not  guilty. 

WORCESTER. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — October  Term,   1 834. 

Commonwealth  vs,  David  Humes.  Larceny.  Excep- 
tions of  law,  to  evidence — from  Common  Pleas.  Ar- 
gued.    Continued  for  advisement  of  court. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Eph.  Brigham.  Forgery.  Excep- 
tions from  Common  Pleas.  Right  of  appeal.  Ar- 
gued.    Continued  for  advisement. 

Wilder  S.  Thurston.  Petition  for  habeas  corpus.  Writ 
returned.     Petitioner  allowed  bail. 

BRISTOL. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court — October  1834. 

Commonwealth  vs.  George  B.  Phillips.  License  Law. 
Exceptions  from  Common  Pleas.  Argued.  Contin- 
ued for  advisement. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  I.  49 

Commonwealth  vs.  Robert  Inglee  and  others.  Riot. 
Motion  for  new  trial  argued.  Order  to  verify  facts  by 
affidavit.     Continued. 

Commonwealth  vs.  George  Wilkinson.  Nuisance  on 
public  highway.  Reserved  on  report  of  the  judge. 
Argued.  Exceptions  overruled.  Defendant  ordered 
to  recognize  to  appear  at  nisi  prius  and  submit  to  sen- 
tence. 

SUFFOLK. 

Probate  Court. 

Case  of  William  H.  Allen,  a  foreigner,  supposed  to  have 
died  intestate  and  without  heirs.  Claim  of  pretended 
creditor  to  have  administration  resisted  on  part  of 
Commonwealth.  Objection  allowed.  Claim  of  Da- 
nish Consul  for  administration  interposed.  Allowed. 
Admonition  to  pay  assets  to  Commonwealth.  Con- 
tinued. 

NORFOLK. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court. 

Commonwealth  vs.  John  Wade.  Capital  Arson.  Trial 
by  Jury.     Verdict,  not  Guilty. 

Commonwealth  vs.  William  Glynn.  Capital.  Rape. 
Trial.     Verdict,  Not  Guilty. 

Commonwealth  vs.  John  Walton.  Capital.  Indict- 
ment for  highway  robbery.  Preparation  was  made  to 
try  this  cause,  but  the  defendant  escaped  from  custo- 
dy.    Continued. 


50    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

Commonwealth  vs.  Fisher  Kingsbury,  Administrator. 
Argued.  Judgment  in  favor  of  Commonwealth.  Case 
remitted  to  Judge  of  Probate  of  said  county  to  make 
final  decree. 

The  Attorney  General  has  attended  both  terms  of  the 
Supreme  Court  in  Middlesex  and  Suffolk,  and  the  terms 
holden  by  the  full  Court  in  Plymouth,  Hampden,  Wor- 
cester, Bristol  and  Norfolk,  and  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  at  the  September  term  in  Concord.  His  official 
duties  in  Middlesex,  prevented  his  attending  in  Berkshire 
and  Hampshire. 


OFFICIAL  DUTIES 

OF    THE 

ATTORIVEY   GENERAL 

OUT  OF  COURT. 


Report  made  on  the  order  of  the  Honorable  Senate,  re- 
ferring certain  books  and  manuscripts. 

BissePs  Mortgage.  Papers  from  the  Treasury  examin- 
ed, and  suit  ordered. 

Reply  to  Committee  of  the  Honorable  Council  in  regard 
to  the  mode  in  which  the  Treasurer's  bond  was  exe- 
cuted. 

Examination  of  the  case  of  Charles  Haynes,  demanded 
by  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  as  a  fugi- 
tive from  justice. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  61 

Report  made  to  the  Governor,  by  his  order,  on  the  pro- 
visions of  the  existing  law  in  regard  to  fugitives  from 
justice. 

Order  of  the  Governor  to  examine  a  Bill  submitted  to 
him  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  in- 
corporating certain  proprietors  of  meadows  in  Cam- 
bridge, &c.,  and  to  report  on  the  constitutionality  of 
some  of  its  provisions.  Report  made  to  his  Excellen- 
cy in  writing. 

Order  of  the  Governor  to  consider  and  report  on  the 
validity  of  a  military  election  and  the  constitutional 
power  of  the  Governor  to  set  it  aside.  Report  made 
in  writing.  ^ 

Examination  of  the  bond  proposed  to  be  given  by  the 
proprietors  of  the  Warren  Bridge,  under  the  act  of 
March,  1834. 

Questions  proposed  by  the  Trustees  of  the  State  Luna- 
tic Hospital  on  matters  in  which  the  Commonwealth 
was  interested.     Examined  and  answered  in  writing. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  Statute  of  1834,  ch.  199,  the 
Treasurer  forwarded  to  the  Attorney  General  a  list  of 
EIGHTY-ONE  auctioucers,  dehnquent  in  the  payment  of 
the  auction  tax.  Written  notice  given  to  each,  and 
the  claims  of  the  Commonwealth  adjusted  in  each 
case  without  actual  prosecution.  It  is  not  deemed 
necessary  to  name  the  supposed  delinquents.  Many 
of  them  were  prevented  by  accident  or  mistake  from 
a  literal  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  the  law. 


52    ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 

Case  of  Champion  Belden,  a  fugitive  from  justice.  Ex- 
amined, and  opinion  in  writing  forwarded  to  the  Gov- 
ernor. 

Order  of  the  Governor  to  examine  the  militia  law  and 
prepare  an  opinion  on  certain  legal  questions  arising 
in  the  practical  operation  of  the  act.  Opinion  given 
in  writing. 

Requisition  by  the  Overseers  of  the  House  of  Correc- 
tion in  Hampden  County,  for  an  opinion  on  certain 
questions  in  which  they  considered  the  pubhc  justice 
was  concerned  and  the  Commonwealth  was  interested. 
Examined  and  opinion  given  in  writing. 

Application  from  Newburyport  in  regard  to  the  right  of 
certain  aggrieved  citizens  to  the  prerogative  process 
of  the  Commonwealth,  by  the  Attorney  General  ex- 
officio^  in  case  of  an  alleged  interference  with  naviga- 
gable  waters.     Examined — process  postponed. 

Application  to  certify  the  necessity  of  an  Executive  war- 
rant for  Benjamin  Wilbur,  a  fugitive  from  justice. 
Examined — declined. 

Examination  of  the  requisition  of  the  Governor  of  Maine, 
for  the  delivery  of  James  Hall,  a  fugitive  from  justice. 

Examination  of  the  case  of  Jacob  Chandler,  a  fugitive 
from  justice.  Certificate  for  his  arrest  transmitted  to 
the  Governor  of  this  Commonwealth. 

Examination  of  the  case  of  John  H.  Tibbetts,  an  alleged 
fugitive  from  justice,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  an 


1835.  SENATE— No.   1.  53 

Executive  requisition   upon  the   Governors   of  New 
Hampshire  and  Maine.     Opinion  given  in  writing. 

Questions  proposed  by  the  Directors  of  the  Insane  Hos- 
pital, in  regard  to  certain  forms  of  proceeding  in  which 
the  Commonwealth  is  interested.  Opinion  given  in 
writing. 

The  general  superintendence  of  the  criminal  department 
and  the  correspondence  incident  to  it,  has  been  at- 
tended to  as  occasion  required. 

The  title  of  the  Commonwealth  to  about  one  hundred 
acres  of  land  in  Washington^  in  the  county  of  Berk- 
shire. 

The  right  of  the  Commonwealth  by  inquest  of  office,  to 
be  possessed  of  a  large  and  valuable  messuage  in  Bos- 
ton in  the  County  of  Suffolk. 

The  claim  of  the  Commonwealth  to  the  property  both 
real  and  personal,  late  of  William  Scott  of  Chilmark, 
in  the  County  of  Dukes.  These  cases  have  been  par- 
tially the  subject  of  examination,  but  further  proceed- 
ings are  suspended  for  reasons  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding report. 

State  of  Rhode  Island  in  equity  vs.  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts.  In  Supreme  Court  of  United  States. 
For  argument,  January  term,  1835. 


(  B.) 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE  REPORT 


SAMUEL  D    PARKER,  ESQ. 

Attorney  for  the  Commonwealth  within  the  County  of 

Suffolk. 

Of  his  Official  business  to  31st  Oct.  1834,  inclusive,  as  made  by  him  to  the 

ATTORNEY  GENERAL. 


1835. 


SENATE— No.  1. 


55 


Cases  to  bo  Disposed  of. 


CAUSES  OF  COMPLAINT. 


Murder, 

Burglary, 

Forgery  and  Counterfeiting, 

Larceny, 

Accessory  to  Larceny, 

Perjury, 

Assault  to  commit  murder  or  other  felony 

Adultery, 

Lewdness  and  Lascivious  Cohabitation, 

On  the  Gaming  Law, 

On  the  Victuallers'  License  Law, 

On  the  Lottery  Law, 

Assault  and  Battery, 

Information  on  State's  Prison  Convict 
Law, 

Riot, 

Fraud, 

Libel, 

Blasphemy, 

Nuisance, 

On  the  Gunpowder  Law, 

Conspiracy, 

Duelling, 

Jail  Breach, 

Common  Drunkards, 

Police  Misdemeanors, 

Total, 

Peace  Warrants, 

Writs  of  Scire  Facias, 

Total  Cases  on  this  Abstract, 

Deduct  Cases  pending  at  date  of  last  Rep. 

Total  NEW  Cases  since  last  Report, 


312 


1 
2 

155 

'! 

9 
11 


5 

2 

21 

62 

lo: 

4i 

22 

7 

3 

31 

2 

1 

5 

3 

2 

5 

427 

73 

29 

529 

53 

476 


llow  dispospd  of. 


37 


*69 
42 

27 


*Of  these  Indictments,  forty-two  were  laid  on  file  because  the  Defendants  had  not  been 
arrested. 


1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  57 

Of  the  foregoing  persons  convicted,  there  were  sentenced  to 

confinement  to  hard  labor  in  the 

STATE  PRISON, 


1 

foi 

1 

U 

3 

(( 

1 

U 

2 

(C 

2 

(C 

3 

a 

1 

a 

27 

li 

2 

a 

1 

u 

28 

u 

4* 

(C 

76  Convicts. 

20  years. 

10 

a 

7 

i( 

6 

u 

5 

a 

4 

t( 

3 

u 

n 

u 

2 

u 

IJ 

;( 

15  months. 

1  year. 

6  months. 

*These  four  were  sentenced  to  the  State  Preson  for  six  months  from  and 
after  the  expiration  of  previous  sentences  under  which  they  were  then  hold- 
en  in  the  State  Prison. 


68        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.      Jan 


(C.) 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE  REPORT 

OF 

PLINY  MERRICK,  ESQ. 

Attorney  for  the  Comm^onwealth  for  the  Middle  District, 
comprising  the  Counties  of 

NORFOLK  AND  WORCESTER, 

Of  his  Oflacial  business  to  31st  Oct.  1833,  inclusive,  as  made  by  him  to  the 

ATTORNEY  GENERAL. 


1835. 


SENATE— No.  1 


59 


Cases  to  bo  Disposed  of. 

How  disposed  of. 

CAUSES  OF  COMPLAINT. 

O 
0) 

II 

s 

0-* 
OJ 

a. 

a. 

en 

w 

o 

i 
^ 

5 
'5 

1 

i 

o 
o 
■> 

1 

"3 
2!; 

0) 

3 

c 
o 
O 

Murder, 

1 

1 

Rape, 

1 

1 

1 

Manslaughter, 

1 

1 

Arson, 

2 

2 

4 

2 

Burglary, 

3 

2 

5 

2 

1 

Robbery, 

1 

] 

1 

Counterfeiting  and  Forgery, 

2 

7 

1 

10 

4 

5 

Larceny, 

3 

41 

10 

54 

2 

38 

4 

Perjury, 

3 

3 

1 

1 

1 

Assault  to  commit  murder  or  other  felony, 

1 

2 

3 

1 

Assault  and  Battery, 

3 

20 

4 

27 

21 

1 

1 

Adultery, 

3 

3 

6 

1 

2 

On  the  Victuallers'  License  Law, 

3 

30 

10 

43 

17 

2 

14 

On  the  Gaming  Law, 

2 

1 

3 

1 

1 

Fraud, 

2 

2 

2 

Riot, 

1 

2 

1 

4 

1 

2 

Nuisance, 

5 

14 

11 

30 

3 

3 

1 

12 

Peddling, 

1 

2 

1 

4 

1 

2 

Trespass  and  Malicious  Mischief, 

1 

3 

2 

6 

2 

2 

Barratry, 

1 

1 

Jail  Breach, 

3 

3 

Pound  Breach, 

] 

1 

2 

1 

1 

Total,  !  25 

133 

— 

5(3 

214 

7 

13 

91 

9 

45 

Writs  of  Scire  Facias, 

Total  Cases  on  this  Abstract, 

221 

Deduct  Cases  pending  at  date  of  last  Rep. 

22 

Total  NEW  Cases  since  last  Report, 

199 

60 


ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 


Of  ttie  foregoing  persons  convicted^  there  were  sentenced  to 

confinement  to  hard  labor  in  the 

STATE  PRISON, 

for  20  years. 


3 

2 
1 
8  months. 


18  Convicts. 


(D.  ) 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE  REPORT 


CHARLES  A.  DEWEY,  ESQ. 

Attorney  for  the  Commonwealth  for  the  Western  District, 
comprising  the  Counties  of 

HAMPSHIRE,  HAMPDEN,  FRANKLIN,  AND 
BERKSHIRE, 

Of  his  Official  business  to  31st  Oct.  ]  834,  inclusive,  as  made  by  him  to  the 

ATTORNEY  GENERAL. 


1835. 


SENATE— No.  1. 


63 


Cases  to  bo  Uisposod  of. 

Ho 

V  disposed  of. 

CAUSES  OF  COMPLAINT. 

■s 

li 

.11 

-a 
a 

i 
< 

o 

1 

'5 

cr 

< 

1 

'3 

CT" 

o 
2 

3 

a 
o 

Murder, 

2 

2 

1 

1 

Arson, 

1 

1 

Burglary, 

2 

1 

3 

1 

Forgery, 

1 

4 

5 

3 

1 

1 

Larceny, 

1 

44 

5 

50 

3 

40 

1 

1 

Perjury, 

1 

1 

Assault  to  commit  murder  or  other  felony. 

1 

2 

3 

1 

Adultery, 

1 

1 

2 

1 

Lewdness, 

1 

1 

On  the  Gaming  Law, 

1 

1 

2 

1 

On  the  Victuallers'  License  Law, 

1 

5 

12 

18 

3 

1 

2 

On  the  Auction  Law, 

2 

1 

3 

2 

Assault  and  Battery, 

1 

12 

6 

19 

1 

9 

3 

Riot, 

4 

4 

8 

2 

1 

1 

Fraud, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Libel, 

2 

2 

Trespass  and  Malicious  Mischief, 

1 

3 

4 

1 

Nuisance, 

11 

15 

12 

38 

1 

14 

1 

10 

Common  Drunkards, 

1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

Peddling, 

1 

1 

Disturbing  Religious  Worship, 

1 

3 

1 

2 

7 

1 

2 

2 

Official  Misdemeanor, 

1 

1 

Maintenance, 

I 

1 

Pound  Breach, 

1 

1 

2 

1 





— 





Total, 

21 

96 

3 

59 

179 

12 

78 

4 

26 

Peace  Warrants, 

^ 

Writs  of  Scire  Facias, 

j 

Total  Cases  on  this  Abstract, 

190 

Deduct  Cases  pending  at  date  of  last  Rep. 

21 

Total  NETV  Cases  since  last  Report, 

169 

1835. 


SENATE— No.  1. 


65 


Of  the  foregoing  persons  convicted,  there  were  sentenced  to 

confinement  to  hard  labor  in  the 

STATE  PRISON, 


1                         fc 

>r                         14  years. 

1 

i                           5      " 

2 

4      " 

2                         ' 

3      '' 

4 

2      " 

7 

1      ^' 

1 

*                            9  months. 

18  Convicts. 

68   ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 


(E.) 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE  REPORT 


CHARLES  H.  WARREN,  ESQ. 

Attorney  for  the  Commonwealth  for  the  Southern  District, 
comprising  the  Counties  of 

BRISTOL,  PLYMOUTH,  BARNSTABLE,  DUKES 
COUNTY  AND  NANTUCKET, 

Of  his  Official  business  to  31st  Oct.  1834,  inclusive,  as  made  by  him  to  the 

ATTORNEY  GENERAL. 


1835. 


SENATE— No.  1. 


67 


Cases  to  be  Disposed  uf. 

How  disposed  of. 

CAUSES  OF  COMPLAINT. 

o 

V 

.11 
a 

JO 

li 

< 

o 

6 

J2 

B 

'3 

cr 
o 

< 

a 
o 

o 

§ 
O 

2 

3 

Z 

1 

1 

Manslaughter, 

2 

1 

3 

Burglary, 

1 

1 

1 

Assaults  to  murder  or  other  felony. 

2 

1 

3 

1 

1 

Larceny, 

1 

24 

14 

39 

23 

2 

Lewdness, 

2 

2 

Arson  in  2d  degree. 

1 

1 

1 

Concealing  Birth  of  Bastard  Child, 

1 

1 

Riot, 

2 

2 

4 

2 

On  Victuallers'  License  Law, 

43 

129 

3 

53 

228 

102 

11 

62 

Assault  and  Battery, 

15 

1 

6 

22 

1 

13 

2 

Nuisance, 

14 

11 

9 

34 

14 

2 

9 

Contempt  of  Court, 

9 

9 

9 

Libel, 

1 

1 

1 

Conspiracy, 

1 

1 

Malicious  Trespass, 

2 

1 

3 

1 

2 

Official  Misdemeanors, 

2 

2 

1 

1 

On  the  Gaming  Law, 

2 

62 

199 

5 

1 

7i 

3 
357 

1 

1 

Total, 

1 

171 

17 

77 

Writs  of  Scire  Facias, 

18 

Total  Cases  on  this  Abstract, 

375 

Deduct  Cases  pending  at  date  of  last  Rep. 

62 

Total  NEW  Cases  since  last  Report, 

313 

68   ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.   Jan 


Of  the  foregoing  persons  convicted,  there  were  sentenced  to 

confinement  to  hard  labor  in  the 

STATE  PRISON, 


1 

for 

10  years. 

1 

<C 

7       " 

2 

U 

5      '' 

2 

u 

4      " 

2 

cc 

3      " 

1 

a 

2       *' 

7 

u 

1       " 

1 

<( 

6  months 

17  Convicts. 

(  F.  ) 

ABSTRACT  OF  THE  REPORT 

OF 

ASAHEL  HUNTINGTON,  ESQ. 

Attorney  for  the  Commonwealth  for  the  Northern  District, 
comprising  the  Counties  of 

ESSEX  AND  MIDDLESEX, 

Of  his  Official  business  to  31st  Oct.  1834,  inclusive,  as  made  by  him  to  the 

ATTORNEY  GENERAL. 


1835.                     SENATK- 

-No.  1. 

71 

y 

Cuii 

5«  10  I.O  hiajmiod  of. 

llow  diipuicii  of. 

r~\' 

1  1 

CAUSES  Ol<^  COMPLAINT. 

Pending  at  the  date 
last  Report. 

Bills. 

Appeals. 

1  No  Bills. 
Total  Cases. 

1       i 

i  1  ' 

Murder, 

1        1 

Manslaughter, 

' 

2 

1 

1 

Arson, 

1 

2 

1       4 

2       1 

Burglary, 

1 

1       2 

•     1 

Forgery  and  Counterfeiting, 

G 

5 

11 

1        4 

4   2 

Larceny, 

5 

43 

13     61 

4     37 

4  3 

Perjury, 

1 

2 

3 

1        1 

1 

Assault  to  commit  murder  or  other  felony, 

1 

2 

3 

1       2 

Adultery, 

6 

7 

1      14 

1       9 

3 

Lascivious  Cohabitation  and  Lewdness, 

3   1 

1       5 

3 

1 

On  the  Gaming  Law, 

6 

6 

5\ 

1 

On  the  Victuallers'  License  Law, 

24 

79 

23   126 

7     37^2 

6  33 

On  the  Lottery  Law, 

3 

3 

3 

Assault  and  Battery, 

5 

15 

8     28 

3       7 

4  6 

Riot, 

5 

2       7 

"   4 

1 

Fraud, 

1 

1 

1       3 

1 

1 

Libel, 

4       4 

Nuisance, 

22 

11 

6     39 

1       32 

D  9 

Official  Misdemeanor, 

2 

1 

3       6 

J 

2   I 

Embracery, 

1       1 

Trespass  and  Malicious  Mischief, 

4 

3       7 

1 

3 

Peddling, 

3 

3 

2 

1 

Jail  Breach, 

1 

1 

] 

Total, 

77  1 

193  i: 

39  340  2 

2l  iis'es 

>69 

Peace  Warrants, 

j 

2 

Writs  of  Scire  Facias, 

6 

Total  Cases  on  this  Abstract, 

! 

348 

Deduct  Cases  pending  at  date  of  last  Kep. 

77 

Total  NEW  Cases  since  last  Report, 

271 

1 

1835.  SENATE— No.  1.  73 


Of  the  foregoing  persons  convicted^  there  were  sentenced  to 

confinement  to  hard  labor  in  the 

STATE  PRISON, 


1 

for 

Life. 

1 

U 

20  years. 

1 

<c 

10      " 

3 

ii 

5      « 

1 

u 

4      " 

6 

ii 

3      " 

6 

u 

2      " 

10 

ii 

1      « 

1 

ii 

9  months. 

1 

ii 

6      « 

30  Convicts. 

74        ATTORNEY  GENERAL'S  REPORT.      Jan 


(G.) 

GENERAI.  ABSTRACT 

OF   THE 

REPORTS  OF  THE  ATTORNEY  GENERAL 

AND   THE 

COUNTY  AND  DISTRICT  ATTORNIES, 

Intended  to  show  the  number  of  criminal  complaints 
during  the  year  ending  October  31st,  1834; — the  num- 
ber of  cases  examined  by  Grand  Juries,  in  which  they  re- 
turned no  bills  ;  the  number  of  indictments  found  ;  the 
manner  in  which  the  indictments  were  disposed  of,  and 
the  nature  of  the  crimes  which  were  the  subjects  of  judi- 
cial animadversion  during  the  foregoing  period. 


1835. 


SENATE— No.  1. 


76 


Caio  to  bo  nii|>aM.I  uf. 

How  Jiipoiod  or. 

CAUSES  or  COMPLAINT. 

II 

SOS 

L 

£ 

s 

1 

c 
< 

K 
o 
2 

I 

1 

1 

5 

1 

i 

is 

3 

a 

INIurder, 

1 

5 

4 

10 

~~1 

Mnnslanghter, 

4 

2 

6 

3 

1 

Knpo, 

2 

2 

2 

Arson  ill  1st  niul  ','J  dogioo, 

1 

23 

13 

37 

5 

1 

18 

llurgiary  in  1st  nnd  2il  tlogrec, 

1 

1 

1 

Robbery  in  1st  and  2d  degree, 

10 

4 

14 

1 

7 

2 

Concealing  Ueatli  of  IJastard  Child, 

1 

1 

Larceny, 

15 

289 

57 

3.il 

22 

2G4 

5 

13 

Accessory  to  Larceny, 

1 

1 

1 

Assault  to  commit  murder  or  other  felony, 

I 

15 

7 

23 

2 

11 

1 

2 

Forgery, 

20 

48 

4 

4 

76 

5 

23 

6 

38 

Perjury, 

1 

6 

10 

17 

3 

2 

2 

Fraud, 

4 

19 

8 

31 

3 

9 

11 

Adultery, 

9 

13 

7 

29 

2 

12 

2 

6 

Lewdness  and  Lascivious  Cohabitation, 

2 

(i 

7 

15 

1 

7 

Trespass  and  Malicious  Mischief, 

1 

10 

1 

8 

20 

1 

2 

4 

5 

Riot, 

1 

15 

10 

26 

3 

9 

1 

3 

Conspiracy, 

1 

1 

2 

1 

Assault  and  Battery, 

10 

116 

2 

31 

159 

13 

89 

7 

19 

Duelling, 

5 

5 

3 

2 

Embracery, 

1 

1 

Barratry, 

1 

1 

Libel, 

2 

2 

2 

10 

16 

2 

3 

1 

Nuisance, 

56 

77 

40 

173 

7 

57 

26 

43 

reddling. 

6 

2 

8 

3 

3 

Pound  Breach, 

1 

2 

1 

4 

1 

2 

Contempt  of  Court, 

9 

9 

9 

Official  Misdemeanors, 

4 

1 

4 

9 

1 

3 

1 

Disturbing  Public  Worship, 

1 

3 

1 

2 

7 

1 

2 

2 

Information   on  State's   Prison   Convict 
Law, 

14 

14 

4 

10 

On  the  Victuallers'  License  Law, 

71 

248 

4 

98 

421 

7 

160 

40 

116 

On  the  Auction  Law, 

2 

1 

3 

2 

On  the  Lottery  Law, 

24 

17 

41 

1 

28 

12 

On  the  Gaming  Law, 

8 

9 

3 

20 

' 

7 

2 

6 

On  the  Gunpowder  Law, 

3 

3 

1 

1 

1 

Blasphemy, 

2 

1 

3 

2 

Maintenance, 

1 

1 

Jail  Breach, 

4 

3 

7 

3 

1 

Common  Drunkards, 

1 

4 

5 

1 

2 

2 

Police  3Iisdcmeanors, 

1 

4 

5 

1 

Total, 

238" 

985 

18 

346 

1587 

^ 

7a3 

100 

m 

Peace  Warrants, 

77 

Writs  of  Scire  Facias, 

69 

Total  Cases  on  this  Abstract, 

1733 

Deduct  Cases  pending  at  date  of  last  Rep. 

238 

Total  NEW  cases  since  last  Report, 

1495 

1835. 


SENATE— No.  1. 


77 


(H.) 


GENERAL  SUMMARY 


SENTENCES  TO  THE  STATE  PRISON. 


1 
3 
1 
3 
4 
1 
8 
8 

16 
1 

40 
2 
1 

59 
2 
3 
6 


for 


Life. 

20  years. 

14 

ii 

10 

ii 

7 

(( 

6 

ii 

5 

ii 

4 

ii 

3 

ii 

2J 

ii 

2 

ii 

n 

ii 

H 

ii 

1 

ii 

9  months 

8 

ii 

6 

ii 

159  Convicts.