752 



r SITED STATES. 



14? : miscellaneous suits, 2,216 making in tho 



:!_:_. . 7,.Y.e. suit*. l>iiriu_' tin- yMT flod- 



ing on the same day, the aggregate amount of 

 judgments in favor of t 

 suits was $3,208,402, and the amount actually 

 rea!ize<J on the judgments was $1,6'.'- 

 There were pending on July 1, 1*7:;, in Circuit 

 and District Courts ..ft ho United State-, ti,-JT-i 

 criminal prosecution*. 



A total ..f l.'i.lll suits of all classes were 

 commenced in the year ending with June. 

 in the Federal Courts. The total number 

 terminated was T.-Tii. A summary of the 

 business transacted by the Court of Claims for 

 the same period shows that the miscellani -ous 

 oases disposed of amounted to 1,493 ; cotton 

 08868,107: total, 1,600. The amount claimed 

 was $7,015,223. The amount awarded was as 

 follows : In the miscellaneous cases, $753,402 ; 

 in the cotton cases, $3,130,398, making a to- 

 tal of $3,883,800. The number of cases dis- 

 posed of during the year was 1,600. 'I 

 still pending amonnt to 4,802. The amount 

 id"d by the Department of Justice was 

 $3,031,000. 



Among the decisions of the above-mentioned 

 Court of Claims, there was one in which the 

 legality of certain corporations created by the 

 Legislature of Georgia while the State was in 

 secession was decided. The question was raised 

 whether they wore endowed with a legal exist- 

 ence by which they were capable of owning cot- 

 ton captured, and capable of saint; in this court 

 for the proceeds. The Chief-Justice delivered 

 the opinion of the court, answering this ques- 

 tion affirmatively, under the decision* of the 

 United States Supreme Court, holding that 

 whatever act of the Legislature of a rebel 

 State did not tend to further support the re- 

 bellion, or to defeat tin-just rights ot'cit 

 but related merely to the domestic affairs of 

 the people of the State, as a community, aside 

 from the connection of that people with the 

 rebellion, is a valid act by a dtfaeto though 

 unlawful government, which will he sustained 

 in the courts of the United States. Applying 

 these tests to the < -barters of these comp 

 it is, therefore, held that they have a valid ex- 

 istence, and are entitled to the judgment. 



One of the most important decisions of the 

 Supreme Court of the I'nited States was ren- 

 oti April Hth. It related to the so- 

 I "Slaughter House" cases arising under 

 the laws MAI. Crct.oi-.s- 



Dlx, 1809 and l-T". I IUSA). This impor- 

 tance arises from the appeal made l.y one of 

 the parties in the cases for protection from 

 hostile legislation by Louisiana to the author!- 

 ty of under the thir- 



teenth and fourteenth amendments of the Con- 

 stitution. 



These oases, it will be rein, .-rew 



( an act of th.- -, of l..,ui 



! " An M.T to protect tl,c health of the 

 city of Sew Origins, to locate the stock-land- 

 ings and slaugl.- and to incorporate 



'The Crescent City Live -Stock Landing nnd 

 Slaughter-house Company,"' passed in 1868. 

 The act created the cor)". ration named in its 

 title, which was composed of seventeen per- 

 sons, and conferred upon it the sole ai)'. 

 elusive privilege of conducting and carrying 

 on the live-stock landing and slaughter 

 business in the city of New Orleans and the 

 adjoining parishes, embracing a country of 

 Over Uio . it also required all 



live-stock to the landed at the stock-landings 

 and slaughtered at the slaughter-houses . 

 company and nowhere else. The company 

 was required to erect and maintain landing! 

 and slaughter-houses at designated places, und 

 to permit any person to land live-stock there- 

 at, or to slaughter animals therein, on receipt 

 of a stipulated fee. 



The butchers of New Orleans organized 

 themselves into an association for the purpose 

 of contesting the validity of the act, and. after 

 being beaten in the State courts, brought the 

 case to the .Supreme Court of the United States, 

 where it has been three times argued. It was 

 contended, in the first place, that the act was 

 invalid, because it created a monopoly and 

 conferred odious and exclusive privileges upon 

 a small number of persons at the expense of 

 the community, and deprived a large class of 

 citizens of the right to exercise, their trade. 

 The majority of the Supreme Court held, on 

 this point, that the act was within the police 

 power of the Legislature a power which tho 

 court admits is incapable of any very exact 

 definition or limitation." The dissentients 

 .histiee Chase, and Justices Field, Brad- 

 ley, and Swayne were, however, of the opin- 

 ion that there were only two provisions of 

 the act which could properly be called police 

 regulations, or which came within the police 

 1 of the L.-gi-latiire, viz., the one which 

 required the landing and slaughtering of ani- 

 mals below the city of New Orleans, and the 

 one which required the inspection of the ani- 

 mals In-fore they were slaughtered. Mr. Ji< 

 I-'iold insisted that, if the exclusive pri\ i 



'rod upon this corporation were sus- 

 tained, there would be no reasons why "ex- 

 clusive privileges for the construction and 

 keeping of ovens, machines, grindstones, wine- 

 presses, and for all the numerous trades and 

 pursuits, for the prosecution of which build- 

 ings are required, may not be equally bestowed 

 upon other corporation* or private individuals, 

 and for periods of ind. finite duration." 



But the most important object ion urged hy 

 tho HntohiTs' A--s,,ei:ition \\ as. that the act 

 was in violation of the Constitution of the 

 I'nited States in these several particulars: that, 

 it created an involuntary servitude forbidden 

 by the thirteenth amendment; that it aim 



privileges and immunities of citizens of 

 nited States; that it denied to the phiiii- 



'ieccpuil protection of the laws; and that 

 it deprives them of their property without 

 due process of Inw, contrary to the provisions 



