the digester, corrected those redundancies which did not affect, but rather obscured the meaning and force of the law. The arrangement of the law under the head to which its subject matter would naturally refer it, being an object of primary importance and of the greatest difficulty, has received the most scrutinizing attention of the commissioners, and has, with but few exceptions, received also the sanction of their best judgment. They have also faithfully examined the former digest and the acts since passed, respectively, in order that no act or part of an act, which ought to be embraced, should be omitted. In the index, to which their attention has also been particularly directed, the subjects are so thoroughly digested, that a reference to it will, in every instance it is believed, readily supply any deficiency, which may have become unavoidable in the arrangement of the body of the work, from the complication of the matter in its original form: and the marginal notes are so drawn as to convey a brief and sufficiently accurate outline of the subject matter of the laws to which they respectively refer. The commissioners deem it essentially included in the duty enjoined upon them, of reporting on the correctness and fidelity with which the digester has performed his task, to state in a concise manner, the plan he has adopted; more especially as, in a work of this nature, where the materials are already furnished, the degree of judgment exercised in giving them form, and in a methodical arrangement of the several parts, is the chief consideration, to which either praise or censure can be attached. In these respects, considering the immense difficulty of the labor, and after the most thorough investigation which time would permit, their judgment approves the whole cast of the work, which seems eminently calculated to secure the two objects, upon which mainly depends its utility, as designed for popular use and general circulation, namely, a freedom from obscurity, and a compression of the materials into the smallest possible space. How far the means which the digester has employed, were adequate to the end, it is believed, will be evident upon a bare recital. 1. In the arrangement of the matter, the constitutional provisions applicable to each head, have, for the sake of more convenient reference, been included; and also, under the title "Alabama," such parts of the acts of congress, as relate to the political history of our state, and show the successive stages of its transition from the Mississippi Territory to a member of the Union. 2. All laws of a temporary nature, and those which have expired by their own limitation, except such parts of them as were conceived necessary, to elucidate those now in force, and to direct their application, are excluded. 3. All laws and parts of laws repealed, and the repealing clauses, are excluded. 4. When two or more laws have, through inadvertency, been enacted on the same subject, (which is frequently the case,) the one which is the most full and clear, is retained, and the others either omitted entirely, or such parts only of the more imperfect ones retained, as were not re-enacted. 5. In some instances much useless and embarrassing repetition is avoided, by consolidating a number of acts into one, as in the times of holding the circuit and county courts, salaries of officers, &c. &c. where the substance of a great variety of acts is brought into the compass of a single page. 6. In setting out the law, all superfluous and inoperative expressions, such as "from and after the passage of this act," and the suspending clauses after they are fulfilled, and the law become absolute by lapse of time, and others, are omitted, and the same license is taken with the phrases at the commencement of each act and section, which were only inserted as a constitutional compliance with legislative forms, while on its passage: the preambles are, however, uniformly retained. 7. In arranging the laws, each section has been transferred to the head, to which it was supposed to have relation, without regard to the matter with which it may have been mingled, at is original passage; and the whole are disposed, rather according to the method required by the sense, than with reference to the dates; and to avoid the space which would be occupied by a repetition of the title to each section, a chronological list is made out at the commencement of the work, showing at one view, every act of a public nature, in force, from the organization of the Mississippi Territory, up to the close of the last session of the legislature, and the date of its passage. The acts of each year are numbered, commencing from the first; and by the number and year each section is referred to in the margin. The advantage of this arrangement is, that while it has enabled the digester to throw the whole body of the law, substantially, into new acts, according to the affinity of the matter, (for each title, excepting only the constitutional provisions, may now be regarded as a separate act,) it also shows what position every section occupied at its original passage, in the act from which it was taken. In deciding under what title any particular law, or part of a law should be placed, it is believed, that a sound judgment has been exercised-that any law desired will be found under the head at which, if not all, at least most persons would seek for it, without the aid of an index. When, however, it was difficult to decide on the propriety of arrangement, as where a particular law or section seemed referable with equal justice to two heads, its place, where omitted, is supplied by a note showing where it may be found." To this brief outline of the plan and mode of execution, the commissioners will only add, what appears to them a practical commentary of no small importance, namely: that by these means, the whole body of our public statute law, including all embraced in the former digest, and those of nine subsequent years, are brought without confusion, into the compass of but little more than four hundred pages. The commissioners think it unnecessary to express in more explicit terms, the sentiment of entire approbation to which a thorough investigation of the work has given rise, believing, that resting upon its own excellence for the meed of praise it may justly claim, from the enlightened approbation of the legislature and the people, it has a surer basis than any which their commendation could supply. The work is, indeed, the best expositor of its own merits, and to that ordeal they dismiss it; convinced, that while any applause they might bestow would pass away with the moment, the work itself, as often as it serves to bring in contrast the confusion and darkness which have overhung our statute laws heretofore, and the method and harmony with which, it is believed, they are now invested, will yield a testimony to its own worth, too solid to be affected by censure, and too ample to need the augmentation of praise. All which is respectfully submitted. JOHN BROWN, (Red) EXPLANATION OF THE REFERENCES. THE title and date of each law, are indicated in the margin by the year and number which stand opposite to them, in the chronological list of statutes prefixed to the digest. The particular section is also given, except when it coincides in number with the section of the title which it forms. When the marginal reference is enclosed in brackets, it denotes the incorporation of a passage from some other law, usually of a few words, and in no instance extending beyond the commencement of the next section. The small letters direct to the side of the page; the figures, to the bottom; those in parentheses, are appropriated to the decisions of the supreme court. The explanatory notes are framed with reference to the arbitrary division of each title into sections or paragraphs commencing at unity. When the note alludes to a section, without specifying the title, it will of course be understood to be that under which the note occurs. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. In Congress, July 4, 1776. THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. the declara WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for Propriety of one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them tion. with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. rights of the We hold these truths to be self-evident:-that all men are created Unalienable equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien- people, &c. able rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain, is Absolute tya history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object of the object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. king of Great To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. ranny the Britain. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and neces- Recitation of sary for the public good. injuries and usurpations crown. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and on the part of pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation, till his the British assent should be obtained: and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature-a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. B He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large, for their exercise; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. |
