Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1874-04-15
Our Washington Letter.
wAsnINoroN, April II. 1874.


messed the completion, so far as the House is
concerned, Of the most important piece Of leg
islation that has been or will be performed by
the present Congress. More time and talent,
more careful thought and more patient labor,
has been bestowed upon this work than upon
any other that has occupied the attention Of
Congress since the formation of the govern.
ment. Iallude to the Revision of the Laws,
the final report of the committee on which was
submitted to and passed by the House on Fri
day last
1t is said that all the creative operations, or
formative processes ofnaturo, known as growth,
are performed so silently and gradually as to
attract attention only by their results. So this
great work has been performed 50 quietly that
the fact that it was being done at oil has scarcely
been known to the great body Of the people
As the honor Of inaugurating and pushing this
measure to final success justly belongs to a
worthy representative Of Vermont, few
words as to its necessity and Importance, and
as to its magnitude and difficulty, will not be
uninteresting to the readers Of the WATcHNAN.
The recent death Of Senator Sumner has re-
called the fac, that one of his first acts upon
taking his scat in the Senate, twenty-three years
ago, was an effort to procure compilation aud
revision of the laws of the United States. it,
necessity had long been apparent to him as
legal student, as it had to every counsellor,
advocate and judge, who had anything to do
with the application and execution Of the
United States Statutes. From the foundation
Of the government, Congress had annually
added to the mass Of these General Statutes,
until their bulk and number had rendered it
almost impossible for the lawyer, however
patient and laborious, or the judge, however
learned, to tell which of them had been super
coded or modified by subsequent enactments.
The lawyer advised his clients with doubt and
fear, and the judge gave his decision with little
confidence 10 the iniallibilty Of his opinion.
An eminent lawyer once said that "no one
could tell the meaning or effect Of a United
States Statute, until the Supreme Court had
had an opportunity Of guessing at it, One
of the Judges Of the supreme Court, in render
ing an important decision, exclaimed in bis
perpleXity at is a great grievance that the
many laws that are passed by Congress become
so numerous and complicated that there is very
great difficulty TO ascertain what is the state Of
the law upon any particular subject"
The regulations and decisions Of the various
Executive Departments, presumed TO be based
upon and explanatory Of the laws, often proved
to be not only false guides to the executive Off.
GERS, but traps into which the people were led to
involuntary violation Of the laws as interpreted
by the courts. Hundreds Of private fortunes
have been wrecked upon these rocks Of uncer-
tainty while on the other hand hundreds OF
millions Of dollars have been lost to the gov.
eminent by these mistaken official opinions and
interpretations Of the law. Each successive
session Of Congress increased the difficulty by
adding few hundred pages to the mass, until
the Statutes, contained in seventeen ponderous
volumes, were a confused and incomprehensi-
bic tumble Of contradictory and inconsistent
enactments. Mr. Summers first effort 10 cx.
cite an interest in Congress in this subject wa.
unsuccessful With his usual pertinacity, how
ever, he returned to the charge again and again
by introducing in each successive Congress a
bill providing for the revision Of the laws. lie
constantly declared that be would continue e
do so as long as he was a member Of the Sen
ate, until this much needed reform was ac
complished Upto the day Of bis death he re
tanned the most active interest in the subject
and his last words to Judge Poland, but few
hours before his death, were Of thanks to hin
| Itrh oil - I'm Inf D..
had so long advocated, and of qualification al
the then certainty Of final success, which b,
said would be wholly due TO the Judge Gu
thusastic devotion ~ the work
Thus matters stood until 1866, When Judge
Poland, then member of the Senate espoused
the cause, and by persistent effort procured The
passage Of an act providing for the long needed
revision. Under this act three commissioner.
were appointed, with Caleb Gushing at theil
head, and three years assigned them in Which
to complete the task. Deferred by the mmen.
sity or the difficulty Of the work, the commits
sionets allowed the three years to expire with
little or nothing done. This effort seemed tc
have been as fruitless as the others With
less determined and persistent friend, it would
have been. This time the measure was in the
hands of man who never abandons an unac
complished design. Not discouraged by the
failure Of his former commission, and the los.
OF three years Of time, Judge Poland, then in
the House, procured the passage Of another
act authorizing the appointment of second
commission, to whom the work Of compilation
was intrus,ed
special committee on "The Revision oil
the Law" was created composed of the most
eminent legal and judicial talent of the House
among whom were Judge Hoar, of Massachu.
sets, Judge Lawrence, Of Ohio, Pendeton, OIL
Rhode Island, Cason, Of Indiana, Moore, oil
Pennsy lyania, DUEL, Of New York and A,
IL. Stephens, Of Georgia. In acknowedg-
ment alike Of bis championship of the meas
ure, and OF his peculiar and superior qualii
cations for the position, Judge Poland was
placed at its head
As soon as the commissioners had made some
progress in their work, the committee com.
meneed its sessions, and entered upon their
more delicate, difficult and important work Of
examination and revision. Nearly three year.
have thus been spent in this most perplexinp
and laborious work. The work of the com.
missioners had to be compared with the original
statutes by the committee with the most minute
and careful scrutiny. BY far the largest and
most difficult portion of this work was per
formed by Judge Poland himself lie brought
to the work not only profound legal knowledge
and an extensive judicial experience, but a char
aeteristic patience and perseverance, such as
few men possess,
The necessity for the constant exercise of all
these qualities will be apparent when we re.
member that the committee had to consider and
decide what laws had been repealed, not only
by express enactment, but often by obscure i'm
plieation; to strip the laws of every word Of
useless verbiage, without in the least altering
or obscuring its scope or intent to see that in
no case its meaning was changed by the ae-
cldental addition or omission Of a single letter.
or the insertion, omission OF displacement of a
simple punctuation mark, and finally, to arrange
the whole so that everything bearing upon each
particular subject should appear in its proper
place and connection. To do this so that the
contents OF seventeen ponderous yolumes-eacb
nearly as large as Webster's unabridged die
tionary-should be condensed into one volume
of reasonable oiza an thak So ,