Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 53 Part 1.djvu/702

 APPENDIX cxCVI Court should have jurisdiction of "all claims for the proceeds of captured or abandoned property, as provided in the act of Mar. 12, 1863." The court exam- ined the legislative history and concluded that it was not the intention of Congress to open the jurisdictional limitation of the Abandoned or Captured Property Act by the adoption of the Revised Statutes, and stated: "Whete the language of the revision is ambiguous and uncertain, arising from condensation or other- wise, the well-settled meaning, object, and policy of the preexisting laws revised and reenacted therein must be held to be continued as the true interpretation of the legislative will." SEC. 5596. All acts of Congress passed prior to said first day of December one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, any portion of which is embraced in any section of said revision, are hereby re- pealed, and the section applicable thereto shall be in force in lieu thereof; all parts of such acts not contained in such revision, having been repealed or superseded by subsequent acts, or not being general and permanent in their nature: Provided, That the incorporation into said revision of any general and permanent provision, taken from an act making appropriations, or from an act containing other provisions of a private, local, or temporary character, shall not repeal, or in any way affect any appropriation, or any provision of a private, local or temporary character, contained in any of said acts, but the same shall remain in force; and all acts of Congress passed prior to said last- named day no part of which are embraced in said revision, shall not be affected or changed by its enactment. U. S. v. Claflin, et al., 25 Fed. Cas. 14,799 Action brought in the District Court for the Southern District of New York to recover a penalty of double the value of goods alleged to have been bought, concealed and illegally imported. Certain counts of the declaration were based on Section 2 of the act of March 3, 1823 (3 Stat. 781). To these defendants demurred on the ground that this section had been repealed. The court sus- tained the demurrer, saying: "It is quite clear that the 2d section of the act of March 3, 1823 must be regarded as having been repealed by section 5596 of the Revised Statutes (even if it had not been previously repealed), on the ground that some portion of that act is embraced in the Revised Statutes, the provisions of the first section of that act being embraced in section 3099 of the Revised Statutes, and the provisions of the 2d section of that act not being embraced in any section of the Revised Statutes. The effect of such repeal is to destroy the right of the plaintiffs to recover under said 2d section in respect of any acts done after the enactment of the Revised Statutes. Therefore, counts 7, 9, 11 and 13 of declaration No. 2 are bad." The judgment of the District Court was affirmed by the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York and by the United States Supreme Court, which held (97 U. S. 546) that the 2d section of the act of March 3, 1823 was repealed by the act of July 18, 1866 (14 Stat. 179). U. S. v. Webster, 21 Fed. Rep. 187 One count of an indictment charged the defendant with unlawfully withholding from its owner a discharge paper. This count was based on the act of May 21, 1872 (c. 178, 17 Stat. 137) which consisted of one section and prescribed punish- ment for withholding of discharge papers and land warrants. Defendant moved the court to instruct the jury that the law on which this count was based had been repealed, contending that R. S. 5485 embraced only the portion of the act of May 21, 1872 with respect to land warrants and that by R. S. 5596, therefore, the other portion had been repealed. The motion was denied, the court holding that the act of May 21, 1872 with respect to discharge papers was still in force notwith- standing the enactment of the Revised Statutes. The portion of the act of May 21, 1872 with respect to land warrants was repealed by section 31 of the act of March 3, 1873 (c. 234, 17 Stat. 566, 575) but the portion with respect to discharge papers was not repealed. R. S. 5485 was taken from section 31 of the act of March 3, 1873. The portion of the act of May 21, 1872 with respect to discharge papers which was in force on December 1, 1873, was not carried into the Revised Statutes. Section 5596 of the Revised Statutes provides that acts of Congress passed prior to December 1, 1873, no part of which is embraced in the Revision, shall not be affected or changed by its enactment. No part of the portion of the act of May 21, 1872, with respect to discharge papers having been embraced In the Revised Statutes, it was still in force.

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