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Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 28 Article 14 Issue 3 September-October Fall 1937 Book Reviews Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Book Reviews, 28 Am. Inst. Crim. L. & Criminology 461 (1937-1938) This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. BOOK REVIEWS WILLiAM F. BYRON [ED.] FEDERAL JUSTICE: CHAPTERS IN THE torney General from the earliest HISTORY OF JUSTICE AND THE period of the Republic. FEDERAL EXECUTIVE. By Homer The first to occupy this impor- Cummings, Attorney General tant and onerous office was the of the United States, and Carl celebrated Edmund Randolph, ap- McFarland, Special Assistant to pointed by Washington in 1789. He the Attorney General of the is perhaps best known in legal United States: New York, The circles by his adverse Report on Macmillan Company, 1937. the Judiciary Act of 1789, a report which, almost a century later, was This handsome octavo of 576 characterized by Mr. Justice Ma- pages is well worthy of being read thews as "an accurate and perspi- by every American lawyer and, cuous analysis of the judicial indeed, by everyone who is inter- power"; but the Act withstood all ested in the difficulties experienced attacks and remained substantially by the Federal Government in unchanged till 1869-1870 when the matters of great importance Inter- Department of Justice Bill was State and otherwise, from the ear- approved by President Grant. liest times to the present. It gives Randolph drew the Neutrality a full and accurate account of the Proclamation, in 1793, during the way troublesome situations have Franco-British war, which has, not been handled and generally with unjustly, been regarded as the substantial success. foundation of the international It might well have been called laws of neutrality. The Story of the Attorneys Gen- Not to mention the living, many eral of the United States as it is men who have passed away have almost essentially an account of filled this important office with the labors for the nation of most dignity and efficiency. I have ref- of fifty-five Attorneys General ernce to men like William Wirt, who have filled that important appointed by John Quincy Adams office since 1789. It is to be re- (his proposition that law is membered that, while after many not a mathematical science, I strenuous but futile attempts, it have had occasion to agree with was not till after the Civil War in my Canadian Court; and that a Department of Justice was Roger B. Taney, appointed by instituted, headed by the Attorney Jackson and later, as Chief Justice, General, and placed upon an equal and so unjustly execrated for his footing with other Departments; a decision in the Dred Scott case, in step which Congress had thereto- no small degree perhaps due to fore uniformly refused to take the bitterness of party feeling. A although there had been an At- great deal of his activities as At- [ 461] BOOK REVIEWS torney General was devoted to the ing and valuable reports were Second Bank of the United States. made; and the Commissioners did John J. Crittenden was twice At- not disregard their own injunction torney General under Presidents "We must not forget the many his- Harrison and Tyler, who had to do torical examples of large public with the Fugitive Slave laws and disregard of laws in our past." In was desirous of amendment of the this connection, we must not for- federal criminal laws, a result ulti- get the work of my friend (now mately arrived at in the Revised Mr. Justice) Harlan F. Stone, ap- Statutes authorized in 1866 and pointed Attorney General in 1924 published in f873. Another dis- by President Coolidge, and who, tinguished holder of the office was in his short term of a year, read- William M. Evarts, who, after justed the Bureau of Investigation prosecuting Jefferson Davis, be- and reorganized its personnel, came Attorney General, appointed thereby laying the foundation for by President Johnson whom he a new and efficient service. It is defended on his impeachment-he not too much to say that the pres- did not think much of lawyers in ent F.B.I. has won the admiration public councils as "Their technical of the civilized world-I vouch for training and extensive, absorbing Canada. The "Whiskey Insurrec- practice unfit them to be states- tion" in 1794 in Western Pennsyl- men," (Crede Experto). And lastly vania called for the attention of I mention my dear friend, George Attorney General William Brad- W. Wickersham, who after being ford, appointed in that year by an active practitioner in New York Washington to succeed Randolph, was appointed by President Taft who had resigned. Bradford was -he had much difficulty in respect a member of Washington's Con- of the administration of justice in ciliation Commission which, failing Alaska, not unlike the troubles in in its efforts, reported that military the Indian Territory in the 70's force would be necessary. He ap- and 80's, a territory characterized peared as counsel for the United by a Grand Jury as "a most pro- States in the prosecutions arising ductive garden for the propaga- out of the insurrection. An in- tion, growth and commission of teresting sidelight is cast upon crimes." Wickersham's repeated civil society by Gallatin's opin- appeals concerning irregularities ion at this time that in every to judges, district attorneys and case of insurrection, rebellion marshalls always brought the re- or treason, he would (as counsel ply, "What other course is open?" for the defense) take a jury of Perhaps he is best known by his Presbyterians, while Bracken- services as Chairman of the ridge (of Western Pennsylvania) "Wickersham Commission," the would "choose a jury of Quakers National Commission on Law Ob- or at least Episcopalians in all servance, intended "for a search- common cases, such as rape, mur- ing investigation of the whole der, etc." structure of . (the) Federal The troubles in the "Wild West" System of Jurisprudence," includ- beyond the Mississippi, where an ing the shocking practices so com- empire was in the making, engaged mon under Prohibition. Some the attention of more than one At- twelve exceedingly able, interest- torney General. Insufficiently po- BOOK REVIEWS liced, the domain to the west be- of Attorneys General Augustus H. came the spoil of the brave or the Garland, appointed in 1855 by desperate pillagers of private prop- President Cleveland, and Wiilliam erty; robbery of trains was not H. H. Miller, appointed in 1889 by uncommon while open Indian wars President Harrison, the offenses were not unknown. continued and even increased. Mormon polygamy was in 1858 Many of the offenses prior to assailed as being barbarous, "in- March 1, 1879, were wiped out by compatible alike with public pros- Congress. The land given and perity and domestic happiness," by money loaned by the United States Attorney General Jeremiah S. to the railroads linking the East Black, appointed by President and West, though this was with the Buchanan; but there was no law best intentions, landed the Govern- against it until 1862; and even in ment in "such a struggle . as 1875, Attorney General Edwards had not been seen since the time Pierrepont, appointed by President of Jackson and the Bank of the Grant, had to report the case of United States." Attorneys General the nineteenth wife of Brigham Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, appoint- Young being treated by the Courts ed in 1869 by President Grant and as a lawful wife, and granted ali- dismissed by him the following mony and counsel fees. year; Amos T. Akerman his suc- The Star Route cases in the 80's cessor, who was requested by Grant had the attention of Attorney Gen- to resign and did; George H. Wil- eral Wayne MacVeagh, appointed liams, Edwards Pierrepont and in 188f by President Garfield-he Alphonso Taft, also Grant appoint- had been instrumental in the set- ments; Charles Devens, appointed tlement of the reconstruction diffi- by President Hayes; Wayne Mac- culties in Louisiana-he advised a Veagh, appointed by President vigorous prosecution of the offen- Garfield; Benjamin H. Brewster, ders but resigned before the trial. appointed by President Arthur; The whole story of the Star Route Augustus H. Garland, appointed by cases our authors rightly say is "a President Cleveland; William H. H. dismal page in American history." Miller, appointed by President The robbery of the public for- Harrison, and Richard Olney, ap- ests in the West gives an equally pointed by President Cleveland; all dismal page, "significant and illu- were called upon to take part in minating in (the present) day of the disputes with the Central Pa- dust and advancing desert." As cific and Union Pacific over what early as 1816, Attorney General is picturesquely called "Pasture Richard Rush, appointed by Presi- for the Iron Horse." dent Madison, pointed out to Con- I have given but a few-not a gress that there was no statute tittle--of the interesting subjects specifically forbidding the cutting dealt with in this charming vol- of timber from the public lands, but ume. It must be read to be appre- it was not until 1831 that Congress ciated. It "is not a law book. Nor passed such a statute. The depre- . .is it a popularized description dations continued, prosecutions for of the Department of Justice or of the offense were numerous, but racketeers, law suits, prisons and notwithstanding the efforts and in- politics.