Description:

Garfield James



James A. Garfield Personally Owned Congressional Law Book

 

A copy of Cases Decided in the Court of Claims of the United States, at the December Term for 1868, with the Acts of Congress Relating to the Court, Vol. IV (Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1868) personally owned by future 20th U.S. President James A. Garfield (1831-1881).

 

Garfield's personalized book plate is adhered to the front paste down endpaper of this hardcover edition. An oblong paper label, it reads: "Inter Folia Fructus [trans: Among Leaves and Fruit] / Library of James A. Garfield. No. __." The camel-colored leather covers have embossed borders, and the spine is decorated with red and black panels and gilt lettering. A 1.5" wide piece of the headband is partly detached at top, and the back hinge is partly broken. The paste down endpapers are unevenly toned, and there is scattered foxing throughout. Expected wear including light scuffs. Else in very good condition. The volume measures 6.25" x 9.25" x 1.25".

 

This 676pp volume, dating from the winter term of 1868, promises fascinating reading. Its many Civil War related cases demonstrate that, even after the war was won, everyday Americans still navigated through its complicated and very litigious wake. The volume is organized chronologically, but an alphabetical listing and subject-based index can also be cross-referenced. Each case begins with a summary, proceeds with the citation of legal precedents, and provides the court's concurring and dissenting opinions.

 

The Court of Claims was a panel of three judges appointed by the U.S. President to review all cases involving Congressional law, Executive Departments, or any contract agreed with the Federal government. The bulk of this volume deals with wartime confiscation, military service, and political amnesty. Cotton was among the most frequently cited forms of property to be claimed for exception from the "Abandoned or Captured Property Act." Both the Confederate and Federal governments, as the records show, impressed natural resources (sand, wood, anthracite coal), livestock (horses), and property (steamboats, schooners, farmland for military camps, or buildings for military hospitals). The petitioners were evaluated, often after the fact, based on the victor's criteria of political loyalty. Petitioners include ex-Confederates, black workmen, Union wives, and many more.

 

James Garfield, himself a college-educated lawyer, may have consulted this volume while serving as an Ohio delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1863 and 1880. As a Congressman, Garfield wrestled with issues like emancipation, Reconstruction, the gold standard, Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial, federal corruption, and congressional salaries. Yet this volume treating both the law and the Civil War must have interested the trained lawyer and veteran. (Garfield was a recruiter, fundraiser, and Union Army officer.)

 

Garfield did not wish to run as a Republican candidate for President in 1880, but he won anyway. He was assassinated only 200 days into his first and only term.

 


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