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AUTHENTICATION OF RECORDS BETWEEN THE STATES.

Act approved May 26th, 1790.

Act approved March 27th, 1804.

Act approved March 2d, 1849.

An Act to prescribe the mode in which the Public Acts, Reccords, and Judicial Proceedings in each State shall be authenticated so as to take effect in every other State.

[Approved May 26, 1790.]

SECTION 1.

Acts of Legislature, records, etc., how authenticated.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled: SECTION 1. That the Acts of the Legislatures of the several States shall be authenticated by having the seal of their respective States affixed thereto. The records and judicial proceedings of the Courts of any State shall be proved or admitted in any other Court within the United States, by the attestation of the Clerk and the seal of the Court annexed, if there be a seal, together with the certificate of the Judge, Chief Justice, or pre siding magistrate, as the case may be, that the said attestation is in due form. And the said records and judicial proceedings, authenticated as aforesaid, shall have such faith and credit given to them, in every Court within the United States, as they have, by law or usage, in the Courts of the State from whence the said records are or shall be taken.

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Office books, etc., not pertaining to Courts, how proved.

Applies to Acts, records, etc., of

Act supplementing the above entitled Act.

[Approved March 27, 1804.]

SECTION 1.

Office books, etc., not pertaining to Courts, how proved.

SECTION 2.

Applies to Acts, records, etc., of Territories as well.

SECTION 1. That from and after the passage of this Act, all records and exemplifications of office books, which are or may be kept in any public office of any State not appertaining to a Court, shall be proved or admitted in any other Court or office in any other State, by the attestation of the keeper of said records or books, and the seal of his office thereto annexed, if there be a seal, together with the certificate of the presiding Justice of the Court of the county or district, as the case may be, in which such office is or may be kept, or of the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Chancellor, or the Keeper of the Great Seal of the State, that the said attestation is in due form and by the proper officer; and the said certificate, if given by the presiding Justice of a Court, shall be further authenticated by the Clerk or Prothonotary of the said Court, who shall certify under his hand and the seal of his office, that the said presiding Justice is duly commissioned and qualified; or if the said certificate be given by the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Chancellor, or Keeper of the Great Seal, it shall be under the Great Seal of the State in which the said certificate is made. And the said records and exemplifications, authenticated as aforesaid, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every Court and office within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the Courts or offices of the State from whence the same are or shall be taken.

SEC. 2. All the provisions of this Act, and the Act to which this is a supplement, shall apply as well to the Territories public acts, records, office books, judicial proceedings,

as well.

Courts, and officers of the respective Territories of the

United States, and countries subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, as to the public acts, records, office books, judicial proceedings, Courts, and offices of the several States.

An Act to amend an Act for authenticating certain records.

[Approved March 2d, 1849.]

SECTION 1.

Custodian of laws, etc., of foreign government; how to certify the

same.

SECTION 1. That it may and shall be lawful for the keepers or persons having the custody of laws, judgments, orders, decrees, journals, correspondence, or other public documents of any foreign government or its agents, relating to the title to lands claimed by or under the United States, on the application of one of the heads of one of the departments, the Solicitor of the Treasury, or the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to authenticate the same under his hand and seal, and certify the same to be correct and true copies of such laws, judgments, orders, decrees, journals, correspondence, or other public documents; and when the same shall be certified by an American Minister or Consul, under his hand and seal of office, or by a Judge of one of the United States Courts, under his hand and seal, to be true copies of the originals, the same shall be sealed up by him and returned to the Solicitor of the Treasury, who shall file the same in his office, and cause it to be recorded in a book to be kept for that purpose. A copy of said laws, judgments, orders, decrees, journals, correspondence, or other public documents so filed, or of the same so recorded in said book, may be read in evidence in all Courts where the title to land claimed by or under the United States may come into question, equally with the originals thereof.

NOTE.-A judgment rendered in one State upon which an action is brought in another State was, in the case of Thompson vs. Morrow, 1 Cal., p. 428, held to be

38-VOL. II.-POL.

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sufficiently exemplified for the purpose of the action, by being certified to by the Clerk, under the seal of the Court, and the presiding Judge thereof, in turn, certifying that such attestation is in due form of law-this being held a compliance with the statute. Where these two offices are consolidated, or, in other words, where the functions of the two are performed by one person, as is the case with the Surrogate in New York, it was held only necessary for the certificate to state the facts made necessary by this Act to entitle it to official recognition.-See Low vs. Burrows, 12 Cal., p. 182. It is the rule that the unwritten law of a foreign country is a fact to be proved, as any other fact, by the testimony of experts; but the statutory law must be proved by the law itself, or by an exemplified copy; such is the law of this State.-See Code of Civil Procedure, Sec. 1902, not only with regard to foreign laws, but the laws of a sister State, and it is so in New York Laws of 1869, Chap. 883; Balt. and Ohio R. R. Co. vs. Glenn, 28 Maryland Rep., p. 287; Gardner vs. Lewis, 7 Gill. id, p. 377; DeLobry vs. DeLaistre, 2 Harris and Johnson, id, p. 191. How attested by our statutes, see Code of Civil Procedure, Secs. 1905, 1906; its effect, id, Sec. 1913. The construction of the Constitution and Statutes of one State, given them by the highest judicial tribunal thereof, is to be followed by the Courts of other States. Franklin vs. Twogood, 25 Iowa Rep., p. 520.

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

PREAMBLE.

WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

NOTE.-The Constitution of the United States went into operation on the first Wednesday in March, 1789.— Owing vs. Speed, 5 Wh., p. 420. THE DUTIES of protection to the people by the Government, and allegiance on the part of the people to the Government, are reciprocal.-Reid vs. U. S., 3 Qu. L. J., p. 122; s. c., Dev. C. C., p. 21. It is supreme over all the departments of Government; anything done unauthorized by it is unlawful.-Dodge vs. Wolsey, 18 H., p. 347, Wayne, J.; s. c., 6 McL., p. 142.-Made by and for the people.-McCullough vs. Maryland, 4 Wh., p. 316. And they are entitled to its protection.-U. S. vs. Moore, 3 Cr., p. 160, n, Cranch, J. Act of Congress pursuant to its authority is the supreme law of the land.-Sinnot vs. Davenport, 22 H., p. 227; U. S. vs. Hart, Pet. C. C., p. 390. Revolution did not dissolve colonial charter to private corporation.-Dart. College vs. Woodward, 4 Wh., p. 518. Inhabitants of territory ceded to the United States become entitled to rights, etc., of citizens.-Am. Ins. Co. vs. Canter, 1 Pet., p. 511; People vs. De la Guerra, 40 Cal., p. 339. Inhabitants of State admitted into the Union can claim no rights not secured to citizens of all.Permali vs. First Municipality, 3 H., p. 589. State Constitutional Convention cannot assume legislative

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