THE GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES COMPRISING, A COMPLETE AND COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE RISE, BANKS & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, BY WILLIAM B. WEDGWOOD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. BEH PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. IN presenting the fifth edition of this work to the public, the author tenders his thanks to his fellow-citizens for their high appreciation of the work, and for the unprecedented demand for the class of information therein contained. The public demand, with but little advertising, has already exhausted four large editions. A chapter on the Copyright law, and a chapter on the Patent law, and also a copious Index, is added to the present edition. This, it is hoped, will render the work still more useful. Thus far the circulation has been effected without governmental aid. The State and National governments are expending hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to enact laws, while almost nothing is being done to make them generally known when enacted, and yet the people are to be bound by them, and ignorance of the law is no excuse for transgression. Is it not the true policy of our government to aid in the general dissemination of such knowledge among the masses of the people? Universal instruction in the general principles of our constitutions and laws should be the inseparable companion of universal suffrage. In a government like ours, founded upon the will of the people, every citizen is called upon to give his verdict upon important questions of public policy through the ballot-box. Is not the man who has a competent knowledge of our government and laws more likely to give a just and correct verdict than the man who is ignorant of the general principles of the government? 90057 Every man, to a great extent, should be his own lawyer. Although he may not appear in court to prosecute or defend his own suit, yet he can contribute greatly to his own success by the aid he can render his counsel in the preparation of the cause for trial. Every person is liable to be called upon to give evidence in the most important cases. Even the child of very tender age may be thus called upon to give evidence. Can the witness perform this duty without any previous instruction? Can justice be vindicated, and the rights of all parties protected, where the witness is entirely ignorant of the rules by which his evidence is to be governed? Almost every man is liable to be called upon to act as a juror, and in that capacity to decide questions of fact, however conflicting the evidence, involving the property, the liberty, or even the life of the person on trial. Is he competent to perform such a task without any previous instruction in the law of evidence, and the method of weighing the evidence, where there is a conflict in the statement of the witnesses? Would you not prefer to trust your life and property in the hands of an intelligent jury, rather than in the hands of a jury without experience or knowledge of the rules by which they are to be governed? It is clearly the duty of the government to see that such instruction be placed within the reach of the scholars in every school, and in the hands of our citizens generally. |