This Day in Goodlove
History, March 4
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Jeff Goodlove email
address: Jefferygoodlove@aol.com
Surnames associated with the name Goodlove have
been spelled the following different ways; Cutliff, Cutloaf, Cutlofe, Cutloff,
Cutlove, Cutlow, Godlib, Godlof, Godlop, Godlove, Goodfriend, Goodlove, Gotleb,
Gotlib, Gotlibowicz, Gotlibs, Gotlieb, Gotlob, Gotlobe, Gotloeb, Gotthilf,
Gottlieb, Gottliebova, Gottlob, Gottlober, Gottlow, Gutfrajnd, Gutleben,
Gutlove
The Chronology of the Goodlove, Godlove, Gottlob, Gottlober, Gottlieb (Germany, Russia, Czech etc.), and Allied Families of Battaile, (France), Crawford (Scotland), Harrison (England), Jackson (Ireland), LeClere (France), Lefevre (France), McKinnon (Scotland), Plantagenets (England), Smith (England), Stephenson (England?), Vance (Ireland from Normandy), Washington, Winch (England, traditionally Wales), including correspondence with George Rogers Clarke, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, ancestors William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson and George Washington.
The Chronology of the Goodlove, Godlove, Gottlob, Gottlober, Gottlieb (Germany, Russia, Czech etc.), and Allied Families of Battaile, (France), Crawford (Scotland), Harrison (England), Jackson (Ireland), LeClere (France), Lefevre (France), McKinnon (Scotland), Plantagenets (England), Smith (England), Stephenson (England?), Vance (Ireland from Normandy), Washington, Winch (England, traditionally Wales), including correspondence with George Rogers Clarke, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, ancestors William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson and George Washington.
The Goodlove Family
History Website:
The Goodlove/Godlove/Gottlieb families and
their connection to the Cohenim/Surname project:
• New Address! http://www.familytreedna.com/public/goodlove/default.aspx
• New Address! http://www.familytreedna.com/public/goodlove/default.aspx
Anniversary’s: Jane Black and
Evan Banes, Ida Godlove and Albert F Tessendorf
Birthday: Erwin V. Henderson
March 4, 1152: Frederick
Barbarossa was elected Roman-German king. Born in 1123, Barbarossa or Frederick
I was Holy Roman Emperor for forty years. He was slated to lead the Third
Crusade along with Phillip of France and Richard the Lion-Hearted.
Unfortunately, Barbarossa drowned before he could help lead the Crusade. From
the Jewish point of view, unfortunately is the correct word to use in
describing his death. Unlike other Crusaders, Barbarossa sought to protect the
Jews. He warned local priests and monks not to preach against the Jews. He told
the Diet (Parliament) that anybody who killed a Jew would forfeit his own life.
Thanks to Frederick's efforts, German bishops threatened those who attacked
Jews with excommunication. As a Jewish commentator of that time wrote,
"Frederick defended us with all his might and enabled us to live among our
enemies, so that no one harmed the Jews."[1]
March 4, 1193: Saladin, the
great Moslem leader, passed away. Among Saladin’s many accomplishments was the
re-taking of Jerusalem from the Crusaders and his subsequent defeat of Richard
the Lionhearted. Saladin had begun his leadership career in Egypt where
Maimonides served as physician to his court. There is some question as to
whether Maimonides provided medical services to Saladin or to his
brother-in-law and his entourage.[2]
1194: Llywelybn
Faer (The Great) rules Wales, Henry VI conquers Sicily and is crowned King of
Sicily, the “Elder Edda” collection of Scandinavian mythology created, erection
of Chartres Cathedral begins.[3]
March 4, 1215: King John of England makes an oath
to the Pope as a crusader to gain the support of Innocent III. While they may
have been odds over many issues, the two leaders both held firm to the concept
of allowing the Jews to exist, but in a state of humiliation. In 1210, John
imprisoned the Jews of Bristol and demanded 66,000 in ransom as the price of
their freedom. To move the process along, John reportedly had the teeth of the
prisoners extracted one at a time until they agreed to the payment. Such was
his treatment of the Jews, that Barons included special language about the
treatment of the Jews in the Magna Carta. The Fourth Lateran Council over which
Innocent actively presided adopted several cannons attacking Jews including the
denying them the right to hold office and
the requirement to wear distinctive dress.[4]
March 4, 1386: Władysław II Jagiełło
(Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland. The situation of the Jews in Poland had
already begun to deteriorate prior to his kingship. In the middle of the
century, the Jews were blamed for the Black Plague and attacked by the
countrymen. Under Wladislaus II and his successors the first extensive
persecutions of the Jews in Poland commenced, persecutions which the monarch
did not act to stop.[5]
March 4th, 1492:
m - King James IV of Scotland concludes an alliance with France
against England. [6]
March 4, 1681
Ebenezer Zane came to
Pennsylvania with William Penn in 1681 when the Colony of Pennsylvania was
established by Charter from King Charles II on March 4, 1681.[9][10]
In 1681, the western
boundary of Pennsylvania was established in William Penn's charter - "The
said Lands to extend westwards five degrees in longitude, to bee computed from
the said Easterne Bounds..."1 William Penn was
determined to acquire the Native American claims to the land by legitimate
negotiations and purchases, but his efforts to negotiate with fellow Europeans
claiming land in North America may have been more difficult.
The fundamental problem
with Penn's charter is that the point of beginning for his southeastern
boundary... did not exist. Penn's charter started with the intersection of a
circle 12 miles from New Castle (now located in Delaware) and the beginning of
the 40th degree of latitude, "on the South by a Circle drawne at twelve
miles distance from New Castle Northward and Westward unto the beginning of the
fortieth degree of Northern Latitude." However, the 40th degree is so far
north of New Castle that the lines never intersect, so the 1681 charter created
great confusion between the Calverts of Maryland and the Penns of Pennsylvania.[11]
March 4, 1699: Jews of Lubeck,
Germany, were expelled.[12]
1700 CE
Example of regional variations in surface air
temperature for the last 1000 years, estimated from a variety of sources,
including temperature-sensitive tree growth indices and written records of
various kinds, largely from western Europe and eastern North America. Shown are
changes in regional temperature in ° C, from the baseline value for 1900.
Compiled by R. S. Bradley and J. A. Eddy based on J. T. Houghton et al.,
Climate Change: The IPCC Assessment, Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge, 1990
and published in EarthQuest, vol 5, no 1, 1991. Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse
Lessons from the Geologic Record[13]
Eighteenth
Century
Take
two striking examples: alcohol and milk. The ability to digest large amounts of
alcohol dependes to some extent o the overproduction by a certain set of genes
on chromosome 4 of enzymes called alcohol dehyudrogenases. Most people do have
the capacity to pump up production by these genes, a biochemical trick they
perhaps evolved the hard way, that is, by the death and disabling of those
without it. It was a good trick to learn, because fermented liquids are wrought
by various forms of dysentery in the first millennia of settled agricultural
living must have been terrible. “Don’t’s drink the water’, we westerners tell
each other when heading for the tropics. Before bottled water, the only suppy
of safe dringing water was in boiled or fermented form. As late as the
eighteenth century in Europe, the rich drank nothing but wine, beer, coffee and
tea. They risked death otherwise. (The habit dies hard.)[14]
But
foraging, nomadic people not only couldnot grow the crops to ferment; they didi
not need the sterile liquid. They lived at low densities and natural water supplies
were safe enough. So it is little wonder that the natives of Australia and
North America were and are especially vulnerable to alcoholism and that many
cannot now ‘hold their drink’.
1700:
In 1700 America consisted of eleven small colonies of 250,000 people along the
Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Carolina extending westward as far as the
Appalachians, comprising a few hundred thousand square miles.[15] In
1700 about two hundred Jews lived in the British colonies of North America.
They neatly bifurcated their lives into being a state “everymen,” blending in
and proving their value to society through their trade ties, and maintaining in
private their Jewish identities and sustaining their own communitites, with the
synagaogue playing a crucial role in their lives. Like most people in the
colonies they accepted the hierarchical nature of the society and deferred to
communal authority figures. [16]
1700: In the year 1700, a professor
named Eisenmenger at the University of Bonn published a massive work, “Judaism Revealed”, (2120 pages) in which he claimed
to have unmasked the monstrosities of the Talmud Jews. Eisenmenger knew the
languages concerned and his book became the Bible of religious and post
religious anti-semitism for two centuries and more.[17]
1700: Towns like Berlin grow into great cities, and by 1700 there is an
unprecedented population explosion in Europe thanks to a plant from the far
away Andes, the potatoe. [18]
1700
Early 1700s:During the early 1700s, the
Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, and other Indian tribes also used present-day West
Virginia as a hunting ground.[21]
1700-
1703 |
Jesuits moved mission from Peoria
to the Mississippi Valley, settling briefly at Des Peres River and then
founding the town of Kaskaskia near the mouth of the Kaskaskia River.
|
Fort
Newell
March 4, 1732/1733
John Battaile’s eldest son, John, was born in
December 1695, and
died March 4, 1732-3. He married Sarah _____.
This well known family
has spread widely through the South and West.[25]
March 4, 1762
Re; Richard and Onnour
Stephenson
This indenture made
this 4th day of March (March 4) 1762 between Richard Stephenson[26] of the County of Frederick and
Colony of Virginia, farmer and Onnour, his wife, of the one part and
John Carlyle and George William Fairfax of the other
part witness that for and in consideration of the sum of 107 pounds 16
shillings and three pence current money of Va. to him the said Richard
Stephenson in hand paid by
the said John Carlyle and
George William Fairfax... whereas.., whereof... by virtue of a bargain and
sale to them thereof made by the said Richard Stephenson for one whole year by indenture
bearing date the day next before the day of the date of these presents and.., the
tract or parcel of land situate in the County of Frederick on the River
Shenandoah which was granted unto the said Richard by Jomn Hardin By Deed of
Lease & Release Bearing Date the 4 and 5 day of December 1752 it being the
tract of land whereon the Bloomery now stands and bounded as by a survey
whereof made as follows: beginning at a small walnut on the river side by the
mouth of the mill water courses
and running thence north 75 — 76 degrees west
40 poles to an elm tree by the road thence north 3 degrees east 24 poles to a bush and stake thence
south 40 degrees east 18 poles to a black oak thence south 60 degrees east 38
poles to a white oak thence south 53 degrees east 21 poles to a white oak in
the River side, thence up the river south 40 degrees west 34 poles to the
beginning containing ten acres of land together with the iron works or bloomery
and all houses, buildings, orchard, trees, woods, underwood,water courses, etc.
(two pages of
where.., and whereas... etc.).
Witnesses, John Hardin
Valentine Crawford
Edward
Masterson
March 4, 1761
received of the within mentioned John Carlyle and George William Fairfax the sum of 107 pounds 16 shillings and 3
pence, it being the consideration of the within deed.
Richard
x Stephenson
John Hrdin Onnour
x Stephenson
Valentine Crawford
Edward Masterson
At a court held
for Frederick County on the 7th day of April 1761,
This indenture was
acknowledged by Richard Stephenson party thereto and ordered to be recorded.
Teste.
Archibald
Wager, C. C..[27]
March
4, 1769; Warner
Washington and Lady and Capt. Crawford and Mr. Tibbles went away after breakfast.[28]
March 4,
1770: Mr. Crawford set of for Williamsburg & Mr. Magowan for Colhester the last of whom returnd.[29]
March 4, 1762
Re; Richard and Onnour
Stephenson
This indenture made
this 4th day of March (March 4) 1762 between Richard Stephenson[30] of the County of Frederick and
Colony of Virginia, farmer and Onnour, his wife, of the one part and
John Carlyle and George William Fairfax of the other
part witness that for and in consideration of the sum of 107 pounds 16
shillings and three pence current money of Va. to him the said Richard
Stephenson in hand paid by
the said John Carlyle and
George William Fairfax... whereas.., whereof... by virtue of a bargain and
sale to them thereof made by the said Richard Stephenson for one whole year by indenture
bearing date the day next before the day of the date of these presents and..,
the tract or parcel of land situate in the County of Frederick on the River
Shenandoah which was granted unto the said Richard by Jomn Hardin By Deed of
Lease & Release Bearing Date the 4 and 5 day of December 1752 it being the
tract of land whereon the Bloomery now stands and bounded as by a survey
whereof made as follows: beginning at a small walnut on the river side by the
mouth of the mill water courses
and running thence north 75 — 76 degrees west
40 poles to an elm tree by the road thence north 3 degrees east 24 poles to a bush and stake thence
south 40 degrees east 18 poles to a black oak thence south 60 degrees east 38
poles to a white oak thence south 53 degrees east 21 poles to a white oak in
the River side, thence up the river south 40 degrees west 34 poles to the
beginning containing ten acres of land together with the iron works or bloomery
and all houses, buildings, orchard, trees, woods, underwood,water courses, etc.
(two pages of
where.., and whereas... etc.).
Witnesses, John Hardin
Valentine Crawford
Edward
Masterson
March 4, 1761
received of the within mentioned John Carlyle and George William Fairfax the sum of 107 pounds 16 shillings and 3
pence, it being the consideration of the within deed.
Richard
x Stephenson
John Hrdin Onnour
x Stephenson
Valentine Crawford
Edward Masterson
At a court held
for Frederick County on the 7th day of April 1761,
This indenture was
acknowledged by Richard Stephenson party thereto and ordered to be recorded.
Teste.
Archibald
Wager, C. C..[31]
March 4, 1774; All except Mr. Calverts family, Mr. Diggers, Dulany, and
Dr. Rumney went away after dinner.[32]
March 4-5, 1776: American fortify Dorchester
Heights , overlooking Boston from the south.[33]
Under
the cover of constant bombing from American artillery, Brigadier General John
Thomas slips 2,000 troops, cannons and artillery into position at Dorchester
Heights, just south of Boston, on this day in 1776. Under orders from General
George Washington, Thomas and his troops worked through the night digging
trenches, positioning cannons and completing their occupation of Dorchester
Heights.
The cannon that made
Thomas' efforts possible were those taken by Lieutenant Colonel Benedict Arnold
and Ethan Allen with his Green Mountain Boys at Fort Ticonderoga on May 10,
1775. Colonel Henry Knox then brought the cannon and powder to Boston through
the winter snow in time for Washington and Thomas to employ them in the
engagement at Dorchester Heights.
By muffling their
wagon-wheels with straw, the Patriots were able to move their cannon unnoticed.
Washington would use this same strategy to evade British General Charles
Cornwallis after the Battle of Trenton.
At daybreak, British
General William Howe received word of the American position overlooking the
city. Within days, General Howe came to realize that the American position made
Boston indefensible and soon ordered the evacuation of all British troops from
the city; the British sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on March 27. Howe and
his troops remained in Canada until they traveled to meet Washington in the
conflict over New York in August.
In 1898, a Georgian
white marble revival tower was commissioned for the site of the battle to
memorialize the Patriot victory at Dorchester Heights. The memorial tower has
been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1966. In 1978, it
joined eight other sites in the Boston National Historic Park under the purview
of the National Park Service.[34]
March 4, 1777. Reachd Winchester to
Dinner according to Appointment with the Officers[35]
&ca. claimg. part of the 200,000 Acs. of Land.[36]
March
4, 1777: When the English at Detroit kept the Indians stirred up along the frontiers to the
westward, Washington created what he designated as the Western
Department, with headquarters at Fort
Pitt. There were two important
groups in this department, due to their having enlisted under the banner of
different colonies. Those west of the Monongahela River were in the Virginia regiments, and there is just a little
confusion as to the number of these regiments, due to the assignments of
Colonel William Crawford. He did not remain in the
service long, for he was back at Heathtown and was in his place as a justice of the
Yohogania court during the latter years of the Revolution, until he started up to
Sandusky. He had first gone to the
Virginia capital at Williamsburg, where he was commissioned as
a lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Virginia Regiment on February 13, 1776, and served there until
promoted as colonel of the 7th Regiment on August 14, 1776. He is credited with having
raised this regiment largely in the district of West Augusta. It was attached to General
Woodford’s brigade and was nearly cut to pieces at the battle of Brandywine . Colonel Crawford served with this regiment until March 4,
1777.
The
13th Virginia Regiment was sent east to become a part of General
Muhlenberg’s brigade and in September, 1778, was renumbered as the 9th
Virginia, being sent west of the
Alleghenies for service in the spring of 1779. It reported John Gibson as colonel; Richard Campbell as lieutenant-colonel, and Richard Taylor as major, with five captains and 275 rank and file.[37]
August 8,
1777-March 4, 1778 Thomas Moore
George Rogers Clark Papers Vol 4.1781-1784, James Alton James, Ed.
March
4, 1791: Vermont is the 14th state to join the Union. It is the first state to
join the original 13 states.[38]
March
4, 1793: On March 4, 1793, George Washington’s second inaugural took place in
Congress Hall, the building adjoining Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Independence Hall is called “The Cradle of Liberty.[39]
1794
– March 4 - The first Court of Quarter Sessions was convened by Magistrates
Benjamin Harrison, Hugh Miller and John Wall at the house of Morgan Van Matre. [40]
1795
- March 4 - Benjamin Harrison, Morgan Van Matre, Jeremiah Robinson, John Wall
and Henry Coleman, Trustees of Cynthiana, sold lots in the town to
Hugh Stevenson, Benjamin Harrison, Robert McBride, John McLaughlin, Lewis
Marshall, William Rankin. [41]
1795
- March 4 - Benjamin Harrison and wife Mary conveyed to Christian, John,
Robert and Elizabeth Scott, 230 acres in Harrison and Bourbon Counties.
Morton's? line, corner to said Harrison ,, etc.
Consideration £81. Witness - W. Moore , C.H.C.
Acknowledged Harrison Court
March 1795 by Benjamin Harrison. [42]
March
4, 1797: John Adams is sworn in as second President of the United States,
succeeding George Washington. This orderly transfer of power, including the
acceptance of the outcome of elections, is a uniquely American gift to the
world of political science.[43]
March
4, 1797
March
4, 1799: Under cover of night, between the 3rd and the 4th of March, work
commenced- the erecting of five batteries, four against the southern wall and
one in support of the northern sector.13 The artillery park at Napoleon¹s
command consisted only of field pieces, mostly of 12, 8, 6 and 3
"pouces" (=inches of 2.7 cm), of howitzers of 6 pouces and of 6-pouce
mortars,14 since the heavy artillery had all been loaded for transfer to Acre
bay onto the ships of the flotilla commanded by captain Standelet, and onto the
freighters that had been collected for that purpose in the Egyptian harbors.
Those ships were only just then commencing their journey north, without the
means of contact with the land forces, and Napoleon was compelled to make do
with the lighter ordnance at his command. However, he did not seem to have been
unduly worried.Most probably, the outward appearance of these antiquated walls
revived his confidence in the description of M. de Volney, who, in 1784, had
called the ramparts of Jaffa "mere garden walls." [45]Joseph Lefevre was said to have
been in Napoleon’s Body Guard Unit.
March 4, 1801: On opposite sides of what had been a tall monument. The
top fallen off, these inscriptions on the square base:
Geo. W. Crawford, born June 4, 1790, died September 20, 1871.
Winnie, wife of George W. Crawford, born March 4. 1801, died August 6,
1871.
Harriet, dau. of G. and Winnie Crawford, died August 26, 1860. Aged 26
years, 24 days.
Richard Crawford, son of G. and Winnie Crawford, b. November 28, 1833.
5. Mrs. Emahiser says that in 1958 she saw a marker:
Julian Crawford, 21 years, died 1851. [46]
March 4, 1801
March 4, 1801: A
contingent of sword-bearing soldiers escorted the new president to his inauguration
on March 4, 1801, illustrating the contentious nature of the election and the
victors' fear of reprisal. In his inaugural address, Jefferson sought to heal
political differences by graciously declaring We are all Republicans, we are
all Federalists.
As president,
Jefferson made some concessions to his opponents, including taking Hamilton's
advice to strengthen the American Navy. In 1801, Jefferson sent naval squadrons
and Marines to suppress Barbary piracy against American shipping. He reduced
the national debt by one-third, acquired the Louisiana Territory, and his
sponsorship of the Lewis and Clark expedition opened the west to exploration
and settlement. Jefferson's first term ended in relative stability and
prosperity, and in 1804 he was overwhelmingly elected to a second term.
The flawed voting
system that was so problematic in the election of 1800 was later improved by
the 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804.[48]
March
4, 1802
In
Madison County, Ohio ,
at London , in
the original surveys, page 2, no. 1020, part of Military Warrant No. 22, on
West Fork of Deer Creek, called for 1,000 acres to Uriah Springer.
Surveyed by Duncan McArthur
Frederick
Zimmerman
Joseph
Bowman, C. C.
Since
Uriah Springer was the Power of Attorney for Moses Crawford, Sr. (Son of Lt.
John Crawford and grandson of Col. William Crawford), this may have been the
stretch of land Moses was entitled to. Probably was sold by Uriah Springer and
the amount turned over to Moses Crawford, Sr., as part of his share. (See
letter of Richard Crawford, written to his Uncle David Bradford).
Uriah Springer, (who was Power of
Attorney to Moses Crawford’s share of Lt. John Crawford’s estate), had a son ,
Uriah Springer. The records of Brown County, Ohio, indicate that young Uriah
Springer was collecting bounty lands belonging to his own father, (who was the
second husband of Sarah, daughter of Col William Crawford). Uriah
Springer,
Sr. ranked as a Captain. Here a transaction, involving Robert and Joseph
Wardlow, concerning a United States patent. Pages 332, 333 and 334. Young Uriah
Springer was a Justice of the Peace and he and his wife Nancy, lived at
Williamsburg (which is in present Clermont County, Ohio). On East Fork of the
Little Miami River, and where many of the early transactions were recorded.
Note: the relationship between young Uriah springer and Moses Crawford, Sr.,
would be first cousins, since Moses’ father, John, was brother to young Uriah’s
mother, Sarah.
At Circleville, Ohio, in Pickaway
County (formed in 1810), Warrant no. 223, Uriah Springer, 700 acres. Surveyed
about 1901 on no. 914 which no. belongs to Uriah Springer, St.
For his services in the American
Revolutionary War, Uriah Springer, Sr., was entitled to about 4,000 acres of
bounty lands. His warrants as follows and not to be confused with Crawford’s.
Warrant No. 222, Uriah Springer ,
2,999 acres, Captain on the Va. Con’t Line, 3 years. Surveyed & dated April
1, 1783.
Warrant No. 223, Uriah Springer,
2,000 acres, Va. Con’t Line, 3 years. Surveyed April 1, 1783.
These
surveys, like others are located in various places and in different sized
plats.[50]
March 4,
1813: John STEPHENSON. Born on
January 7, 1765 in Frederick County, Virginia. John died in Kentucky on March
17, 1832; he was 67. Buried in Concord Cemetery, Kentucky.
John first
married Elizabeth MOORE. Born on March 19, 1773. Elizabeth died on July 6,
1812; she was 39.
They had the
following children:
10 i. Elizabeth (1796-1852)
ii. Mariah.
Mariah
married Thomas CALVERT.
iii. Sally.
Sally
married Asher COX.
11 iv. Eliza T. (1811-1847)
On March 4,
1813 when John was 48, he second married Alice “Alsey”. Born in 1771. Alice
“Alsey” died in Kentucky on September 19, 1846; she was 75. Buried in Concord
Cemetery, Kentucky.
They had the
following children:
i. Presley L.
ii. James F.
iii. Edward.
iv. Julia Ann.
Julia
Ann married Clifton CALVERT. [51]
18 U.S. 207
5 L.Ed. 70
5 Wheat. 207
STEVENSON'S Heirs
v.
SULLIVANT.
v.
SULLIVANT.
March 4,
1820
1
APPEAL from the Circuit
Court of Ohio. This was a suit in Chancery, and the case upon the facts
admitted by the parties, was as follows: Previous to the year 1775, Hugh
Stephenson, of Virginia, lived and cohabited with Ann Whaley, and had by her
the appellants in this cause, whom he recognized as his children. In July,
1775, he made his will, in which he described the appellants as the children of
himself, and of his wife Ann, and devised the whole of his property to them,
and to their mother. In July, 1776, he intermarried with the said Ann Whaley,
and died the succeeding month, leaving her pregnant with a child, which was
afterwards born, and was named Richard. The will was duly proved after the
death of the testator. In June, 1776, the testator was appointed a colonel in
the Virginia line, upon continental establishment, and died in the service.
After his death, and the birth of Richard, a warrant for 6,666 and two-thirds
acres of military lands, was granted by the State of Virginia to the said
Richard, who died in the year 1796, in his minority, without wife or children,
and without having located or disposed of the above warrant. His mother also
died before the year 1796. The defendant claimed the land in controversy under
John Stephenson, the elder paternal uncle of Richard; and the appellants having
filed their bill in the Court below to recover the premises in question, the
same was dismissed, and the cause was brought by appeal to this
February 18th.
2
Mr. Brush, for the
appellants, stated, that the appellants insisted, that, as representatives of
their father, Hugh, the warrant in question ought to have issued to them. All
the laws of Virginia, granting military land bounties, were passed after the
death of Hugh Stephenson. The act which extends the bounty to those who had
died before any bounty was provided, is that under which the warrant issued. It
assigns the bounty to the 'legal representatives' of the person upon
account of whose services it was granted. We maintain, that the term, representatives,
is used purposely not to exclude the heir, but to embrace others than the legal
heir, under the then existing laws. It never could be intended to give a bounty
to elder brothers and uncles, who might be in arms against the country; but to
the immediate objects of the soldier's attention and care, whom, by his will,
he had appointed to represent him, or to that class of relatives, among whom
personal property was distributed by the statute of distributions; certainly
more just and liberal in its provisions, than the feudal course of descents, by
which real estate was cast on the eldest male relative in a collateral line.
But, waving this point, the complainants maintain that they are heirs at law of
Richard Stephenson. And they maintain this upon two grounds. First. By the
Virginia law, regulating the course of descents, passed in 1785, they were
legitimated. Second. By the same law, as bastards, they were made capable of
inheriting to their deceased brother, on the part of the mother.
3
1. The ancestor of
Richard never had any interest in the subject that constitutes the estate. It
is a gratuity given to his representative, who most clearly took as a
purchaser, and the estate he held, upon his decease, passed to his heirs
generally, without reference to the channel through which he derived it. The
estate originated under the laws of Virginia. The parties resided in Virginia,
until the establishment of the State of Kentucky, where Richard died. The
descent was cast, either under the laws of Virginia, or Kentucky; and, in this
respect, they are the same. The act of 1785, provides, that 'where a man having
by a woman one or more children, shall afterwards intermarry with such
woman, such child or children, if recognized by him, shall thereby be
legitimated.' In the case of Rice v. Efford,a and in the case of Sleighs and Strider, cited by Judge Tucker, and given
in a note,b it is decided, that this act includes cases of births and marriages,
antecedent to its passage. This is its plain and natural interpretation. It was
meant, as the Judges say, 'to protect and provide for 'the innocent offspring
of indiscreet parents, who had already made all the atonement in their power
for their misconduct, by putting the children, whom the father recognized as
his own, on the same footing as if born in lawful wedlock.' It meant to
put them on the same footing, not only as it respected their father's
estate, but in relation to the estates of each other, and the estates of all
their kindred. In both the cases above cited, the father died after the act of
1785 took effect; and, in that point, the present case is to be distinguished from
them. It would appear, from the case of Rice v. Efford, that the Chancellor
considered it a material point, that the recognition of the illegitimate
children took place after the act of 1785 was in operation. And Judge Roane
expressly says, that the interpretation adopted, 'applies to cases only, where
the father has died
3 Henn. & Munf. 225.
Id. 229. posterior to the
passage of the act.' This observation of Judge Roane may properly be termed an obiter
dictum. The case before him did not require that point to be decided; and,
we conceive, that the dictum is demonstrably incorrect, as is also the
intimation of the Chancellor. The object of the act was to 'protect and provide
for the children,' by giving them a complete capacity of inheritance. To give
them this title, the law requires two facts; the marriage, and the recognition
by the father. But, it is said, that although the law embraces the case of an
anterior marriage, the recognition must be subsequent. Why this distinction?
The grammatical construction of the sentence does not require it. The terms, 'shall
afterwards intermarry,' are correctly referred to the birth of the
children, not the date of the act. In relation to the marriage and the
recognition, the statute speaks from the same time. The whole structure of the
sentence necessarily connects them. The active participle, 'having,' in
reference to the birth of the children, and the passive participle, 'recognized,'
in relation to their acknowledgment, are the only terms which could properly be
used to describe both anterior and subsequent cases with reasonable precision.
Surely it would be a strange construction, by which the active participle is
made to embrace both the past and future, while the passive participle, in the
same sentence, is confined to future cases only! This can only be done by
interpolating the word hereafter, so as to make that part of the
sentence read, 'such child or children, if HEREAFTER recognized by
him.' The object of the statute does not require, but absolutely forbids
such interpolation. It was designed, as the Court say, in the case of Stones v.
Keeling,c to establish the most liberal and extensive rules of succession to
estates, 'in favour of all, in whose favour the intestate himself, had
he made a will, might have been supposed to be influenced.' It operates solely
upon the children, and it must have been designed to operate equally upon all
in the same situation, whether the acknowledgment was made before or after the
passing of the act. The dictum of Judge Roane, evidently grew out of an
argument suggested by himself, that the interpretation adopted by the Court,
might be considered an invasion of private right. We see no difficulty on this
ground; but if there were any, it is not remedied by applying the act to cases
only where the father died posterior to its passage.
4
The possible interest which
children have in the father's property, during his lifetime, is not of that
absolute character which the legislature cannot control. If it were, every
change of the law of descents, would be an invasion of the rights of expectants
under the existing law. A descent cast by the death of an intestate, cannot be
disturbed by subsequent laws; but that is no reason why the legislature should
not change the law, or give to individuals new capacities of inheritance. The
security of existing rights remains inviolable, notwithstanding this is often
done. By the death of H. Stephenson, before the act of 1785, his property
passed
3 Henn. & Munf. 228. in note. to his
legitimate child. If, under that act, the appellants were legitimated, in 1787,
they, thereby, could not prejudice the rights of Richard. Their new capacity
was altogether prospective. From that day, they enjoyed a character to inherit
rights which might thereafter accrue; and, in relation to those rights, we do
not see what bearing the time of their father's death has upon the question. In
the case of Sleighs v. Strider, W. Hall devised land to his son, R. Hall, for
life; and after to his eldest son and his heirs forever: but if no male issue,
to his eldest daughter and her heirs. Bichard Hall had an illegitimate son born
in 1776: in 1778 he married the mother, and recognised the son till his death,
in 1796. He had also daughters after the marriage. It was determined that the
son was legitimated, by the act of 1785, and entitled under the devise from his
grandfather. It would seem, from the dictum of Judge Roane, that if Richard
Hall had died before the 1st of January, 1787, the grandson never could have
been legitimated. Whether he could or not, the eldest daughter must have taken.
But suppose that the grandson had lived until 1788, and, in the lifetime of his
father, had died leaving issue: would such issue, or the eldest daughter of
Richard, have taken under the devise? We maintain that the issue of the
deceased son would have taken: from which we infer that the time of death is
immaterial. The interpretation of the Virginia Courts can only be made rational
and intelligible by rejecting the limitations suggested by the Chancellor and
Judge Roane, and applying the statute to all persons within its literal
meaning, without reference to the time of the recognition, or the death of the
father. By this course, the new capacity, in all, will take date from the 1st
of January, 1787, and will confer rights from that day only; as in cases that
have arisen since the statute, the legitimate rights of the children, born
before marriage, all take date from the marriage, without any reference to the
time of recognition, or the death of the father.
5
2. We insist that
the appellants, being the bastard brothers and sisters of Richard on the part
of the mother, are his heirs at law. The law of 1785 contains this provision:
'Bastards also shall be capable of inheriting and transmitting inheritance, on
the part of the mother, in like manner as if lawfully begotten of such mother.'
In adopting a rule for the interpretation of this provision, we insist, in the
language of the court, in the case of Stones v. Keeling,d that 'the act relates to the disposition of property only; and proceeds to
show who shall be admitted to share the property of a person dying intestate,
notwithstanding any former legal bar to a succession thereto; and in that light
the law ought to receive the most liberal construction; it being evidently the
design of the legislature, to establish the most liberal and extensive rules of
succession to estates, in favour of all, in whose favour the intestate himself,
had he made a will, might have been supposed to be influenced.' It gives to
bastards a full
3 Henn. & Munf. 228. note. and complete
capacity of inheritance, through the maternal line, both lineal and collateral.
By nothing short of this can the terms of the law be satisfied. It is said,
however, that the terms of the law are fully satisfied when it is extended to
inheritance direct, between the bastard and the mother; thus excluding
collateral descents between bastards altogether. This doctrine is founded upon
an entirely erroneous rule of construction. It is assumed that the statute
being an innovation upon the common law, must be construed strictly, and
extended only so far as the letter absolutely requires. The Virginia Courts, in
the cases referred to, have adopted a different rule; and a rule more consonant
to reason and justice, and to our free and equal principles of government. The
incapacities of bastards grew out of the feudal system, and originated in the
dispositions of the feudal lords to multiply escheats and forfeitures. Most
undoubtedly it was the intention of the Virginia legislature, to cut up the
whole system root and branch. If bastards cannot inherit from a legitimate
brother, they cannot inherit from each other. Neither can they inherit from, or
transmit inheritance to, uncles, grandfathers, or any collateral relative
whatever. By the same rule, legitimate brothers and sisters cannot inherit from
bastards, or their descendants. And if this be the case, who can say that
bastards are capable of inheriting 'and transmitting inheritance, on the part
of the mother, in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten of such
mother.' Mr. Doddridge, contra, stated, 1. that in examining the
appellants' claim to hold the lands in question, as the legal representatives
of Hugh Stephenson, under his will, he would contend, what indeed seemed to be
admitted on the other side, that Richard Stephenson took by purchase from the
State, and that Hugh never had an interest in the subject, legal or equitable,
which he could devise, or which could pass from him in a course of descents. If
this be so, it would certainly follow, that upon the death of Richard, under
age and without issue, after having survived his mother, the estate passed from
him to his heirs general, according to the letter of the act directing
the course of descents, as the appellants' counsel contend, and without
reference to the channel through which he obtained it. But we shall insist,
that according to the equity of the 5th section of the act of descents,
the land passed to the fraternal kindred.
6
One of the laws of
Virginia on the subject of land bounties refers to them, as having been
'promised by ordinance of Convention.' This circumstance made a search for that
ordinance necessary. There were three sessions of a Convention held in the year
1775. By an act of the last, the Convention of 1776 was regularly elected. The
present controversy has had the effect of collecting the journals of both
Conventions. They are now, for the first time, published. A perusal of them
will show, that the Conventions, although they provided for raising troops,
never made a promise of land bounty to any description of the public forces.
Indeed, until they declared the State independent, they had asserted no claim
whatever to the crown lands, such a promise would have appeared absurd. The
first mention of a land bounty will be found in the acts of the first regular
General Assembly at their October session in 1776, chapters 11. and 21. enacted
after the death of Hugh Stevenson. The practice of giving bounties in land
was followed up by the acts of October 1778, c. 45, May 1779, c. 6., and the
manner of carrying them into grant was provided for by the acts of May 1779, c.
18. and of October 1779, c. 21. But these laws having omitted to provide for
the heirs of those who were, or should be, lost in the service, two others were
passed. By the first a promise was made to the officers and soldiers, then
living, in these words: 'and when any officer, soldier, or sailor, shall
have fallen, or died in the service, his heirs or legal
representatives shall be entitled to, and receive, the same quantity of land as
would have been due to such officer, soldier or sailor, respectively, had he
been living.'e The second is in the following words, (comprehending the case of H
Stevenson:) 'That the legal representatives of any officer, on continental or
State establishment, who may have died in the service, before the bounty in
lands promised by this or any former act, shall be entitled to demand and
receive the same in like manner as the officer himself might have done if
living. It is observable, that the latter act only respects the heir of an officer
who had fallen before any land bounty was promised
Chan. Rev. Code, 112. to any
person; whereas the former is an encouragement held out to the living officer,
soldier, and sailor, &c. By the latter act, it is evident that the bounty
conferred by it was not given to those who died before any bounty was
provided; nor to the legal representatives of those, on account of whose
services the same was given, as such. The bounty is directly given to the legal
representative for the loss of an ancestor; and is so much as the father would
have been entitled to had he lived or fallen in the service, &c. Here, if
the heir took quasi heir, the debts of his ancestor might sweep the gift
away. The difference between pay and bounty cannot well be overlooked. The
first is a vested estate, and, as such, subject to debts and legacies. Bounties
to the widow or heir, are in the nature of compensation, or of gratuities for a
loss, and are taken directly from the hand that gives. Hugh Stevenson had not,
at the time of his death, even a promise of the bounty in question, nor of any
other bounty. His services entitled him to his pay and subsistence alone.
7
It is difficult to
comprehend what is meant by the opposite counsel, when he speaks of those 'whom
by his will he had appointed to represent him, or to that class of relations
among whom personal property was distributed by the statute of distributions.'
As to the statute of distributions, it is enough to say, that then, as well as
now, it no more embraced a bastard than the feudal law of descents. And as to
the terms 'appointed by his will to represent him,' if they mean any thing,
they mean the persons to whom the party had devised the property in question.
But could Hugh Stevenson devise the property in question? Real estate in
Virginia was never devisable at the common law. In 1776, the English statute of
wills was in force. Under that statute, those only who were seised,
could devise. The construction of that statute was the same in England and
Virginia. Those lands only, which the testator had at the time of making his
will, could be devised. The Virginia statute of wills empowers a party to
devise such estates, real or personal, as the party hath, 'or at the time of
his death shall have,' &c. This statute passed in 1785, and began its
operation on the 1st of January, 1787. It is, then, obvious that the appellants
cannot claim as devisees, neither at the common law, nor under the English
statute of wills; nor even under the Virginia statute of wills, if it had been
then in force; because neither at the time of making his will, nor at the time
of his death, had the testator any interest in the premises.
8
2. The appellants claim as
heirs at law to Richard, under the 19th and 18th sections of the act directing
the cause of descents. The 19th section is in these words: 'Where a man having,
by a woman, one or more children, shall afterwards intermarry with such woman,
such child or children, if recognized by him, shall be thereby legitimated.'
The issue also in marriages deemed null in law, shall, nevertheless, be
legitimate. And the 18th section is in these words: 'In making title by
descent, it shall be no bar to a party that any ancestor through whom he
derives his descent, was, or shall have been, an alien. Bastards also shall be
capable of inheriting or transmitting inheritance on the part of their
mother, in like manner as if lawfully begotten of such mother.'
9
In the construction of
statutes no authority need be quoted for the following rules of interpretation.
1st. All the acts passed at any one session of a legislative body are to be
taken together as one act. 2d. Consequently, the same words or phrases, as
often as they occur, are to be construed to have the same meaning when that can
be given them without gross violation of the sense. 3d. The acts of the same
session, made in pari materia, are to be taken together as one act. The
marriage act, the act of descents, the statute of wills and distributions, and
the act respecting dower, were made in pari materia. Marriage is the
source of all legitimate birth, and, as such, the cause of dower, of descents,
and of distributions. These laws have extraordinary claims to be considered as
one statute. They were compiled at the same time, by the same committee,
composed of the ablest lawyers and civilians of their country—enacted at the
same session of the same legislative body, in the same year, (1785;) and,
lastly, all went into operation at the same time, on the 1st of January, 1789.
They will be found to contain a complete code for the government of domestic
relations, without any contradictions or discrepancies. These four statutes
contain 164 sections; in almost every one of which the future verb shall
occurs, and in all of which, with the exception of the 7th section of the
marriage act, (which confirms past irregular marriages,) its future operation
cannot be disputed, nor never has been disputed.
10
With the rules of
construction already stated, and this view of the four statutes, we will proceed
to show, that the appellants' construction of the 19th section is incorrect.
And this, 1st, on principle, and, 2dly, on authority. First. The rules of
construction entitle us to give to the verb shall, in this section, the
same meaning intended whenever it occurs in any of the statutes. If the
legislature had intended to confer legitimacy on those recognized before the
1st of July, 1787, (July 1, 1787) they certainly would have left us nothing for
construction. They would not have been less cautions than in the preceding
section they had shown themselves on a less important subjec; 'is or hath
been an alien,' &c. Again; it is the obvious policy of a just
legislature, that this act should operate prospectively, not retrospectively.
Words which might bear both constructions, ought to be expounded according to
that policy; to give a statute a retroactive effect without evident necessity,
is inconsistent with this policy. To give to this act an operation upon past
births and marriages, is to carry the liberality of construction far indeed.
But to cause it to operate on the past recognitions of the father who is dead,
before the commencement of the statute itself, would be unjustificable. The
principle of the law is, that after marriage, the father, if he pleases, may
render his children legitimate. Legitimation, in this view, is the effect of
the father's agreement; an effect of which he must be sensible, to make it his
act. It is easy to conceive of cases in which a father, willing to soothe his
wife, and make the best of his case, might be brought to say that her children,
born before their marriage, were his, at a time when such acknowledgment would
have no legal effect whatever; but who, with the provisions of this statute
before him, would make such an acknowledgment; an acknowledgment which would
make the child his heir, and pledge him to the mother and the world to provide
for it as such: To construe the act as having a retrospective effect on past
recognitions, would, therefore, be against the general policy of legislation;
contrary, often, to the wish of a deceased individual; and might be productive
of much injury to private rights.
11
But, it is said, that the
possible interest which children have in the property of their father in his
life time, is not of that absolute character which the legislature cannot
control. This is admitted, and the statute of descents is an exercise of such a
control. But the new rule of descents created by that act, is known to the
proprietor in his life time, and if that pleases him not, the statute of wills,
of the same date, is placed in his hands, and enables him to control the act of
descents. Again; it is a maxim that nemo est haeres viventis. In life,
the relation of father and child exists between legitimates, but not between
illegitimates. The relation of ancestor and heir, presumptive or expectant, may
exist while the former is still living. But the legal relation of ancestor and
heir never does exist until the death of the father. The moment the eyes of the
father are closed in death, is that in which this legal relation begins to
exist, and from that time it becomes unalterable. So, after his decease, Hugh
Stephenson became ancestor to Richard in ventre sa mere; but not the
ancestor of the appellants.
12
To examine the 19th
section upon authority. The cases of Rice et al. v. Efford et al.f and of
Stones v. Keeling, and Hughes v. Striker,g are all that bear upon the subject. The only question which seemed to
create much difficulty in those cases was, whether births and marriages, before
the act, were embraced by it? and the decisions are, that such births and
marriages are embraced, where the children, born before wedlock, had been
recognized by the father, after the 1st of January, 1787. But this is said to
be nothing more than an obiter dictum of Judge Roane. But we regard it
as the reasoning of the Court, given by the only Judge who gave any reason for
the decision. A decision, that marriages and births, before the act, are
embraced by its provisions, because the recognition took place after the act
was in force, is plainly a decision, that, but for the subsequent recognition,
prior marriages and births could not be considered as within the act. These
cases furnish good authority for applying the 7th section of the marriage act,
to marriages contracted before, but existing on the 1st of
January, 1787; (January 1, 1787) and for substituting the words 'hath been,' in
the act of descents respecting aliens, for the words 'shall have been.'
If this be correct, both those provisions will accord with the residue of the
acts containing them,
3 Henn. & Munf. 225.
Ib. and with the act
concerning dower, and the statute of wills and distributions. The operation of
all, will then be prospective.
13
The statute of
descents shows, that wherever, in adopting the civil law, its framers meant to
exceed or fall short of its provisions, they have done so in explicit terms. By
the civil law, the marriage of the parents legitimated the children previously
born, without the father's recognition.h This legitimation was the subject of the famous proceeding at the parliament
of Merton. The ecclesiastics there demanded, that the marriage of the parent
should legitimate the children; to which the barons returned their memorable
answer: 'Nolumus leges Angliae mutari.'i The common
lawyers of England, therefore, would not agree to adopt the civil law in this
particular. But the common lawyers of Virginia, who compiled the act of 1785,
determined to adopt the civil law in this particular, sub modo; that the
marriage of the parents should legitimate the children, provided the father
should afterwards recognize them. It is contended, on the other side, that
this recognition is nothing more than statutory evidence of the fact, which
might be otherwise proved, and is not of itself a substantive provision. If
this argument be correct, then by the common and civil law a bastard must
always have been the heir of his natural father, provided the identity of that
natural father could be proved. But as we know that the mother, both by
1 Bl. Comm. 455. Just. Inst. l. 1. tit.
1 Bl. Comm. 455. the common and civil law, was
always a competent witness to establish that fact of the father's identity, and
yet never resorted to for the purpose of making her child heir to the father,
we have a right to conclude, that the recognition required by the statute, is
something more than mere evidence of the fact.
14
3. The appellants claim as
heirs of Richard Stevenson, under the 18th section, and in support of this
claim they contend, that the terms, 'inheriting or transmitting inheritance on
the part of the mother, in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten of
such mother,' confer a capacity to inherit and transmit inheritance in the
ascending as well as descending line, and also from and among collaterals.
Their doctrine amounts plainly to this: that by the true construction of the
second member of the 18th section, bastards are made the legitimate children of
their mothers, at least for the purposes of inheritance.
15
In expounding the statute
of descents, it has been justly remarked by Judge Tucker, that the framers of
it were eminent sages of the law, and complete masters of its technical terms.
This being the case, it would be reasonable to look for the same technical
language, in all cases where the same thing was intended. When in the 19th
section of the act of descents, and also in the marriage act, they remove from
certain classes of bastards all the disabilities under which they laboured,
they employ that legal term which conveys their meaning clearly, and leaves
nothing for construction. They say they shall be 'legitimate,' not that they
shall be capable of inheriting 'on the part of their mothers and fathers;'
leaving us to inquire after the extent of the capacity. The law causes them to
change characters. They cease to be bastards, and become the legitimate
children of their father and mother. The consequences of their legitimacy
follows. They have father and mother, sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts,
with an universal capacity of inheriting and transmitting inheritance. The 18th
section immediately preceding, if it had been intended to make bastard children
the legitimate offspring of their mothers, would have followed the same
language, and would have left nothing to interpretation. That section would
have read thus: 'In making title by descent, it shall be no bar to a party,
that any ancestor through whom he derives his descent from the intestate, is,
or hath been an alien or a bastard. Bastards also shall be considered in
law as the legitimate children of their mother.' The 19th section, like the
marriage act, gives no new capacities to bastards as such. They make certain
persons of that description legitimate, and the capacities of legitimacy
follow of course. They inherit to both parents, not as bastards, but as their
legitimate offspring.
16
The second
proposition of this argument is, that all the disabilities of bastardy are of
feudal origin. With us it is of Saxon origin. The term bastard being derived
from a Saxon word, importing a bad, or base, original. The disabilities of
bastardy are the same under the civil as under the common law, and in all ages
and nations.j He has no ancestor; no name; can inherit to nobody, and nobody to him; can
have no collaterals nor other relatives except those descended from him. He can
have no surname, until gained by reputation. This is the origin of new
families. He is the propositus by common law. But by the civil law he
can inherit his mother's estate.k She is, therefore, the propositus of the civil law. Collaterals
descended from a male relative are by the civillaw termed agnati; those
descended from a female relative cognati.l In a note to Cooper's Justinian, which I take to be from the pen of Sir
Henry Spelman, it is said that illegitimate children can have no agnati—Quia
neque gentem neque familiam habent.m If for this reason they can have no agnati, it follows that they can have
no cognati; and this is the reason of Justinian's broad proposition, that
bastards can have no collaterals; which is our doctrine in this case.
17
It is admitted that
the 18th section does not give legitimacy except specially for inheritance;
that is, it removes that incapacity, and no other: finding and leaving them bastards.
Now, there are no other disabilities except the incapacity to inherit or to
hold a church dignity.n And since these dignities do not exist in the United States, if it had
been the intention of the legislature to place the bastard on the footing of a
lawful child of his mother, for the purposes of inheritance, and thus to admit
him among collaterals in her line, it is inconceivable why they should not have
said at once, that bastards shall be considered in law the legitimate children
of their mother. Instead of which, they have used a technical term, ex parte
materna; which in the civil law is constantly opposed to this other term, ex
linea materna. The first importing a capacity of lineal inheritance; the
other, that, and collateral inheritance also. Neither by the common nor civil
law could she inherit to her child, even chattels; she is not mother for
inheritable purposes by either code; and the 18th section has given her no
inheritable blood of her child. Being incapable of inheriting herself, she
cannot give inheritance to a legitimate child by the civil law; because, by one
of its canons, the child can never succeed by representation or succession,
where the parent could not.
18
So far, therefore, is the
assertion, that the heritable disabilities of bastardy are of feudal origin,
from being correct, that they were known and enforced from time immemorial in
all nations; were known and emorced in England, before the Norman sat foot
there. The Ecclesiastics at Merton did not demand of the king that bastards
should inherit even to their mother. They simply demanded, that by the
intermarriage of their parents they should become legitimate; which was
refused.
19
But it is contended by the
appellants' counsel, that the words, 'in like manner as if lawfully begotten of
such mother,' apply as well to collateral as lineal inheritance. But what is
that which a bastard has capacity to do, 'in like manner as if lawfully
begotten of his mother?' The answer is in the words of the statute, 'of
inheriting and transmitting inheritance on the part of his mother.'
20
But, we insist, that
although Richard Stevenson, the son, took by purchase from the State; yet he
took quasi heir, to hold as such to the use of his male anceastry, under
the equity of the 5th section of the act of descents: 'Provided, nevertheless,
that where an infant shall die without issue, having title to any real estate
of inheritance derived by purchase or descent from the father; neither the
mother of such infant, or any issue which she may have by any person other than
the father of such infant, shall succeed to, or enjoy the same, or any part
thereof, if there be living any brother or sister of such infant on the part of
the father, or any brother or sister of the father, or any lineal descendant of
either of them.' The principle of this section is, that the estate which came
from a male ancestor, shall return to his stock. The principle of the 6th
section, immediately following it, is the same; that the estate which came from
a female ancestor, shall return to her stock. It is admitted, that the case of
Richard Stevenson is not within the letter of the 5th section; but is it not
within the equity of it? The estate came not from the father by descent, or by
gift; but in equity we may pursue the consideration of the grant, and have a
right to inquire, whether that consideration was furnished in common, by the
paternal and maternal kindred; and, therefore, ought to pass to both lines. The
consideration of the grant to Richard Stevenson, is his father's military
service, and his death in that service. Loss is a valuable consideration for a
grant, and the grant ought, in consequence, to be made to the heir of the
family suffering the loss. A military bounty is in the nature of compensation
for a loss, or of a gratuity for services. It is intended to supply to a
family, as far as the liberality of the country can supply the place of a lost
member. They are intended to avail the heir in his pecuniary concerns to the
extent to which it is supposable his father's labour might have availed him had
he lived. In this view, therefore, the hounty, given by law to the heir, is, in
equity, a paternal estate, and should descend and pass to the paternal kindred,
in exclusion of the maternal.
21
The Attorney-General,
on the same side, contended, that the appellants were not entitled, either as
legal representatives of Hugh, or as heirs of Richard Stevenson.
22
1. The appellants were not
the legal representatives of Hugh Stevenson; for legal representatives
are those whom the law appoints to stand in a man's place, and such was not the
case of the appellants. The law recognized no connexion between them and Hugh
Stevenson.
23
But, it is objected,
that the father had made them his legal representatives by his will. This
admits of various answers: but one is sufficient, that the will was a nullity;
it was revoked by the subsequent marriage and brith of a child.o Neither, therefore, by operation of law, nor by any act of Hugh Stevenson,
does it appear that the appellants were his legal representatives.
24
2. Neither could they
inherit as heirs to Richard Stevenson; for, being natural children, there was
no common blood between them.
25
It is again
objected, that they were legitimated by the 19th section of the law of
descents. But this clause has received a judicial exposition by the highest
Court of the State, in which the law was passed, and is now the settled law of
that land. In the cases of Rich v. Efford,p and Sleighs v. Strider,q the Court of Appeals of Virginia decided, that the act applied to cases of
prior births and marriages; but, that to give it an application, the father
must have been in life after the passage of the act. In this case, the father
had died more than ten years before the act took effect, and, consequently, the
case at bar is not within its operation. But, it is said, that the Court of
Appeals were right in extending the law to cases of births and marriages
antecedent to the act; but they were demonstrably wrong in declaring, that the
act applied to cases only in which the father had died posterior to the act. To
which we answer, that the precedent cannot be divided; if it is to have the
authority of a precedent, it must be taken altogether; it cannot be entitled to
the authority of a precedent so far as it favours the opposite side, and be
open to dispute so far as it destroys their position. It has been the settled
law of Virginia, since the year 1805; for it was then that Sleighs v. Strider
was decided, and though its correctness may have been originally doubtful, yet
extreme inconvenience follows the disturbance of a rule of property which has
been so long settled; and that this argument ab inconvenienti, was of
great weight in the estimation of the Court of Appeals itself, may be seen from
the proposition to reconsider the decision of that Court in the celebrated case
of Tomlinson and Delland.r The original decision in that case, which subjected the succession to
personal property, to the feudal principle, which, in relation to lands,
respected the blood of the first purchaser, had been made in 1801. It having
produced great excitement in the State, and being very generally disapproved, a
reconsideration was most strenuously pressed in 1810, nine years only after the
original decree; but a majority of the Court was of the opinion, that the
inconvenience of overthrowing what was already considered as a settled rule of
property, was too great to be encountered, even if the decision were erroneous
at first. It is true, that they thought the decision called for by the stern
language of the law; but from one of the Judges this opinion was wrung with
such manifest reluctance, that it was believed he would have come to a
different result had the question heen res integra. Here the rule having
been settled, the Court will say how far it ought now to be considered as the
settled law of the State.
26
If, however, these
precedents be open to question at all, they are open throughout; and if the
Court of Appeals erred at all, it was not in limiting the operation of the law
to cases in which the father has died since the act took effect, but in
extending it to cases of births and marriages which happened anterior to the
passage of the law. This law took effect on the 1st of January, 1787. The
births, the marriage, the recognition, and the death of the father, had all
occurred in, and prior to August, 1776. Had the legislature of Virginia the
right to pass a retrospective law? The Court of Appeals said not, in the cases
of Turner v. Turner's executors,s Elliott v.
Lyell,t and the Commonwealth v. Hewitt.u Even where it has been attempted to apply a new remedy to pre-existing
rights, it is said the language must be irresistibly clear, or the Court will
not give it such retrospective operation.
27
Does the language of
this act clearly intend to operate on pre-existing facts? on pre-existing
marriages and births? We contend that it does not. In the case of the
Commonwealth v. Hewitt, before cited, Judge Roane, in resisting the retroactive
effect of the law, founds himself, in a great measure, on the general nature of
laws, as prospective, and on the time assumed by the act itself for the
commencement of its operation, from and after the passing thereof. Both
considerations concur here, with this farther circumstance in favour of this
law, that while it has (in the original act) the usual clause, 'This act shall
commence in force from and after the passing thereof,' a subsequent and
distinct law was passed to suspend its operation until the 1st of January,
1787. Again; this act commences with a general declaration, most unequivocally
prospective. The first clause is, 'be it enacted by the general assembly, that henceforth,
when any person having title, &c.' According to settled rules of
construction, therefore, the force of this expression, henceforth, runs
through every subsequent clause. The 19th section under consideration ought to
be read thus: 'Be it enacted that, HENCEFORTH, [that is, after the 1st of
January, 1787,] (January 1, 1787)where a man, having by a woman, one or more
children, shall, afterwards, intermarry with such woman, such child or
children, if recognized by him, shall thereby be legitimated.' Is this language
so irresistibly retrospective, in relation to the date of the law, that the
Court is constrained to give it that construction? Is it not, on the contrary,
so obviously future and prospective, that it requires subtility and violence to
wrest it to a retrospective meaning? The verbs which indicate the acts that are
to produce the effect of legitimation, are in the future tense. It is
insisted, therefore, that the clause has no application to any case, but to one
in which all the facts on which it is to operate, shall happen after its
passage; the birth of the children, the marriage, and the recognition. It is
true, that in speaking of the children, the present participle is used, 'having
one or more children.' But the present tense of this participle relates, not to
the time of passing the act, but to the time of the marriage, 'having,' at the
time of the marriage, 'one or more children.' This is not a new use of the
present tense; grammarians tell us that the present tense is occasionally used
to point at the relative time of a future action. The true reading of this part
of the act is this, 'where' (i. e. in all cases, hereafter, in which) 'a man
shall marry a woman, having by him, at the time, one or more children.' Thus,
the participle, although present at the time of the marriage, is future in
relation to the passage of the act. This is no unusual application of this
participle;—if I say, 'if a man shall go to Rome, and having a dagger in
his hand, shall strike it to the heart of the Pope:' the present participle is
properly used in it; it is present in relation to the action with which it
stands connected, though future, in relation to the time of speaking. So the
present participle here is present in reference to the act with which it
clearly stands connected, the act of marriage; although future in relation to
the date of the act. The sense is the same as if the legislature had said,
'wherever, hereafter, a man shall have one or more children by a woman,
and shall, afterwards, intermarry with her,' &c. It is only by this
construction which considers both the birth and marriage as future, that
the word 'afterwards,' used in the act, acquires a grammatical sense,
or, indeed, any kind of sense. To prove this, let us see what the effect will
be of considering this participle, as used in the present tense, in reference
to the time of passing the act. Then the sense will be, 'where a man now
having one or more children by a woman, shall afterwards intermarry with
her:' it is clear that the word, afterwards, becomes insignificant and
senseless. It adds nothing to the meaning; for if a man now having one
or more children by a woman, shall intermarry with her, he must of
necessity intermarry with her afterwards; for the future verb, shall
intermarry, makes the act future, in relation to the passage of the
act; and the adverb of time, afterwards, added to the verb, does not
perform its appropriate function of adding a new quality to the verb. It is a
useless clog, therefore, on the sence, because its tendency is to obscure, and
not to illustrate the sense. Whereas, the construction for which we contend,
(by considering both facts as posterior to the act, but the marriage as being
posterior to the birth,) gives the word, afterwards, force and
significancy; it then performs the office of arranging the order of the two
future events. In this point we differ from the Court of Appeals of Virginia,
and insist, that the liberality which would apply this act retrospectively, to
previous births and marriages, is a liberality which looks beyond the judicial
sphere, and belongs only to the legislature. What is the argument on which the
Court of Appeals (and the opposite counsel, after them) ground themselves in
extending this act to antecedent births and marriages? 'I see no difficulty,'
says Judge Roane, in Rice v. Efford,v 'except what arises from the words, shall afterwards intermarry,
which might seem to import only marriages to be celebrated in future: that
word, afterwards, however, is rather to be referred to the birth of the
children, than the passage of the act; and no good reason could possibly have
existed with the legislature for varying the construction of a section,
embracing two descriptions of cases standing on a similar foundation.' The
counsel for the appellants, seizing this passage, has said, the terms, 'shall
afterwards intermarry,' are correctly referred (by the Court) to the birth
of the children, not to the date of the act. This is not accurate: it is not
the three words, shall afterwards intermarry, that are referred
by the Court to the birth of the children: but the word, afterwards,
alone. This, we admit, is correctly referred to the birth of the
children: but the Court having correctly gained this conclusion, forget the
force of the future verb, 'shall intermarry.' We say, that the force of this
future verb requires that the marriage shall be after the act. That henceforth,
'where a man having by a woman one or more children, shall afterwards
intermarry with such woman,' irresistibly demands a marriage future to the date
of the act: that the words, shall intermarry, make the marriage future
in relation to the act. The word, afterwards, removes the marriage
farther off, and marks its futurity in relation to another event, the birth of
the children; which other event, although expressed by the present participle,
is itself drawn forward into futurity by the force of the word, afterwards,
to which it is attached. That such an intention is utterly inconsistent with
the prospective character given to the whole act, by the force of the word henceforth,
and in the commencement. That the force of this word runs through the whole act;
and that, used in the clause under consideration, it would render the
retrospective construction of that clause absurd. In the passage cited, Judge
Roane says, that no good reason could possibly have existed with the
legislature, for varying the construction of a section embracing two
descriptions of cases, standing on a similar foundation. This might have been a
good argument on the floor of the legislature, to induce them to embrace past
cases; but it is no argument to prove that they have embraced them. Whether
they ought to have embraced them is a very different question from whether they
have actually done so. The first is purely a legislative question; the last
purely a judicial question, and the only question in the case for the Court.
28
But it is said, the
appellants do not seek to give the act a retrospective effect; they say that
the act, from the time it took effect, clothed the appellants with a new
capacity of inheritance, not in relation to rights previously vested, but in
relation to inheritances which might thereafter fall. Let it be admitted that
their position is such; let it also be admitted, that the legislature had the
right to clothe them with such new capacity in relation to future inheritances.
But the question still remains, have they done so: is it to persons in their
predicament that this new capacity of inheritance is extended? We have
endeavoured to show that it is not: whether the Court look to the exposition of
the statute by the tribunals of the State, or whether they look to the
construction of the statute, per se. The Court of Appeals of Virginia,
while they admit the application of this statute to antecedent births and
marriages, decide that the law applies to cases only where the father has died
posterior to the passage of the statute. The reasoning on which the Court
ground this distinction is not fully developed by them: the appellants' counsel
infers their reasoning, and, as we may safely admit, contests it with success.
But there is a reason for requiring that the father should continue in life
after the act, which applies with equal force both to the marriage and the
recognition, and corroborates the construction drawn from the language of the
law, that both those facts should be posterior to the act. It is this: the statute
attaches new legal consequences to the act of marrying a woman by whom the man
had, previously, had children; and to the act of recognizing such children.
Make the law prospective in those particulars, and the citizens for whose
government it was intended, have it in their choice, by performing those acts
thereafter, to incur those consequences or not. But attach those consequences
to a past marriage and recognition, and you change the legal character of a
past transaction by an ex post facto law. By a subsequent law you attach
consequences to an act which did not belong to it when it was performed. It is
precisely for this reason that ex post facto laws are prohibited;
because consequences are attached to an act which did not belong to them at the
time; and which, consequently, could not have entered into his consideration of
the question, whether he would commit it or not. You surprise him by a new
case, on which his judgment was never called to pass, and when it is too late
to retract the step and avoid the new consequences.
29
3. The next ground
taken by the claimants is, that if they were not legitimated by the 19th
section of the law of descents, they were made capable of inheriting from
Richard by the 18th section of that law.w It is contended on the part of the appellants, that this clause opens an
inter-communication of blood through the mother, to an indefinite extent
lineally and collaterally. But we insist, that it only gives to the natural
children the faculty of inheriting immediately from the mother, and of
transmitting such inheritance to their posterity. The legislature has not said,
that natural children shall be considered as lawfully born of their mother for
all the purposes of inheritance pointed out by the act. It has given them two
capacities of inheritance only; the capacity to inherit on the part of the
mother; and the capacity of transmitting inheritances on the part of the
mother. These capacities, it is true, they are to enjoy, in like manner 'as if
they had been lawfully begotten of the mother.' But these words, 'as if,
&c.' do not add to the number of their heritable capacities; they seem only
to designate the extent to which they shall enjoy the two specific
capacities which are expressly given them.
30
Do these capacities
authorize them to claim the inheritance from Richard? What are they? 1st. That
they shall be capable of inheriting on the part of their mother; 2dly. That
they shall be capable of transmitting inheritance on the part of their mother.
The last capacity it is not contended, has any application to the case at bar.
This not being the case of an inheritance transmitted through the natural
children, but one which they claim directly for themselves. If they are
entitled, therefore, their title must arise under the first capacity, that of
inheriting on the part of their mother. What is the meaning of this expressin, on
the part of their mother? The counsel on the other side contends, that it
means from or through the mother; that it connects the bastard
with the ancestral line of the mother, and through her, collaterally, with all
who are of her blood. On the other hand, we insist, that the capacity does not
go beyond an inheritance from the mother, and the transmission of that
inheritance lineally and collaterally among their descendants; or, in other
words, to make the mother the head of a new family. The expression 'on the part
of the mother,' does not carry the mind beyond the mother, unless connected
with words of more extensive significance, such as, ancestors on the
part of the mother, or descendants on the part of the mother; and here
it would be the supplemental words which would produce the effect, not the
words, 'on the part of the mother.' But, it will perhaps be urged, that in the
case of Barnitz v. Casey,x the
counsel upon both sides, and the Court, seem to have understood this term in
the sense contended for on the other side. That case arose on a statute of
Maryland, in which the force of the term is expounded to mean, from or
through. In our case, the Virginia statute furnishes an opposite inference.
The expressions, 'on the part of the father,' and 'on the part of the
mother,' occur in the 5th section of the law of descents. It is the only
instance in which they do occur, and there they are indisputably synonymous
with 'of' and 'from' any brother or sister of such infant on
the part of the father, and no vice versa. It is said, that this
provision places the natural children on the footing of legitimate children to
all the purposes of inheritance. But, we would ask, does it enable the mother
to inherit from them? Does it enable the mother's ancestors or
collateral relations so to inherit? The provision is, that the natural
children may innerit from the mother. But where is the provision that the
mother may inherit from them, or that her relations may inherit from them? It
is not to be found; the legislature did not look upwards beyond the mother. It
was not their object to force her natural issue upon a family which she had
dishonoured and offended by bringing them into the world. That they should have
connected them with her was just and proper; she could not complain. But
to have connected them with a family from which she had probably been expelled
on account of her infamy, and to have given them a capacity to inherit the
estates of that family, would not have been quite so just or reasonable. We
contend, that the legislature have not done it; but that the capacity to
transmit applies only to inheritances descending from the mother, and from each
other. Again; if the expression, 'on the part of the mother,' is of the extent
contended for, then the capacity to inherit on the part of the mother,
is a power to take inheritances from, or through her, in right of her.
But the inheritance claimed is not of this description; it is a direct
inheritance from a mother, which, both at the common law, and under the
statute, is not an inheritance on the part of the mother; it does not
come from, or through her, it does not come in her right. So say the Court in
the case of Barnitz v. Casey, before cited.y That was on the statute of Maryland; the statute of Virginia, in case
there is no father, gives the estate to the mother, brothers and sisters, per
capita, so that the shares taken by the brothers and sisters, are cast at once
from the deceased brother on them, and do not come to them, from, or through,
or in right of the mother. This is the inheritance which the appellants claim,
and which they claim in virtue of their specific and single capacity to inherit
on the part of the mother.
31
Mr. Hammond,
for the appellants, in reply, stated, that the argument on the other side,
involved the general construction of the act, as well as its operation upon
this particular case. It asserts, that the recognition must, in all cases, be
subsequent to the marriage; thus proving the consent of the father to the
legitimation. Now, if the legitimation does not result from the agreement, or
depend upon the assent of the father, this argument is of no avail. The
principle is adopted from the civil law. And it is reasonable to suppose, that
when the ablest lawyers and civilians of the country, introduced it into their
code, they intended to adopt it as interpreted and understood in the countries
where it prevailed. The civilians held, that 'this legitimation is a privilege
or incident inseparably annexed to the marriage, so that, though both the
children and parents should wave it, the children would, nevertheless, be
legitimate.' The foundation of this doctrine is thus explained: 'Ratio est
quia matrimonium subsequens ex fictione legis retrahitur ad tempus susceptionis
liberorum ut legitimati habeantur legitime suscepti (i. e.) post contractum.'z
32
If legitimacy is an
incident inseparably annexed to the marriage, it must be the marriage, and not
the agreement of the father, that legitimates the child. But there can be no
such legitimacy without the agreement or recognition of the father. Agreement
and recognition are not synonymous terms. Recognition implies no more than a
simple admission of a fact; it is in the nature of evidence. Agreement supposes
an assent or compact, from which certain consequences result, made with a view
to those consequences. Recognition refers to something past. Agreement implies
a transaction from which some effect is to follow. The provision under
consideration consists of an enumeration of facts, and a declaration of legal
consequences resulting from those facts. The facts are, having children by a
woman, and afterwards marrying her. Upon such a case the statute operates, and
declares the children legitimate. But the effect follows only the legal proof
of the facts; and this the statute has defined. There must be a recognition by
the father; and this is considered a third fact. Though as a fact it must
exist; yet its existence is only necessary to establish the first fact; that
the husband of the mother is, in verity, the father of the child. No legal
consequences can result, until facts are established by proof. We insist, that
the terms 'if recognized by him,' are inserted for the single purpose of
defining the proof upon which the material facts should be established, and are
to be regarded only as prescribing a rule of evidence for the particular case.
Had the legislature intended this recognition as one fact, a principal
condition upon which the legitimacy was to be founded, they could easily have
connected it with the other facts, so as to have left no doubt about it. The
act would have read thus: 'Where a man, having by a woman one or more children,
shall afterwards intermarry with such woman, AND recognize such child or
children, they shall thereby be legitimated.' As the words now stand in the
sentence, they are of very different import. The two principal facts are first
enumerated; then proceeding to declare the result, the mode of proof is set
down, as it were, in a parenthesis, hypothetically, and indefinite as to time:
As much as to say, 'when the father and mother intermarry, if, suppose that,
allow that the father recognized the children, they shall be legitimate.'
If the recognition of the father is a principal fact; if the legitimacy is the
consequence of that recognition, the child could only be legitimate from the
time of the recognition. This would introduce endless confusion and litigation.
The rights of parties would always depend upon the time the father signified
his assent, or declared his agreement. This never was the doctrine of the civil
law. Some referred the legitimation to the birth, others to the time of
marriage; but all dated it from the one or the other of these periods. But as
legitimation could not exist until the celebration of the marriage, we hold
that it must commence at that time, and from that time confer rights upon the
parties. A recognition before marriage is within the letter of the act. It
supplies evidence as conclusive of the fact to be established, as if made after
the marriage. Constantine, who introduced this provision into the civil law, 'is
supposed to have intended it as an encouragement to those who had children born
in concubinage, to marry the mother of such offspring.'aa But in
our case, the recognition is in fact subsequent to the marriage. The will
speaks only from the death of the testator, and is, therefore, a recognition by
him at the time of his death. The appellants were born illegitimate. Their
father recognized them as his children. While illegitimate, he declares their
mother his wife. He afterwards marries her, and continues to recognize them as
his children. He dies. Then comes an act of the legislature, the special object
of which is, 'to protect and provide for the innocent offspring of indiscreet
parents, who had already made all the atonement in their power for their
misconduct, by putting the children whom the father recognized as his own, on
the same footing as if born in lawful wedlock.' If birth and marriage are the
facts upon which the act operates, and recognition nothing but evidence of
those facts, the decisions already cited are decisive in our favour. It is
settled, that the act extends to cases of birth and marriage before its
passage; and it is perfectly clear, that the enacting part of the act is
prospective. The parties upon whom it is acknowledged to operate, could claim
no rights, but those which accrued after the first of January, 1787. It was at
that period, and not before, that their new capacity commenced. We have shown,
that this interpretation of the act interferes with no vested right: And we
have shown how interests in possession may be affected, upon the principle
decided in the Virginia Court of Appeals. In the view we take of the case, the
death of the father, before the passage of the act, is a circumstance of no
importance. It is upon the children, and not upon the father, that the act
operates. It attaches upon existing cases, and gives a character to
transactions already past. Were he alive, he could not recal the birth, the
marriage, or the recognition. A solemn disavowal of the children could not
restrain the operation of the law; for we have shown, that legitimation results
from the facts, and not from the inclination or pleasure of the father.
33
The common law rules
of succession, both as to real and personal estate, were exceedingly narrow and
illiberal. Where those rules have been enlarged by statute, Courts have always
given the act a liberal interpretation in favour of the persons let in. Thus
the English statute of distributions was construed to extend to cases of
intestacy that happened before its passage, where administration was granted
afterwards.bb No vested right was disturbed by this interpretation, though it allowed
the act a retrospective operation. So in our case, though legitimated by a law
subsequent to their birth, the appellants claim a new capacity, only in regard
to inheritances that may fall after their legitimacy takes effect. The
appellants do not seek to make themselves heirs to their father Hugh. They
claim that, upon the death of their brother Richard, in 1796, they were his
heirs at law. In making title by descent from a brother, the father is not noticed
at the common law. The descent is held to be immediate between brothers. So, by
the laws of Virginia and Kentucky, where the father and mother are both dead,
the descent is cast directly to the brothers and sisters. If this position
could at any time have been doubted, it is now settled by the decision of this
Court in the case of Barnitz's Lessee v. Casey.cc
34
But if the
appellants were not legitimated by the 19th section of the act, they claim that
they are entitled, as bastards, under the 18th section. When it is admitted
that the act changes the condition of bastards, the extent of that change must
be ascertained. By determining the class of cases included, it can be best
decided what cases are excluded. The Court are called upon for the first time
to put a construction upon this part of the act; and we hold, that it will not
be correct to say, that bastards cannot inherit collaterally, without showing
that the terms and policy of the law can be fairly satisfied, and collateral
inheritance between bastards denied. The Court must say that the act confers
nothing but a direct lineal succession between bastards and their mother; or
they must say that the act removes entirely their incapacity of inheritance
through and from the maternal kindred. To this last position it is objected by
the counsel for the respondent, that it makes bastards the legitimate children
of their mother for purposes of inheritance, which ought not to be done;
because if such had been the intention of the legislature, they would have said
so in express terms. But does it follow, that the capacity of inheritance would
follow the express legitimation of bastards, without providing that such should
be the consequence of legitimation? Children legitimated by the marriage of
their parents, are no longer bastards. But bastards legitimated in the maternal
line, would still, in law, be without a father, and that badge of illegitimacy
must ever attach to them. It was a maxim of the civil law, that the Prince
could legitimate bastards; but the civilians held, that such legitimation did
not confer the right of succession.dd It was the right of succession, the capacity of inheriting and
transmitting inheritance, that the legislature in this case meant to confer;
and they have chosen to do it in express terms. There is no room to doubt what
was intended; and we think there is no just foundation for the exceptions and
limitations set up by the respondent.
35
We admit distinctly,
that the appellants must take as bastards, or they cannot take at all. They are
'clothed with all the attributes and disabilities of bastards, except the capacity
of inheritance, specially conferred on them, and conferred on them too as
bastards.' What were the disabilities of bastards at the time the act was
passed? They could not inherit. In matters of succession and inheritance, they
had no mother, and consequently could have no other relative. But except on the
single subject of inheritance, the laws recognised and regarded them as
standing in the same relation to their kindred as if born in wedlock. In
contracting marriage, bastards were held to be relations, and prohibited from
marrying within the Levitical degrees. In the case of Haines v. Jeffell, the
Court of King's Bench refused a prohibition, to stay proceedings in the
Spiritual Court against Haines, for marrying the bastard daughter of his
sister.ee And the Court said it had always been held so; especially where it was the
child of a woman relative. Here the law expressly recognizes the collateral
kindred between the uncle and his bastard niece. Bastards are within the
marriage act, which requires the consent of parents or guardians to the
marriage of persons within age.ff In this case, Mr. Justice Buller declares that the rule that a bastard is nullius
filius, applies only to cases of inheritance, and says it was so considered
by Lord Coke. Even Blackstone, who is quite a zealot for the common law
doctrines respecting bastards, admits, almost in terms, that bastards were, at
the time he wrote, subject to no disability but the incapacity of inheritance.gg And Woodeson asserts the same thing.hh In passing the act, the legislature meant to effect a change in the legal
condition of bastards, by removing, to some extent, the only legal
incapacity to which they were subject: and this was a total disqualification to
inherit or transmit estates, from or to ascending or collateral kindred. It is,
therefore, evident, that the legislature contemplated confering this capacity,
in respect to the ascending or collateral kindred, or both. The civil law
distinguished bastards into four classes. Those born in concubinage succeeded
to the effects of their mother and relatives, and in some cases to a part of
the estate of their putative father.ii So that the authority of precedent is against the doctrine of the
respondent, which would limit the effect of the act to inheritance direct
between the mother and the bastard.
36
But it is urged, that the
appellants cannot inherit collaterally, because, legally speaking, bastards
have no collateral relations; and therefore the appellants cannot be the
brothers and sisters of Richard. This was true before the passage of the act.
But does it remain so since? The law then provided, that so far as inheritance
was concerned, a bastard was the son of no person. He had neither father nor
mother, and, consequently, had no blood to convey succession except in a lineal
descent from himself. There was no blood to convey succession, either to
ascendants or collaterals. Having in law no mother, there could be no source
from which a bastard could derive inheritable blood, and no channel through
which his blood could communicate with that of others. But as this was a
provision of positive law, a new provision could restore the connection. Such
is the effect of the provision under consideration. 'Bastards also shall be
capable of inheriting, and transmitting inheritance, on the part of THEIR
MOTHER, in like manner as if lawfully begotten of such mother.' Henceforth
there shall be heritable blood between the bastard and the mother. The bastard
has thus a legal mother; and having a mother, a channel is opened through which
he can have brothers and sisters, and every other relative in the ascending and
collateral line. It was because the bastard had no mother, that he could have
no brothers and sisters. The act gives him a mother. He can inherit from, and
transmit inheritance to her direct. Heritable blood can flow from the mother to
her bastard child, and be traced from the child to the mother, and through the
mother to brothers and sisters, and uncles and aunts. The bastard is not
legitimated: But his blood is made heritable through that parent about whom
there can be no doubt. The character of his blood being changed, he is restored
to his kindred in matters of inheritance; the only case in which the law
separated him from them. It is true that the appellants were not the brothers
and sisters of Richard at the time of his birth, as far as concerned
inheritance. But the act of 1785 has effected a change in their condition; and
from the day it took effect, they were in law, and for the purposes of
succession to estates, his brothers and sisters of the half blood. Had Richard
left brothers and sisters of the whole blood, the 15th section of the act would
expressly embrace their case. There was no occasion to make express provision
for the succession of bastards, either in the law of descents, or in Judge
Tucker's table, because the general provision for the half blood included their
case. This is clearly the mode of succession contemplated. They shall inherit in
like manner as if lawfully begotten.
37
It is argued that, on
the part of, are technical terms of the law, which only import immediately
from. The operation of the act is thus limited to a descent immediately
from the mother. If we are mistaken in the consequence, which we suppose even
this intercommunication of blood must work in the legal condition of a bastard,
we must still inquire whether the terms of the act can be satisfied by this
narrow construction. We do not admit that the terms, on the part of,
import no more than immediately from. We insist that they are used to describe
the ancestral kindred in the line of each parent. On the part of the mother,
means, from or through the mother, or her relatives. Thus, brothers and sisters
of the same mother, but different fathers, are brothers and sisters on the part
of the mother, and are described as such in the 6th section of the act. And in
the case of Barnitz's lessee v. Casey, before cited, the counsel
upon both sides, and the Court, seem to have understood these terms in the
sense we contend for. The capacity of transmitting inheritance, conferred by
the act, can have no operation, if the terms, on the part of, be
interpreted to mean, immediately from the mother. The bastard must transmit the
inheritance to or through, whether it pass to ascendants or
callaterals.
38
The common law disabilities
of bastards are, like the canons of descent, of feudal origin: for it must be
remembered that this disability relates entirely to inheritance. Escheats are
the fruits and consequences, as Blackstone says, of feudal tenure resulting
from the frequent extinction of heritable blood, according to the feudal tenure
of inheritance. A bastard, being the son of nobody, could have no heritable
blood, consequently none of the blood of the first purchaser. The feudal
doctrine of carrying the estate through the blood of the first purchaser,
inevitably excluded inheritance among bastards. In this sense the disability of
bastards was the consequence of feudal policy, and totally inconsistent with
the liberal and equitable canons of descent, introduced by the act of 1785. The
preference of the male ascending line, preserved by the statute of 1786, is not
founded upon feudal doctrines. The inheritance is directed first to the father;
not because he is the most worthy of blood, but because he is the head of the
family, who can best dispose of the estate among his surviving children: And
upon this same principle the grandfather is preferred to the grandmothers and
aunts. This is no preference of the male ancestors; but simply a preference of
the husband or father, if in existence, to the wife or children of the same
person; and the principle of this doctrine is directly repugnant to that of the
feudal or common law. Corruption of blood by convictions for crimes, alienage,
and bastardy, were three fruitful sources of escheats at the common law. The
principle of extinguishing the inheritable blood, applied to each case. The
first was cut up by the constitution of Virginia. The act of 1785 laid the axe
to the root of the other two. Not by authorizing aliens to hold lands, or by
legitimating bastards. In the one case it permits a citizen, claiming by
descent, to trace his relation to an intestate through an alien. In the other,
it confers a capacity of inheritable blood upon bastards. The object of both
provisions is the same: to enable the kindred of the intestate to obtain the
property he left, instead of rapaciously seizing it for the government. The act
is clearly remedial, and should be construed liberally in furtherance of the
object of the legislature, conformable to the opinions of the Virginia Courts
already quoted.
March 4th.
39
Mr. Justice WASHINGTON
delivered the opinion of the Court.
40
It is admitted by the
counsel on both sides, in their argument, with which the opinion of the Court
coincides, that Hugh Stephenson, though the meritorious cause of the grant of
this land, never took any interest therein, but that the right to the same
vested in his son Richard, to whom the warrants issued, as the first purchaser.
It is further admitted by the counsel, that the law of descents of Ohio, at the
time when Richard Stephenson died, was not more favourable to the claim of the
appellants than that of Virginia, which will be hereafter noticed; and they
have, in the argument, rested the cause upon the construction of the latter
law. The opinion of the Court, therefore, is founded on this law.
41
The appellants object to
the decree of the Court below, upon the following grounds: 1. That the land
warrants ought to have been granted to them as the representatives of Hugh
Stephenson, designated as such by his last will.
42
2. That by the marriage of
their mother with Hugh Stephenson, and his recognition of them as his children,
they were legitimated, and entitled to the inheritance in this land as heirs to
Richard Stephenson; if not so, then,
43
3. That, as bastards, they
were capable of inheriting from Richard, who, they contend, was their brother,
on the part of the mother.
44
1. The appellants' counsel
do not contend, that their clients are entitled to this land, as devisees under
the will of Hugh Stephenson; such a claim would be clearly inadmissible,
inasmuch as the testator was not only not seised of the land at the time his
will was made, but the law which authorized the grant of it, was not even then
in existence. But they are understood by the Court, to insist, that the will so
far operates upon the subject, as to name them the representatives of the
testator, and to render them capable, as such, of taking under the act of
assembly, which passed after the death of the testator. The act provides, that
where any officer, soldier, or sailor, shall have fallen, or died in the
service, his heirs or legal representatives shall be entitled to, and receive
the same quantity of land as would have been due to such officer, &c. had
be been living.'
45
This claim is altogether
fanciful and unfounded; for, in the first place, the appellants were not
appointed by the will to be the general representatives of the testator, but
the devisees, together with their mother, of all the testator's property; and,
2dly, if they had been so appointed, still it could not confer upon them such a
description as to entitle them to take under the act of assembly, unless the
act itself described them as the legal representatives of Hugh Stephenson, for
whose benefit the grant was intended; the then, they would have taken
exclusively under the act, by force of such legislative description, and not
under, or in virtue of the description in the will. It is not likely that the
expression, 'legal representatives,' in the act, was meant to apply to devisees
of deceased officers and soldiers for whom the bounty was intended, if they had
lived, because, at the time this law was passed, there could not be a devisor
of those lands under the general law. It is more probable that they were
intended to provide for the case of a person who may have purchased the right
of the officer or soldier to such bounty as the legislature might grant to him.
46
The next question is,
whether the appellants were legitimated by the marriage of Hugh Stephenson with
their mother, and his recognition of them as his children. This question arises
under the 19th section of the act of 1785, directing the course of descents,
which took effect on the 1st of January, 1787. This section declares, that
'where a man, having by a woman one or more children, shall afterwards
intermarry with such woman, such child or children, if recognized by him, shall
be thereby legitimated.'
47
There can be no doubt but
that the section applied to bastards in esse, at the time the law came
into operation, as well as to such as might thereafter be born. But it is
contended by the counsel for the appellants, that the section is, in every
other respect, prospective, not only as to the fact of legitimation, but as to
the two circumstances of marriage and recognition, which entitle the bastard to
the benefits of the law; and, consequently, that to bring a case within the
operation of this section, both the marriage and recognition must take place
after the 1st of January, 1787. On the other side, it is admitted, that the privilege
of legitimation is not conferred upon a bastard prior to the above period; but
it is insisted, that, as to the marriage and recognition, the law should be
construed as well retrospectively as prospectively.
48
In the case of Rice
v. Efford, decided in the Court of Appeals of Virginia,jj the
marriage took place prior to the 1st of January, 1787, but the father
recognized his illegitimate children, and died, after that period. The whole
Court seem to have been of opinion, that the word 'afterwards' referred not to
a time subsequent to the 1st of January, 1787, but to the birth of the
children, and, therefore, that the marriage, though prior to that period,
legitimated the children before born, if they should be recognized by the
father. But, it was stated by Judge Roane, in giving his opinion, that the
construction of the act applies only to cases where the father has died
posterior to the passage of the act.
49
It is contended by the
counsel for the appellants, that since, in the above case, the father
recognized the children subsequent to the 1st of January, 1787, this opinion of
Judge Roane as to the time of the recognition, was unnecessarily advanced, and
is, therefore, entitled to no higher respect than what is due to a mere obiter
dictum. Be this as it may, it is the uncontradicted opinion of a learned
Judge upon the construction of a law of his own State; and is noticed by this
Court, not upon the ground of its being considered in that State as of
conclusive authority, but because it strongly fortifies the opinion which this
Court entertains upon the point decided; which is, that, however the
construction may be as to the inception of the right, it is clearly prospective
as it relates to the consummation of it. And this prospective operation being
given to the act, by requiring the most important condition upon which the
privilege of legitimation is to be conferred, to be performed after the law
came into operation, it is less material whether the marriage was celebrated
before, or after that period. To render the past recognition of the father
effectual to give inheritable blood to his children, who were then
illegitimate, and incapable of taking the estate by descent, either from him,
or from those to whom it should descend, would in some respects at least,
partake of the character of a retrospective law. It would seem to be most
reasonable so to construe the law, as to enable the father to perceive all the
consequences of his recognition at the time he made it.
50
The 3d question is, are the
appellants, as bastards, capable of inheriting from Richard Stevenson?
51
The 18th section of the law
of descents, under which this question arises, is as follows: 'In making title
by descent, it shall be no bar to a party that any ancestor through whom he
derives his descent from the intestate, is, or hath been, an alien. Bastards
also shall be capable of inheriting or of transmitting inheritance on the part
of their mother, in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten of such
mother.'
52
In the construction of this
section, it is never to be lost sight of, that the appellants are to be
considered as bastards, liable to all the disabilities to which the common law
subjects them, as such, except those from which the section itself exempts
them. Though illegitimate, they may inherit and transmit inheritance, on the
part of the mother, in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten of the
mother. What is the legal exposition of these expressions? We understand it to
be, that they shall have a capacity to take real property by descent
immediately or through their mother in the ascending line; and transmit the
same to their line as descendants, in like manner as if they were legitimate.
This is uniformly the meaning of the expressions, 'on the part of the mother or
father,' when used in reference to the course of descent of real property, in
the paternal or maternal line. As bastards, they were incapable of inheriting
the estate of their mother notwithstanding they were the innocent offspring of
her incontinence, and were, therefore, in the view of the legislature, and
consonant to the feelings of nature, justly entitled to be provided for out of
such property as she might leave undisposed of at her death, or which would
have vested in her, as heir to any of her ancestors, had she lived to take as
such. The current of inheritable blood was stopt in its passage from, and
through the mother, so as to prevent the descent of the mother's property and
of the property of her ancestors, either to her own illegitimate children, or
to their legitimate offspring. The object of the legislature would seem to have
been, to remove this impediment to the transmission of inheritable blood from
the bastard in the descending line, and to give him a capacity to inherit in
the ascending line, and through his mother. But although her bastard children
are, in these respects, quasi legitimate, they are, nevertheless, in all
others bastards, and as such, they have, and can have neither father, brothers,
or sisters. They cannot, therefore, inherit from Richard Stephenson, because,
in contemplation of law, he is not their brother; and even if he were their
brother, they would not inherit their estate under this section, on the part
of their mother, but directly from Richard, the descent from brother to
brother being immediate. Upon no principle, therefore, can this section help
the appellant's case. His estate never vested in the mother, so as for her bastard
children to inherit from her; nor did it pass through her in the course of
descent to the bastard children.
53
Rees' Cyclopedia, art. Bastard. Cooper's Just. Inst. 37 1
Bac. Abr. 510.
3 Henn. & Munf. 225.
The history of the respective disabilities and rights of
illegitimate children in different ages and nations, is a subject of curious
speculation. The most ancient people of whose laws and political institutions
we have any accurate knowledge are the Jews. They appear to make little or no
distinction between their legitimate and illegitimate offspring. So, also, the
Greeks, in the heroic ages, seem to have regarded them as in every respect
equal: but at a subsequent epoch they were stigmatized with various marks of
unfavourable distinction. Among the Athenians, the offspring of parents who had
contracted marriages, which though valid by the law of nations, were contrary
to the policy and the positive institutions of the state, were considered as
illegitimate; and all bastards were not only deemed incapable of inheriting
from either of their parents, but excluded from public honours and offices, and
negarded as aliens to the commonwealth. Thus, the citizen who married a foreign
woman at once degraded and denationalized his offspring.a The seversity of this law was however occasionally mitigated from motives
of policy; and when the ranks of the citizens of a Grecian republic became
thinned by wars and proscriptions, they were filled up again from this
disfranchised class. (Arist. Politic. l. 3. c. 3. Id. l.
6. c. 4.)
54
The Roman law distinguished
between the offspring of that concubinage which it
55
tolerated as an inferior
species of marriage, and 'the spurious brood of adultery, prostitution, and
incest.' (Gibbon's Decl. & Fall, &c. c. 44. s. 1.) The
former were termed naturales; and the latter, spurii, adulterini,
incestuosi, nefarii, or sacrilegi, according as they were
respectively the fruit of prostitution, of incest between persons in the direct
line of consanguinity, or related in remoter degrees, and of the violation of
vows of chastity.
56
None of these different
classes of illegitimate offspring were stigmatized by civil degradation, or
excluded from aspiring to public honours.
Leges Attica, Sam. Petiti, tit. 4 de
liberis legit. nothis, &c.
(OEuvres de D'Aguesseau, tom. 7. pp. 384,
385. Dissert, sur les Bastards.) But 'according to the proud maxims of
the republic, a legal marriage could only be contracted by free citizens; an
honourable, at least an ingenuous birth, was required for the spouse of a
senator: but the blood of kings could never mingle in legitimate nuptials with
the blood of a Roman; and the name of Stranger degraded Cleopatra and Berenice
to live the concubines of Mark Anthony and Titus.' (Gibbon, ubi supra.)
'A concubine, in the strict sense of the civilians, was a woman of servile or
plebeian extraction, the sole and faithful companion of a Roman citizen, who
continued in a state of celibacy. Her modest station, below the honours of a
wife, above the infamy of a prostitute, was acknowledged and approved by the
laws.' (Ib.) Thus there were several classes of persons who could not
lawfully be concubines, either in respect to the infamy of their characters, ut
meretrices; or in respect to their rank in life, ut ingenuoe et
illustres; or in respect to their condition as married women, or nuns
professed, or as within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. (OEuvres de
D'Aguesseau, ubi supra.)
Although bastards were not deprived of any civil rights
by the Roman law, and 'the outcasts of every family were adopted without
reproach as the children of the state,' yet they were excluded in the early
ages of the republic from all claim to the property of their deceased parents.
As the law of the XII Tables only called to the succession the agnates,
or the persons connected by a line of males of the same gens or family;
and absolutely disinherited the cognates or relations on the side of the
mother, bastards could have no claim to the property of their parents by
inheritance: not to that of the father quis neque gentem, neque familiam
habent; nor to that of the mother, because her relations were entirely
excluded. It seems, however, that there was no law prohibiting the father from
making a provision for his illegitimate children by will, until the time of
Constantine, who made some regulations restraining this liberty; which,
however, are involved in such obscurity, that the commentators
are not agreed as to their precise nature. J. Godefroy,
in his commentary on the Theodosian code, is of the opinion that these
regulations annulled such provision by will in favour of bastards wherever the
testator left any legitimate children, or father, mother, brothers, or sisters.
(Jac. Godefroy. Com. ad. Cod. Theodo. l. 1. De natural, fillis.)
Be this as it may, it is certain that the Emperor Valentinian, A. D. 371,
permitted the bastard children of fathers, who had also legitimate offspring,
to acquire either by donation or will, one-twelfth part of the paternal
property; and in case the father had no legitimate children, or surviving
parents, he might dispose in the same manner of one-fourth of his estate in
favour of his illegitimate children. (Cod. Theodos. l. 1. De natural.
liberis.) Justinian again permitted those who had both legitimate and
illegitimate children to give or bequeath one-twelfth part of their property to
the latter; and in case they had no legitimate children, to make the same
disposition of a moiety of their estate. (Novell. 18. c. 5. Pothier
Pandect. in Nov. Ordin. Redact. tom. 2. p. 55.) He afterwards
permitted them, in case they had no legitimate children, nor father or mother,
'quibus necessitas est legis relinquere partem propriae substantiae
competentem,' to leave the whole of their property to their illegitimate
offspring; and in case their father or mother survived, the whole, except what
the parents were entitled to by law. (Novell. 89. c. 12.)
Justinian also established, for the first time in the Roman jurisprudence, the
principle of giving to illegitimate children a legal claim to a portion of
their fathers's property by inherintance ab intestato, by providing,
that in case the father died intestate, leaving neither wife nor legitimate
offspring, his natural children and their mother should be entitled to
one-sixth part of his estate. (OEuvres de D'Aguesseau, tom. 7. 389.)
This, however, must be understood strictly of the children born in concubinage,
such as the Roman law recognized this domestic relation; and not of 'the spurious
brood of adultery, prostitution, and incest, to whom, (according to Gibbon,)
Justinian reluctantly granted the necessary aliments of life;' but from
whom it would, in fact, appear that he inhumanly withheld ever this provision.
'Omnis qui ex complexibus nefariis aut incestis, aut
damuatis processerit, iste neque naturalis nominatur, neque alendus est a
parentibus, neque habehit quoddam ad praesentem legem participium.' (Novell. 89. c. 12. s. 6.) It seems, therefore, that
this provision for the necessary support of illegitimate children was confined
to those termed naturales. (Ib.)
The stern contempt of the early Roman legislators for the
female sex had entirely excluded the cognates from the rights of
inheritance, 'as strangers and aliens.' This necessarily prevented even
legitimate children from succeeding to their mother; and it is not, therefore,
surprising that bastards could claim no part of the maternal estate. When the
rigour of this principle was relaxed by the equitable interference of the praetor,
his edict called indiscriminately to the succession both the legitimate and
illegitimate children of the mother. (OEuvres de D'Aguesseau, tom. 7. p.
391. Pothier. Pandect. in Nov. Ordin. Redact. tom. 2. p. 557.)
This rule was subsequently confirmed by the Tertullian and Orphitian senatus
consulta, and continued the law of the empire ever afterwards, except that
Justinian engrafted into it an exception unfavourable to the illegitimate
children of noble women, mulieres illustrae. (Ib.)
The Roman law had provided various modes by which
bastards might be legitimated. 1. The first was by a subsequent marriage of the
father and mother; a mode of legitimation first established by Constantine. 2. Per
oblationem curioe, a mode introduced by Theodosius and Valentinian, which
was when the parent consecrated his child to the service of a city. But this
only had the effect of legitimating the children in regard to their father.
They had no right to inherit from conllaterals, and even their claim to inherit
from their father was confined to his property within the city to whose service
they were devoted. 3. Adoption blone was declared by the emperor Anastasius to
be sufficient to legitimate the natural children of the person adopting them.
But this law was abolished by Justin and Justinian. 4. By the last will of the
father, confirmed by the emperor. But this only applied to cases where he had
no surviving legitimate children, and had some sufficient reason for not having
married the mother of his natural children. 5. Per rescriptum principis;
by a special dispensation from the
emperor granted upon the petition of the father, who had
no legitimate offspring, and whose concubine was dead, or where he had
sufficient reasons for not marrying her. 6. By the recognition of the father;
as if the father designated one of his natural children as his child in any
public or private instrument; this had the effect of legitimating the child
thus acknowledged, and all his brothers and sisters by the same mother, upon a
legal presumption, that a marriage might have been contracted between the
parents. In all these cases, except the 2d, the children thus legitimated were
in all respects placed upon the same footing as if born in lawful wedlock. (OEuvres
de D'Aguesseau, tom. 7. p. 393, and seq. Pothier, Pandect. in
Nov. Ord. Redact. tom. 1. p. 27.)
It should be added, that none of these modes of
legitimation could apply to the offspring of criminal commerce, ex damnato
coitu; since they all suppose that the children are born of a concubine
with whom the father might lawfully intermarry. (Aeuvres de D'Aguesseau, ubi
supra.)
By the Roman law if a bastard left legitimate children,
they became his heirs precisely as if he himself had been legitimate. But if he
died, without having been himself legitimated, and without children, his
succession was determined by the rule of reciprocity, and his father and
mother, &c. succeeded to him, precisely as he would have succeeded to them.
If he had been legitimated while living, his succession was regulated in the
same manner with that of persons born in lawful wedlock. (Id. p. 399.)
By the Canon law, the subject of bastardy was, in
general, regulated in the same manner as by the Civil law. But though bastards
were capable by the latter of aspiring to all the honours and offices of the
State, the former refused them the same privileges in respect to the dignities
of the church. The canonists also aimed to exclude them entirely from the
succession of their father or mother, but allowed all indiscriminately a right
to claim the necessary aliments of life. After legitimation in any of the modes
provided by the civil law, such as a subsequent marriage of the parents, &
c. they regarded them in the same manner as if born in lawful wedlock. (Id.
p. 400.
et seq.) It was this rule which
they endeavoured to impose upon the English barons at the parliament of Merton
in the reign of Henry III. (1 Bl. Com. 456.)
The laws of those European countries which have adopted
the Roman law as the basis of their municipal jurisprudence, regulate the
rights and disabilities of illegitimate children in the same manner as they are
determined by the civil and common law. But the Gothic monarchies of Europe
adopted from the earliest times a legislation on this subject, in many respects
different from that of imperial and papal Rome. Thus, in all the provinces of
France, where the droit coutoumier, or unwritten law, prevailed,
bastards were incapable of inheriting ab intestato, except the property
of their legitimate children, and the reciprocal right of the husband and wife
to succeed to each other according to the title of the civil law, unde vir
et uxor. This was the universal law of the kingdom, with the exception of
the peculiar customs of a few provinces, and the pays du droit ecrit,
where the Roman law constituted the municipal code. (Ferriere. Dict. Mot.
Bastard. OEuvres de D'Aguesseau, tom. 7. pp. 403. 430. 448.)
They were, also, with the exception of certain local
customs, incapable of taking by devise from their parents, except des
donations moderes pour leur alimens et entretiens. (Ferriere. Dict. ubi supra.
OEuvres de D'Aguesseau, tom. 7 p. 431.)
The king was the heir of all bastards dying without
legitimate children, or without having disposed of their property by donation inter
vivos, or last will and testament, in the same manner as he inherited the
estates of aubains, or aliens, dying in the kingdom. (Ib.) Of the
various modes of legitimation known to the civil law, that of France adopted
only two, 1. that by a subsequent marriage of the parents, and 2. by authority
of the prince. (OEuvr. de D'Aguesseau, tom. 7. p. 437. The
bastard who was legitimated by the subsequent marriage of his parents, was
placed upon the same footing as if born in lawful wedlock, as to personal rights,
and those of property; but he who was legitimated by authority of the prince, par
lettre du prince, although capable of aspiring to civil honours and
offices, was incapable of inheriting, or transmitting property
by inheritance. (Id. p. 462.) Such was the law of
France before the revolution; but it was greatly modified by the compilers of
the new civil code, who retained but one mode of legitimation, that by a
subsequent marriage and recognition of the parents. (Code-Napol eon, art.
331, 332, 333.) Illegitimate children, legally recognized as such, are
entitled, in case their father shall have left legitimate descendants, to one
third of the portion to which they would have been entitled had they been
legitimate; in case the former shall have left no descendants, but only kindred
in the ascending line, or brothers or sisters, to a moiety of the same; and in
case the parents shall have left neither descendants, nor kindred in the
ascending line, nor brothers or sisters, to three fourths of the same portion.
(Ib. art. 757.) They have a right to the whole of their parents'
property where the latter shall have left no kindred within the degrees of
succession. (Ib. art. 758.) Their descendants are entitled to the same
rights, jure representationis. (Ib. art. 759.) But bastards are not
entitled in any case to succeed to the relations of their parents; (Ib. art.
756.) and none of these provisions are appliable to bastards, the fruit of
incestuous or adulterous intercourse, who are only entitled to necessary
aliments. (Ib. art. 762, 763, 764.) The property of bastards leaving no
posterity, is inherited by the parents who shall have recognized them. (Ib.
art. 765.) And in case the parents are deceased, the property received from
them, is inherited by the legitimate brothers and sisters of the bastard; and
all his other property by his illegitimate brothers and sisters, or their
descendants. (Ib. art. 766.)
By the law of Scotland, the king succeeds as ultimus
hoeres, to the estates of bastards, and they cannot dispose of their
property by will, unless to their lawful issue, without letters of
legitimation. But these letters do not enable the bastard to succeed to his
natural father, to the exclusion of lawful heirs; for the king cannot, by any
prerogative, cut off the private right of third parties. But he may, by a
special clause in the letters of legitimation, renounce his right to the
bastard's succession, in favour of him who would have been the bastard's heir
had he been born in lawful marriage, as such renunciation does
not encroach upon the rights of third parties. (Erskine's
Inst. B. 3. tit. 10. s. 3.) A bastard is not only excluded,
1. From his father's succession, because the law knows no father who is not
marked out by lawful marriage; and, 2. From all heritable succession, whether
by the father or mother; because he cannot be pronounced lawful heir by the
inquest, in terms of the brief; but, also, 3. From the moveable
succession of his mother; for, though the mother be known, the bastard is not
her lawful child, and legitimacy is implied in all succession deferred by law.
But though he cannot succeed jure sanguinis, he may succeed by
destination, where he is specially called to the succession by an entail or
testament. (Ib. s. 4.)
The laws of England respecting illegitimate children, are
too well known to render any particular account of them necessary in this
place. Vide 1 Bl. Comm. 454. et seq. Co. Litt. by Hargr. &
Butler, 3 b. note 1. Id. 123. a. note 8. Id.
123. b. note 1, 2. Id. 243. b. note 2. Id. 244. a.
note 1, 2.Id. 244. b. note 1.
2 Bl. Comm. 247.
Cooper's Just. Inst.
561.
Cooper's Just. Inst.
561. note.
1 Bl. Comm. 459.
Wilcocks v. Rootes, 1 Wash. Rep. 140.
3 Henn. & Munf. 225.
Id. 229. note.
3 Call's Rep. 105.
1 Wash. Rep. 139.
3 Call. Rep. 269.
2 Henn. & Munf. 187.
3 Henn. & Mumf. 231.
Which provides, that 'in making title by descent, it
shall be no bar to a party that any ancestor through whom he derives his
descent from the intestate is, or hath been an alien. Bastards also shall be
capable of inheriting or of transmitting inheritance on the part of their
mother, in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten of such mother.'
7 Cranch, 476.
7 Cranch, 476.
Hargr. note. Co. Litt. fol.
244. b. 245. a.
1 Woodes. 391.
2 Vern. 642.
7 Cranch, 456.
Domat, Loix Civiles, l. 1.
s. 2. art. 10.
Ld. Raym. 68.
The King v. The Inhabitants of Hodnett, 1 T. R.
96.
1 Bl. Comm. 486.
1 Woodes. 394.
Nov. 89. c. 12. s.
4.[52]
March 4, 1829
Andrew Jackson (1st cousin 8 times removed) is inaugurated as the
seventh president of the United States.[53] Andrew Jackson 1829 presidential inauguration: Jackson was the first President to
invite the public to attend the White House ball honoring his first inauguration. Many poor
people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes. The crowd became
so large that Jackson's guards could not hold them out of the White House. The
White House became so crowded with people that dishes and decorative pieces in
the White House began to break. Some people stood on good chairs in muddied
boots just to get a look at the President. The crowd had become so wild that
the attendants poured punch in tubs and put it on the White House lawn to lure
people out of the White House. Jackson’s raucous populism earned him the
nickname King Mob.[54]
March 4, 1841: William Henry Harrison (1773-1841),
America’s ninth president, served just one month in office before dying of pneumonia.
His tenure, from March 4, 1841, to April 4, 1841, is the shortest of any U.S.
president. Harrison, who was born into a prominent Virginia family, joined the
Army as a young man and fought American Indians on the U.S. frontier. He then
became the first congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory, a region
encompassing much of the present-day Midwest. In the early 1800s, Harrison
served as governor of the Indiana Territory and worked to open American Indian
lands to white settlers. He became a war hero after fighting Indian forces at
the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Harrison went on to serve as a U.S.
congressman and senator from Ohio. He was elected to the White House in 1840,
but passed away a month after his inauguration, the first U.S. president to die
in office.[57]
William Henry Harrison
H O M E S T A T E Ohio P A R T Y Whig T E R M
I N O F F I C E March 4, 1841-
April 4, 1841 V I C E P R E S I D E N T
John Tyler _ Harrison became the first president to die in office when he died of pneumonia
32 days after his inaugural
celebration. S I G N I F I C A N T A C T S
Harrison died only 32 days after taking office and carried out no
significant acts. C A R E E R 1791 Left medical school to fight in the
Indian Wars. 1800-1812 Served as
territorial governor of Indiana. 1811
Defeated Native American forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe, earning the nickname "Old Tippecanoe." 1813
Recaptured the city of Detroit from the British during the War of 1812. 1816-1819 Represented Ohio in the U.S. House
of Representatives. 1825-1828
Represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate. March
4- April 4, 1841 President of the United States. _ Harrison's father signed the Declaration
of Independence and his grandson became the 23rd president of the
United States. _ Harrison's 8578-word inaugural address is the longest on
record.[58]
March 4, 1844: Paid aTreasury under act April 6, 1838
from March 4, 1844 to September 4, 1844. Agent notified April 20, 1845.
January 30, 1846: The Adm. of Nancy Vance,
decd.....paid from March 4, 1844 to September 4, 1844.
FINAL PAYMENT RECORD
Date of death of Nancy Vance is given as February 8,
1845. Payment made to Law. Marx, Atty.,
February 5, 1846. Ricmond Roll. No other genealogical data of interest.[59]
March 4, 1859: Boteler, Alexander Robinson, a Representative from Virginia; born in Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, Va. (now West Virginia), May 16,
1815; was graduated from Princeton College in 1835; engaged in agriculture and
literary pursuits; elected as the candidate of the Opposition Party to the
Thirty-sixth Congress (March 4,
1859-March 3, 1861); during the Civil War entered the
Confederate Army and was a
member of Stonewall Jackson’s staff; chosen by the State convention a
Representative from Virginia to the Confederate Provisional Congress November 19,
1861; elected from Virginia to the Confederate Congress, serving from February 1862 to February 1864; appointed
a member of the Centennial Commission in 1876; appointed a member of the
Centennial Commission in 1876; appointed a member of the Tariff Commission by
President Arthur and a member and subsequently made pardon clerk in the
Department of Justice by Attorney General Brewster; died in Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, W. Va., May
8, 1892; interment in Elmwood Cemetery.[60]
March
4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address as he argued passionately before
his audience and the nation to keep the Union together: “We mjust not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of
affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land,
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
be, by the better angels of our nature.”[61] Abraham Lincoln
becomes the 16th president of the United States. Although he extended an olive
branch to the South, he also made it clear that he intended to enforce federal
laws in the seceded states.
Since Lincoln's
election in November, seven states had left the Union. Worried that the
election of a Republican would threaten their rights, especially slavery, the
lower South seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. In the
process, some of those states had seized federal properties such as armories
and forts. By the time Lincoln arrived in Washington for his inauguration, the
threat of war hung heavy in the air. Lincoln took a cautious approach in his
remarks, and he made no specific threats against the southern states. As a
result, he had some flexibility in trying to keep the states of the upper
South--North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky,
Maryland, and Delaware--in the Union.
In his address,
Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it
existed, and he pledged to suspend the activities of the federal government
temporarily in areas of hostility. However, he also took a firm stance against
secession and the seizure of federal property. The government, insisted
Lincoln, would "hold, occupy, and possess" its property and collect
its taxes. He closed his remarks with an eloquent reminder of the nation's
common heritage:
"In your hand, my
fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The
government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being
yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath in Heaven to destroy the
government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect,
and defend" it...We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The
mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave,
to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell
the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature."
Six weeks later, the
Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil
War began.[62]
Fri. March 4, 1864
Got ordered to march
went to depot then [64]
Went back to camp
great crowd of soldiers
Sent coat[65]
home. Great celebration at
Orleans for union gov Wahn[66]
March 4, 1865
The regiment left Savanna,
Georgia on board the United States transport Delaware
(coastal steamer), with the 176th New York under sealed orders,[67]
touching at Hilton Head, S. C., March 4.[68]
March 4, 1865 (Lincoln’s 2nd
Inaugural)
“If we could know first where we
are, and wither we are tending,
We could better judge what to do,
and how to do it.
A house divided against itself cannot
stand.
We shall not fail, even we stand
firm.
Wise counsels may accelerate or
mistaken delay it,
But sooner or later, the victory
is sure to come.
It may seem strange that any men
should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the
sweat of other men’s faces,
It may seem strange, but
let us judge not, but let us judge not, that we be not judged!”
[69] President Lincoln
begins his second term, expressing his desire for the war to end and extending
a gracious hand to the South. "Fondly do we hope--fervently do we
pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away." He
concluded with the following stirring statement: "With malice toward none;
with charity for all; with firmness in the right...let us strive on to finish the
work we are in; to bind up the nation's wound...to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all
nations."
March 4, 1877: Kirkwood,
Samuel Jordan, a Senator from Iowa: born in Harford County, Md., December 20, 1813;
clerked in a drug store and taught school; moved to Mansfield, Richmond County, Ohio, in 1835 and continued teaching until 1840; studied
law; admitted to the bar in 1843 and commenced practice in Mansfield; prosecuting attorney of Richland County 1845-1849;
member of the State constitutional convention in 1850 and 1851; moved to
Coralville, Johnson County, Iowa, in
1855 and engaged in the milling business; member, State senate 1856-1859;
Governor of Iowa 1860-1864;
appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Minister to
Denmark in 1863, but declined; elected as a Republican to the United
States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Harlan and served from
January 13, 1866, to March 3, 1867; resumed the practice of law and also served
as president of the Iowa & Southwestern Railroad Co; Governor of Iowa 1876-1877, when he resigned to become
United States Senator, serving as a Republican from March 4, 1877, to March 7,
1881, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet portfolio; Secretary of the Interior
in the Cabinet of President James Garfield 1881-1882, when,
upon the death of President Garfield, he resigned; unsuccessful candidate for election in
1886 to the Fiftieth Congress; resumed the practice of law; president of the Iowa
City National Bank; died in Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa,
September 1, 1894; interment in Oakland Cemetery.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=k000242
March 4, 1879: Zebulon Baird Vance
Zebulon Baird Vance
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In office
January 1, 1877 – February 5, 1879 |
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Preceded by
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Succeeded by
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In office
September 8, 1862 – May 29, 1865 |
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Preceded by
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Succeeded by
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In office
March 4, 1879 – April 14, 1894 |
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Preceded by
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Succeeded by
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Personal details
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Born
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Died
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Harriette Vance
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Children
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4
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Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13, 1830 – April 14, 1894) was a Confederate military officer in the American Civil War,
the 37th and 43rd Governor of North Carolina, and
U.S. Senator. A
prodigious writer, Vance became one of the most influential Southern leaders
of the Civil War and postbellum periods.
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Childhood
Zebulon Vance was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina near present-day Weaverville,[4] the third of eight children. His family
is known to have owned a relatively large number of slaves (18). His uncle was Congressman Robert Brank Vance,
for whom his elder brother, Robert B. Vance, was named. At age twelve he was sent to
study at Washington College in Tennessee, now known as Washington College Academy.The death of his father forced Vance to withdraw and return home at the
age of fourteen. It was during this time that he began to court the well-bred
Miss Harriette Espy by letter.[5]
Zebulon Vance
birthplace
To improve his standing, Vance determined
to go to law school. At the age of twenty-one, he wrote to the President of the
University of North Carolina, where he was a member of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, former Governor David L. Swain, and asked for a loan so that he could
attend law school. Governor Swain arranged for a $300 loan from the university,
and Vance performed admirably. By 1852 Vance had begun practicing law in Asheville, and was
soon elected county solicitor (prosecuting attorney). By 1853, he and
Harriette Espy were married, and they would subsequently have four sons.
Civil War
By the time the ordinance of secession had passed in May 1861, Vance was a captain stationed in Raleigh, commanding a
company known as the "Rough and Ready Guards," part of the Fourteenth
North Carolina Regiment. That August, Vance was elected Colonel of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina. The Twenty-sixth engaged in battle in New Bern in March
1862, where Vance conducted an orderly retreat. Vance also led the Twenty-sixth
at Richmond. The
Twenty-sixth was ultimately destroyed at the Battle of Gettysburg,
losing more than 700 of its original 800 members, though Vance at that time was
no longer in military service.
In September 1862, Vance won the
gubernatorial election. In the Confederacy Vance was a major proponent of individual rights and local
self-government, often putting him at odds with the Confederate government of Jefferson Davis. For example, North Carolina was the only
state to observe the right of habeas corpus and keep its courts fully functional
during the war. Also, Vance refused to allow supplies smuggled into North
Carolina by blockade runners to
be given to other states until North Carolinians had their share. Vance's work
for the aid and morale of the people, especially in mitigating the harsh
Confederate conscription practices, inspired the nickname
"War Governor of the South." Vance was re-elected in 1864.
Post-War career
Governor Vance was arrested by Federal
forces on his birthday in May 1865 and spent time in prison in Washington, D.C. Per President Andrew Johnson's amnesty program, he filed an
application for pardon on June 3, and was paroled on July 6.[6] After his parole, he began practicing law
in Charlotte, North Carolina. Among his clients was accused murderer Tom Dula, the subject of the folk song "Tom Dooley." Governor Vance was formally
pardoned on March 11, 1867, though no formal charges had ever been filed
against him leading to his arrest, during his imprisonment, nor during the
period of his parole.[6]
In 1870, the state legislature elected him
to the United States Senate,
but due to the restrictions placed on ex-Confederates by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, he was not allowed to serve. In 1876,
Vance was elected Governor once again (during which time he focused on
education), and in 1879 the legislature again elected him to the United States Senate.
This time he was seated, and he served in the Senate until his death in 1894.
After a funeral in the U.S. Capitol, Vance was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville.[6]
Starting in about 1870, Vance gave a
speech hundreds of times he called "The Scattered Nation," which praised the Jews and called
for religious tolerance and freedom amongst all Americans. In 1880, Vance
married Florence Steele Martin of Kentucky.[7][8]
Quotes
About Vance
"He was the Mount Mitchell of all our great men, and in the affections and love of the people, he
towered above them all. As ages to come will not be able to mar the grandeur
and greatness of Mount Mitchell, so they will not be able to efface from the
hearts and minds of the people the name of their beloved Vance."
By Vance
"The purpose of war is to explore
each other."
Unconfirmed
"A vale of humility between two
mountains of conceit."
Supposedly said by Vance about North
Carolina. The two mountains of conceit are Virginia and South Carolina. This is also attributed to Alexander Hamilton,
but probably predates both Hamilton and Vance.
Legacy
There are several monuments dedicated to
Vance:
- An obelisk similar to the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. is dedicated to Vance in Pack Square, Asheville.
- A statue on the south grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh
- A bronze in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C.
- A small monument located where his post-war
home once stood (1865–1894), at Sixth and College Streets, in Charlotte
- One of the administrative buildings at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill is named
Vance Hall in his honor.
- A portrait of Vance hangs behind the
President's chair of The Dialectic and Philanthropic
Societies of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- His birthplace is a state historic site in Weaverville.[9]
Several locations and schools in North
Carolina bear Vance's name:
- The town of Zebulon, in Wake County
- The town of Vanceboro, North Carolina
- Vance County on the North Carolina – Virginia border
- Zebulon B. Vance High School in Charlotte
- Zeb Vance Elementary School in Kittrell
- Vance Masonic Lodge A.F.&A.M. #293 in Weaverville
March 4, 1896: Willis Ralph Goodlove (March 22, 1869-April 8,
1953) married
Myrtle Isabelle Andrews, March 4, 1896. She died August 29,
1962, at age 86 years. Both are buried at Jordan’s Grove Cemetery
(Bk. II, F-87). Their children were: Wallace Harold (Bk.II, F-88), Ethel
Vinetta, Bessie Marie, Wilma Laura, Mary lone,
William Paul, Gladys Lavona, and Kenneth Ivan. [72]
Willis R. Goodlove and Myrtle J. Andrews were united
in marriage March 4 at Alburnett by Reverend J. P. Fisher, pastor of the
Methodist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Goodlove were born and raised near their present
home about 5 miles east of Alburnett and they have a large circle of friends to
unite in congratulations.[74]
March 4, 1942: Enterprise,Marcus Island
March 4, 1942
At a meeting in Berlin, Dannecker tells Eichmann and
other officials of the Gestpo’s Jewish Affairs Department of “the necessity to
finally propose to the French governemtn something truly positive, for example,
the deportation of severlal thousand Jews.”[75]
March 4, 1942: Baranovichi is a city in the Brest Province of western Belarus. Soon after the beginning of World War II the town was occupied by the Soviet Union. The local Jewish population of 9,000 was
joined by approximately 3,000 Jewish refugees from the Polish areas occupied by
Germany. After the start of Operation Barbarossa
the town was seized by the Wehrmacht on June 25, 1941. In August of the same
year a ghetto was created in the town, with more than
12,000 Jews kept in tragic conditions in six buildings at the outskirts.
Between March 4 and December 14, 1942, the entire Jewish population of the
ghetto was sent to various German concentration camps and killed in gas chambers. Only approximately 250 survived the war.[2]
March 4, 1943: Mindla Gottlieb,
born Geb Goldhammer, October 8, 1880 in Boryslaw, Galizien. Mitte, Kaiserstr.
22-24; 34. Resided Berlin. Deportation: from Berlin, March 4, 1943, Auschwitz.
Place of death: Auschwitz, missing[76]
Convoys 50 and 51, March 4 and 6,
1943.
Background and Origin
In 1970, the former Nazi
diplomat Ernst Achenbach was removed from his position as representative of the
Federal Republic to the European Economic Commission in Brussels, after his
responsibility in the anti-Jewish campaign in France was brought to public
attention…. In particular it was shown the role that he played in the
deportation of 2,000 Jews on March 4 and 6, 1943, and the fact that these two
convoys were constituted as reprisals for an attack against German officers.
Two days after an
assassination of February 13 which took the lives of two German officers, Ernst
Achenbach, head of the political section of the German Embassy, cabled to
Berlin (CXXVI-a-92).
No. 1701, February 15, 1943.
On February 13, 1943, about
11:10 PM, Lieutenant Colonel Winkler and Major Nussbaum, Chief of Staff of the
Luftwaffe’s Third Division, were shot from behind while walking from their
office to their hotel a short distance from the Louvre Bridge over the Seine,
which they had just crossed. Winkler was wounded by three bullets; Nussbaum by
two. They died the same night. Seven 7.65mm cartridges were found near the
scene of the crime, and presumably came from the same gun. The whereabouts of
the assassins is being investigated. The first reprisal will be the arrest and
deportation of 2,000 Jews.
ACHENBACH
Reprinted here is a passage
from the book “Wherever they may be (Partout ou ils seront; pp. 107-9) which
shows that, contrary to what Achenbach pretended after the was, the reprisals
for this attack were not a simple bluff, but rather an operation which brought
two thousand Jews to extermination:
“On the day after that
telegram, February 16, 1943, the chief of the Gestap’s Bureau for Jewish
Affairs, SS-Obersturmfuhrer Heinz Rothke, wrote in a memorandum: ‘In a reprisal
for the murder on February 13, 1943, of two German air force officers, 15,000
able bodied men had to be deported from France, and thousands of Jews had to
make up that quota.’
“On February 23, 1943,
SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Kurt Lischka, commander of the Paris SD-Security Police,
informed his Brussels counterpart that ‘the Paris Police Commissioner was
notified through my intervention on February 14, 1943, that as a reprisal,
2,000 Jews between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five were to be arrested and
shipped to the concentrationcamp for Jews at Drancy.’
“On February 24, Rothke reported to Lischka on a conversation
with Sauts, the chief of staff of Police Commissionner Leguay, about ‘the
solution of the Jewish problem in France, and the Italians’ attitude toward the
Jewish problem.
‘Sauts replied to me that the arrest of 2,000 Jews by the French
police in the zone formerly and presently occupied in order to effect the
measures of reprisals ordered by threw Paris Commander [Lischka] was underway.
Before February 23, more than 1,500 able bodied Jews between the ages of
sixteen and sixty-five, in each precinct. They were found either at liberty
(registered addresses or not) or in the reception centers of the Social Service
for Foreigners, or even in orphanages such as Chateau de la Hille in
Haute-Garonne. Two contingents of one hundred persons were sent from the Noe
and Vernet Camps directly to Gurs…
‘From all corners of the old
unoccupied zone persons arrested were sent as swiftly as possible to the camp
at Gurs. The total number of newcomers was far from enough, and so a
significant number of those already at Gurs had to be included.
‘First Deportation- The
screening for the first deportation, on February 26, was more rapid than
careful. Everyone, as his name was called, was earmarked for deportation right
away, even the sick and infirm. The only nationalities exempted were Hungarians
and Turks. For the first time [from Gurs] Belgians, Dutch, Luxenburgers, and
Greeks were included. The first convoy consisted of 975 men.
‘Second Deportation- The
second deportation took place on the night of March 23. It numbered 770.
Naturally it included a sizable number of former army volunteers, men who had
been wounded in action, and even some who had been decorated.
‘The number of deportees thus
far was 1,745, but the required number was 1,850. Consequently, the quota had
to be filled en route. According to some information I have not been able to
verify, it appears that four hundred persons who had been rounded up at Nerxon
were put on the train that left Oloron on March 3. At any rate, it appears that
the number of 1,850 was considerably exceeded.
“Among the countless
testimonies from Jews as to their personal sufferings, we found one from a
Hungariran interned at Gurs that confirms the above report:
‘Deportations began in early
February 1943. A large number, about 150, of guards suddenly appeared. They
were assigned to the blocks of huts in which were penned internees from other
camps, especially for the one of Nexon. The deportation was to include all men
of German, Polish, Austrian and Czech nationality up to the age of sixty five.
At that time I was sixty four years , nine and a half months old; but
fortuanately I was able, on the strength of my birth certificate, to pass
myself off as a Hungarian, and in the general confusion the details were never
checked out. ‘Among the deportees were a large number of Poles and Czechs who
had fought in the French army or in the Foreign Legion. These too were handed
over to the Germans. The fellow in the bed next to mine, a Germnan rabbi, Dr.
Rosenwasser, was to be sixty five in six days, but he was deported just the
same.
‘The deportation went on for
two days. Two guards came after each of the ‘called’ and forced him to pack in
five minutes, so impossible a task that many possessions were left behind.
‘ The internees destined for
deportation were taken under heavgy guard to Block E, each carrying his
belongings. Those who were allowed to remain in the hell of Gurs were invied by
the deportees as the luckiest of men. All through the night you could hear
women weeping in despair, for many had not time even to say good-bye to their
sons and husbands. Several could not find outr whether their husbands had been
deported. My wife did not sleep a wink for two nights for fear that I had been
deported. On the day after the deportation the
women were allowed to visit our block, and their sobs and cries whenb they saw
their husbands’ beds empty were dreadful to hear.”[77]
Convoy 50, March 4, 1943
This list is in very poor
condition. Over time the names have rubbed off the onion skin, and it is very
difficult to decipher them.
Counting deportees by
nationality we found 377 Poles, 268 Germans, 99 Austrians, 91 Russians, and 30
Dutch among the largest groups. One person was from Java.
There were 937 men and 66
women, according to the list. Only five children were in this convoy. Almost
the entire quota of Convoys 50 and 51 was male, as described above.
The list is in two parts:
1. Gurs, 888 deportees, all men between 16 and 65.
2. Drancy, 136
deportees, with 22 crossed out (leaving 114), The sublist included the 66
women. Most of the people resided in or around Paris.
On board Convoy 50 was Leizer Gotlieb born November 6,
1891 from Russie, (Russia), and Charles Gottlieb, born May 13, 1898 from Fulda,
Germany. [78]
The routine telex, dated March
4 (XXVc-211), was signed by Rothke. It annoced to the recipients, among them
Eichmaann, that on the same day 1,000 Jews left the station at Le
Bourget/Drancy (see section below on destination) for Cholm, the word Auschwitz
is crossed out, under the supervision of Lieutenant Ott.
One deportee, Jacob Silber,
escaped from this convoy. His escape and transfer to Auschwitz after drecapture
are related in documents XXVc-216 and 220.[79]
Convoy 50 took close to a
thousand people, some to Maidanek and the great majority to Sobibor, the former
for immediate killing and the latter for slave labor. Indications are that most
were killed at Sobibor; only four people from this convoy were alive at the end
of the war. Convoy 50 included 10 children.[80]
March 4-9,
1943: Nearly all the
4,000 Jews of Bulgarian Thrace are arrested and sent to Treblinka.[81]
March 4, 2012
At the Nature Center at Moraine Hills State Park I met Steve who gave me a tour of the facilities. He is a volunteer and his help and time was deeply appreciated.
[88]
Video of the Sandhill Cranes and
Sherri.
Video of the Sandhill Cranes.
A pair of Sandhill Cranes at
Moraine Hills State Park. They made quite a loud noise when we approached their
area.
[1]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[2]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[4]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[5]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[6]
http://www.historyorb.com/events/date/1492
[8] On
This Day in America by John Wagman.
[9]
That Dark and Bloody River by Allan W. Eckart, page xxvii.
[10]
On This Day in America by John Wagman
[11]
http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/paboundary.html
[12]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[13]
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html
[14]
Genome, The autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley, page192
[15]
Scottish Rite News, September 1997. In the Beginning by Harry Stouse.
[16]
The Jews of the United States, Hasia R. Diner, page 39-40.
[17] The Changing Face
of Anti-Semitism From Ancient Times to the Present Day by Walter Laqueur page
58. Your People, My People by A. Roy Eckardt, page 16.
[18]
America before Columbus, NTGEO, 11/22/2009.
[19]
Glacial Park, McHenry County, IL February, 19, 2012.
[20]
Glacial Park, McHenry, IL February 19, 2012.
[21]
http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Hardy/harhistory.html
[23]Nature
Center, Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[24]
Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park, Mchenry, IL
[25]
Jeff Goodlove, familytreemaker
[26][26] At
the time this deed was dated, it may be observed and is reasonably true, that
Richard Stephenson (step-father of William and Valentine Carawford), had become
weary of his work at the bloomer, after he had already spent 10 to 20 of his
best years in partnership at the ironworks. No records are available to show
there were any change in this partnership. All we know is, that he and his wife
Onnor were selling by deed, to John Carlyle and George William Fairfad, in
1761-1762. Richard and Onnour Stephenson had complete control at this time, since
they alone were the grantors, with their names and marks appearing at the
conclusion of this instrument.
Apparently
Richard Stephenson was failing in health at this time, as three years later we
find him making his last will and testament.
From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William
Crawford, 1969, page 69-70.
[27]One
of the grantees mentioned in this historical document and having a strong
relationship to the Washington family, was George William Fairfax. John Carlyle
had married sarah Fairfax, sister of Lawrence Washington’s wife, ‘nn (Fairfax)
Washington.
From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William
Crawford, by Grace U. Emahiser , 1969.
pp. 68-69.
[28]
Washington’s Journal, From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William Crawford,
by Grace U. Emahiser, 1969, page 108.
[29] GW lent Crawford £5 for his journey, which the captain repaid
upon his re turn to Mount Vernon later in
the month (Ledger A, 302, ).
[30][30] At
the time this deed was dated, it may be observed and is reasonably true, that
Richard Stephenson (step-father of William and Valentine Carawford), had become
weary of his work at the bloomer, after he had already spent 10 to 20 of his
best years in partnership at the ironworks. No records are available to show
there were any change in this partnership. All we know is, that he and his wife
Onnor were selling by deed, to John Carlyle and George William Fairfad, in
1761-1762. Richard and Onnour Stephenson had complete control at this time,
since they alone were the grantors, with their names and marks appearing at the
conclusion of this instrument.
Apparently
Richard Stephenson was failing in health at this time, as three years later we
find him making his last will and testament.
From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William
Crawford, 1969, page 69-70.
[31]One
of the grantees mentioned in this historical document and having a strong
relationship to the Washington family, was George William Fairfax. John Carlyle
had married sarah Fairfax, sister of Lawrence Washington’s wife, ‘nn (Fairfax)
Washington.
From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William
Crawford, by Grace U. Emahiser , 1969.
pp. 68-69.
[32]
(Washington writings. From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William Crawford,
by Grace U. Emahiser, 1969, page 121).
[33]
The Complete Guide to Boston’s Freedom Trail, Third edition by Charles Bahne,
page 5.
[34]
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-forces-occupy-dorchester-heights
[35] GW had
called a meeting of the officers of the Virginia Regiment at
Winchester on 4 Mar. to report on the trip down the Ohio River that he
had made the previous fall (Va.
Gaz., P&D, 31 Jan., 7 Feb., and 14 Feb. 1771).
Triplets: the ordinary of James and William Carr Lane at
Newgate (no Centreville), Va.
[36] Before GW left
Greenway Court, he obtained a grant from Lord Fairfax for the
unclaimed land on Dogue Run he had
surveyed on 24 Mar. 1770, a total of 201/2 acres (Lord Fairfax’s grant to GW, 4 Mar. 1771, Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book 1, 187, Vi Microfilm). This land gave him control of most of the
area around his new dams and upper millrace, but a portion of the race still
infringed upon William Harrison’s patent, a problem that was not resolved until
he exchanged some small strips of land there with William Triplett 18 May
1785.
[37]
Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, By Lewis Clark Walkinshaw, Volume II, pg.115.
[38]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[39]
Philadelphia, Art Color Card Distributors.
[40]
(History Bourbon etc., p. 249) Chronology of
Benjamin Harrison compiled by Isobel Stebbins Giuvezan. Afton, Missouri, 1973
http://www.shawhan.com/benharrison.html
[41]
(History Bourbon etc., p. 250) BENJAMIN HARRISON
1750 – 1808 A History of His Life And of Some of the Events In American History
in Which He was Involved By Jeremy F. Elliot 1978
http://www.shawhan.com/benharrison.html
[42]
(Harrison County Deed Bk. 1, p. 31) BENJAMIN HARRISON 1750 – 1808 A History of His Life And of Some of the
Events In American History in Which He was Involved By Jeremy F. Elliot 1978
http://www.shawhan.com/benharrison.html
[44]
Scottish Rite Temple, Milwaukee WI
[45]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[46] (Ancestors of Forrest Roger Garnett pge.
454.21)
[47]
Wikipedia.com
[48]
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-jefferson-is-elected
[49]
Since Uriah Springer was the Power of Attorney for Moses Crawford, Sr. (son of
Lt. John Crawford and grandson of Col. William Crawford), this may have been
the stretch of land Moses was entitled to. Probably was sold by Uriah Springer
and the amount turned over to Moses Crawford, Sr., as part of his share.
Uriah
Springer, (who was Power of Attorney to Moses Crawfored’s share of Lt. John
Crawfor’s estate), had a son, Uriah Springer. The records of Brown County , Ohio ,
indicate that young Uriah Springer was collecting bounty lands belonging to his
own father, (who was the second husband of Sarah, daughter of Col. William
Crawford). Uriah Springer, Sr. randed as a Captain. Young Uriah Springer was a
Justice of the Peace and he and his wife Nancy, lived at Williamsburg
(which is in present Clermont Couynty ,
Ohio ), on East Fork of the Little
Miami River, and where many of the early transactions were recorded. Note: the
relationship between young Uriah Springer and Moses Crawford, Sr., would be
first cousins, since Moses and Moses Crawford, Sr., would be first cousins,
since Moses father, John, was abrother to young Uriah’s mother, Sarah. From
River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William Crawford by Grace U. Emahiser, 1969,
p. 187.
[50]
From River Clyde to Tymochtee and Col. William Crawford by Grace U. Emahiser,
1969, pp. 187-189.
[52]
https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/18/18.US.207.html
[53]
http://www.milestonedocuments.com/document_detail.php?id=49&more=timeline
[54]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson
[55]
Timetable of Cherokee Removal.
[56]
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
[57]
http://www.history.com/topics/william-henry-harrison
[58] "William H. Harrison Quick Facts,"
Microsoft’ Encarta’ Encyclopedia 2000. b 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All
[60]
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000653
[61]
The Journal of the Masonic Society, Autumn 2010, Issue 10.
[62]
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-inaugurated
[63]
ON This Day in America by John Wagman.
[64] From Algiers the Twenty-fourth moved by
rail to Berwick Bay
[65]
“A ball has passed between my body and the right arm which supported him,
cutting through his chest from shoulder to shoulder. There was no more to be
done for him and I left him to his rest. I have never mended that hole in my
sleeve. I wonder if a soldier ever does mend a bullet hole in his coat?” Clara
Barton at Antietam, The Civil War 2010 Calendar.
[66]
William Harrison Goodlove Civil War diary by Jeff Goodlove
[67]
(Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Part II Record of Events Volume 20
Serial no. 32. Broadfoot Publishing Company Wilmington, NC 1995.)
[68]
UNION IOWA VOLUNTEERS, 24th Regiment,
Iowa Infantry:
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/template.cfm?unitname=24th%20Regiment%2C%20Iowa%20Infantry&unitcode=UIA0024RI
[69]
Lincoln Cantata, by Gyula Fekete, For the St. Charles Singers.
[70]
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-inaugurated-for-a-second-term
[71]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebulon_Baird_Vance
[72] Winton
Goodlove:A History of Central City Ia and the Surrounding Area Book ll 1999
[73]
Linda Peterson, June 12, 2011
[74]
Winton Goodlove papers.
[75]
French Children of the Holocaust, A Memorial, by Serge Klarsfeld, page 28.
[76] [1] Gedenkbuch,
Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen
Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945.
2., wesentlich erweiterte Auflage, Band II G-K, Bearbeitet und
herausgegben vom Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, 2006, pg. 1033-1035,.
{2}Der
judishchen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus
“Ihre Namen mogen nie vergessen werden!”
[2]Memorial Book: Victims of the
Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Oppression in Germany,
1933-1945
[77]
Memorial to the Jews Deported from France, 1942-1944 by Serge Klarsfeld, page
392-394.
[78]
Memorial to the Jews Deported from France, 1942-1944 by Serge Klarsfeld, page
399.
[79]
Memorial to the Jews Deported from France, 1942-1944 by Serge Klarsfeld, page
395
[80]
French Children of the Holocaust, A memorial by Serge Klarsfeld, page 406.
[81] Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Israel Gutman, Editor,
page 1775
[82]
Nature Center, Moraine Hill State Park, McHenry, IL
[83]
Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[84]
Nature Center , Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[85]
Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry IL.
[86]
Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[87]
Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[88]
Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[89] Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park,
McHenry, IL
[90]
Nature Center, Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[91]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[92]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[93]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[94] Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[95] Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[96] Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[97]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[98]Moraine
Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[99]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[100]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[101]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[102]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
[103]
Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry, IL
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