REPORTS OF CASES

IN THE

Superior Court of the Territory of Orleans,

AND IN THE

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA;

CONTAINING

THE DECISIONS OF THOSE COURTS FROM THE AUTUMN TERM
1809, TO THE MARCH TERM, 1830, AND WHICH WERE
EMBRACED IN THE TWENTY VOLUMES OF

FR. XAVIER MARTIN'S REPORTS;

WITH

NOTES OF LOUISIANA CASES, WHEREIN THE DOCTRINES ARE
AFFIRMED, CONTRADICTED, OR EXTENDED, AND
OF THE SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION.

EDITED

BY J. BURTON HARRISON,

COUNSELLOR AT LAW.

VOL. I.

EMBRACING VOLS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, AND PART OF 9, OF MARTIN'S REPORTS,
FROM AUTUMN 1809, TO MARCH 1821.

NEW ORLEANS:

E. JOHNS & Co.. STATIONERS' HALL.

TO THE

HON. ALEXANDER PORTER,

LATE ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA.

DEAR SIR:

To you, at whose suggestion this work was undertaken, I beg leave to inscribe it, as a testimonial of public worth and private friendship.

The rolls of Louisiana have now borne your name since 1812. At the age of five-and-twenty your genius and patriotism placed you in the front rank of the Convention which formed the Constitution of Louisiana, and enabled you to contribute mainly to impart to that instrument the conservative vigor which has already enabled us to resist many unwise changes.

While you were a member of the Legislature, and since, you projected and caused to be adopted many beneficial statutes.

You thence rapidly rose to the companionship of Mathews and of Martin, on the bench of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and in that position developed a grasp of thought, a fulness of research, and a felicity of judgment, (I would refer particularly to the conflicts of home and foreign laws, subjects before that time rarely discussed in the English language,) the results of which, accumulating through the course of thirteen years of duty on the bench, remain (with few exceptions) the guiding lights of the Court.

When, at length, exhausted by a rather more than equal share of judicial labors, you withdrew from the bench, it was to accept a seat in the Senate of the United States, a body then (1834) crowded with illustrious inen.

This long and honorable career of public service gives you a claim to the dedication of a compilation which records so much of your labors.

That the retirement which is now devoted to the extension of the arts of agriculture, and the dissemination of the blessings of social life, may be long and peaceful, is the wish of

Your most obedient servant,

J. BURTON HARRISON.