PREFACE. The preface to the Revised Statutes, prepared by Messrs. James Iredell and William H. Battle, contains a brief history of legislation in North Carolina from the "Grand Assembly of the County of Albemarle," which convened in 1666 or 1667, to the legislation which resulted in "Potter's Revisal," prepared in 1821, and which was then known as the "New Revisal." Mr. B. F. Moore and Judge W. B. Rodman, who published the Revised Code after it had been prepared by Messrs. Biggs and Moore, continued the history of the codification of our statute law in the preface of that publication, bringing it down to 1854. The compilers and publishers of The Code in 1883 did not publish a preface, and it may not be inappropriate to now bring this history down to the present time. In 1868 a new Constitution of the State was adopted, which greatly changed the State's judicial system and contemplated a complete codification of the statute laws, and possibly the unwritten law. By an ordinance of the Convention of 1868, Hon. Victor C. Barringer, Hon. A. W. Tourgee and Judge William B. Rodman were appointed commissioners to carry out the constitutional provisions, and on July 15, 1868, they submitted to the Legislature, then in session, a partial report, recommending (1) a Code of Civil Practise and Procedure, (2) a Code of Criminal Practise and Procedure, (3) a Political Code, (4) a Civil Code, (5) a Penal Code, (6) suggestions of alterations, amendments and revisions of laws necessary to carry out the provisions of the Constitution, (7) a general analysis of all the Codes. These commissioners made a second report on August 31, 1868, and as a result of their labors The Code of Civil Procedure became a fixed part of our system of laws, although it will now be known merely as the chapter on Civil Procedure in the Revisal of 1905. These gentlemen also prepared a number of statutes, which were in fact. codifications and are embodied in the Public Laws of 1868-'69. They prepared a Criminal Code, but it was never adopted by the Legisla ture. The Legislature of 1871-'72 (chapter 210) passed an act to provide for the compilation of the public statutes, and appointed Judge William H. Battle a commissioner, with power to collate, digest and compile all the public statute laws of the State. Battle's Revisal was submitted to the General Assembly of 1872-'73, and Judge Battle was authorized and directed to publish it. This compilation was never enacted into a law, and for that reason the Legislature, in eight years after its publication, provided for a new codification, and appointed Messrs. W. T. Dortch, John Manning and John S. Henderson to do the work. By a provision in the Constitution of 1868 all existing laws, not repugnant to that instrument or to the Constitution of the United States, were declared to be in force. This made it necessary for the Code commissioners to use the Revised Code as the basis of their work, and for them to codify all statutes prior to 1868 not repugnant to the new Constitution, as well as those enacted between 1868 and 1883. The Code published in 1883 was the result of their labors, and its satisfactory reception by the people of the State is attested by the fact that not until twenty years of legislation had practically emasenlated it did the law-making body provide for another revision. By chapter 314 of the Public Laws of 1903 the undersigned were appointed commissioners to compile, collate, revise and digest all the public statute laws of the State. They were to begin work the first of May, 1903, and were to deliver to the Secretary of State five hundred printed copies of their report by November 15, 1904, thus giving them a little more than eighteen months to prepare and publish their report. The hastily printed legislative edition was carefully scrutinized by a large joint legislative committee and adopted as a single act by the Legislature of 1905. The commissioners were required to incorporate into the act all general public statutes of that session, and to submit the same, before publication, to a legislative committee composed of Senator A. C. Zollicoffer and Representatives A. W. Graham and R. B. Redwine, which was done. This act became operative August 1, 1905, but, owing to the magnitude of the work, it could not be published by that date. It may not be amiss to call attention to the fact that the Revised Code was The commissioners made The Code went into opera authorized by the Legislature of 1850. their report to the Legislature of 1854. tion November 1, 1883, nearly eight months after the adjournment of the Legislature, and was not delivered for some months thereafter, although it was published by one of the largest law publishing houses in the United States. So the present delay is not without precedent. The commissioners have adopted a new method of arrangement, which it is hoped will facilitate finding the law. In view of the prominent black-letter heads to all of the sections, and the information contained in the top line of each page, as well as the division of chapters into appropriate sub-chapters, it was considered that it would be a useless expense and unnecessarily add to the bulk of the volume to print at the beginning of the chapters the captions of sections, as was done in The Code and in the Revised Code. No references have been made by foot or marginal notes to judicial interpretation of the statutes, as such notes were not contemplated or provided for by the legislation prescribing the duties of the commissioners. The volume of legislation in the last twenty-two years, the period covered by our labors, made it impracticable to publish the work in one volume. The first volume contains the statutes of general appli cation, and more particularly affecting our people as a whole, while in the second volume is collected those statutes relating largely to the political government of the commonwealth and of its several departments and institutions. There are also included in the second volume those statutes which it is customary to have printed and distributed in pamphlet form. The original draft of the index is the work of the clerk of the commissioners, George P. Pell, Esq., and is much more elaborate and more carefully prepared than anything of the kind heretofore undertaken in any of our codifications. An innovation has been made, in that for the first time the type metal from which the Revisal of 1905 is printed has been preserved, and will facilitate the publication of new editions as often as each recurring Legislature shall deem it wise, and at a minimum cost. With these observations, the Revisal of 1905 (the name selected by the legislative committee) is submitted to a generous and appreciative public, trusting that, with the corrections and amendments which it received from the Legislature, and the sanction given to it by that body, it will contribute to an extension of the knowledge of our statutory law by our people, and to a just administration thereof by our courts. THOMAS B. WOMACK, |
