ADDRESS OF THOMAS J. SEMMES, OF LOUISIANA, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. I proceed without exordium to the performance of the duty imposed on the President of this Association by its Constitution, which provides that he shall open each Annual Meeting with an address, "communicating the most noteworthy changes in the statute law on points of general interest made in the several States and by Congress." The Legislatures of all the States, except Iowa, Maryland, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana, have been in session during the year, but I have not been able to obtain the laws of Florida. The Legislature of New Hampshire is still in session. The session laws of Louisiana of 1886 were not printed in time to enable my predecessor in office to report upon them. I have, therefore, to review the legislation of Congress and the following thirty-two States: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. As my predecessors in office had established the practice of commenting on statutes as noteworthy in particular States, |