Description

Oregon Historical Society Pr [Published Date: 1993] Hardcover, 332 pp. No other printings listed. Very good in very good dust jacket. Green cloth covered boards with gold lettering on spine. Light bumping and scuffing to edges of covers. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has a few small nicks and light creasing to edges. light overall scuffing to jacket as well. Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Black and white illustrations. [From jacket flaps] The First Duty, an illustrated collection of writings about the federal district court in Oregon, spans a century and a half of legal history and revisits the personalities, cases, and events that have made Oregon's U.S. district court a fascinating and vital presence in the state. In the book's first chapters we witness the trial of the Cayuse Indians accused of the 1847 massacre of white settlers at the Whitman Mission, discover how the first disputes over land holdings were settled, and learn of early court battles over such problems as the rights of blacks and Chinese, the location of Oregon's capital, and the proper role of industrial enterprise in a new, largely rural society. During this period, we encounter the first territorial judges, an odd collection of presidential appointees who sometimes ignored their court duties to pursue the frontier's lucrative political and business opportunities. And we meet Judge Matthew Deady (pictured on the cover), a central figure in the state's formative period, who brought order and dignity to Oregon's federal bench. After the turn of the century, we find the district court in Oregon dominated by a sensational series of trials concerning a widespread conspiracy to defraud the federal government of its public lands. During World War I and its aftermath, we see the court addressing a host of issues related to discrimination, labor strikes, socialism, and patriotism. Finally, we are reminded of how, in more recent years, the court has dealt with a growing number of complex cases on such subjects as Japanese internment, the Rajneeshee question, illegal drugs, prison overcrowding, and fishing rights. In discussing these and other facets of the court's history, the authors of The First Duty capture the story of Oregon's district court in a way that will be of interest to lawyers, legal scholars, and history buffs alike.