OP THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, ADVISING THE PRESIDENT AND HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS, IN RELATION TO THEIR OFFICIAL DUTIES; AND EXPOUNDING THE CONSTITUTION, SUBSISTING TREATIES WITH COMPILED, WITH NOTES AND REFERENCES, BY BENJAMIN F. HALL, COUNSELLOR AT LAW, NEW YORK. VOLUME I. PUBLISHED, WITH COPIOUS INDICES AND A DIGEST, WASHINGTON: 1852. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1852, by ROBERT FARNHAM, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Columbia. 340232 ADVERTISEMENT. THIS edition of the Official Opinions of the Attorneys General is designed, as well for the use of Jurists and Statesmen generally, as that of the Officers of the Government of the United States. It is believed to be a faithful compilation of all the opinions which, in view of the public interests, have been deemed proper for publication, of all the eminent lawyers who have, since the adoption of the Constitution, acted as legal advisers of the Executive. Being essentially a legal work, it is given to the public in the form adopted for the publication of the reports of the decisions of the Supreme Court. The matter of which the work is composed will be found interesting to all intelligent readers. These opinions are important State papers, and as such, deserve a place in every public and private library. Being results of the profoundest reflections of superior minds commencing with the administration of Washington, and covering more than sixty years of the constitutional existence of the Republic-directing the course of the Executive Department through its most imminent vicissitudes and trials, and resolving questions as various and important as have been the affairs of the Government, they are inseparably blended with, if indeed they may not be said to constitute, the most interesting passages in American history. Containing advice respecting all the various relations, obligations, |