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Attorney General. Reports, 1832-
Annual reports of the Attorney General of Massachusetts: annual, state printer, 1832–, Boston, State printers, 1832– (The office of Attorney General
in Massachusetts dates to the 1780 Constitution. A statute of 1832 set the requirement for annual reports, which continued thereafter. Opinions began
to be included along with the annual reports in the 1890s. However, while Massachusetts maintained this pattern with some consistency, in many of the
other states the original paper versions of the attorney generals’ reports and opinions were sometimes published together, sometimes separately, and
in some years only reports or only opinions were published; making for a confusing literature. To minimize this confusion in its online offerings, LLMC
has chosen to group all of the U.S. state attorney generals’ reports and opinions in two separate series for each state. For the Massachusetts A.G.
Opinions, see the separate Opinions series elsewhere on this site.) **Senate No. 1 The 1833 report was the first after the criminal jurisdiction
was expanded in the Court of Common Pleas and only covered five months of work. The Attorney General offered opinions on the working of the new system
and sent statistical reports about number of cases handled, etc. **House No. 4 Report of the Attorney General to the Legislature of Massachusetts
January 1, 1834. Boston : Dutton & Wentworth, 1834. This report covered October 31, 1832 to October 31, 1833. The new court system was working well
and soon should be able to see lower costs. The report showed what crimes ended up in court. There was not enough data to determine if there had
been an increase or decrease in crime. The current law did not allow the prosecuting attorney to file a complaint on behalf of the state; a private
citizen had to do that and they were often reluctant. This year, the banks formed an association to go after a counterfeiting ring and were successful,
even capturing people in Canada. Associations could be helpful, but it would be better for the state to pursue the cases and feed them into the
courts. He recommended an entire revision of the criminal code. He had received a subpoena for the Rhode Island/Massachusetts boundary case, so expect
activity there. Pp. 24-32 was a chronological table and description of his caseload. P. 33-56 covered the various reports of the District Attorneys.
Pp.34-35 and 48-49 were missing. **Senate No. 1 Attorney General's annual report January 8, 1835. Boston : Dutton & Wentworth, 1835. The report
covered until October 1834. This was 77 p. report was a rant; the previous year, the Legislature almost abolished the Office of Attorney General and
made other changes that materially impacted the office. Mr. Austin argued bitterly and at length against the changes. He lectured the Legislature
about crime and civil affairs that required the attention of the office. He also discussed how to read statistical reports. On more than one occasion,
he talked about the pitiful pay scales. He was also angry that there had been no response to his previous year's report and suggestions and did not
want to offer anymore suggestions until he knew someone would pay attention. That took 39 p. The list of official duties of the AG was from p. 40-50.
His duties out of court took p. 50-53. A statistical report of the district attorneys was from p. 54-72. Another statistical report on criminal
complaints and their disposition was from p. 74-75, and a summary of sentences to the State Prison was on p. 77. (Digitized from a microfilm copy of
title originally held by the Massachusetts State Library). ************************** **House No. 2 The Attorney-General's annual report, 1836, sent
to the Legislature on January 6, 1836. This report covered official duties ending on October 31, 1835 with a many pages of cases and activities that
were mostly chronologically arranged. There were three pages of crime statistics at the end. Following that were the reports of the district
attorneys in various regions of the state. **Senate No. 2 The Attorney General's annual report, 1837. Pages 3-20 were a chronological record of his
activity. Then followed the abstracts of the reports of the state's attorneys for the Western, Northern, Middle, and Southern districts, with Suffolk
County as well. **Senate No. 1 The Attorney General's annual report, 1838. Pages 3-27 listed the chronological activity of the department. The
remaining pages were the reports of the state's attorneys for the Middle, Northern, Southern, Suffolk, and Western Districts. There were three pro tem
attorneys for that district. **Senate No. 3 The Attorney General's annual report, 1839. Pages 3-32 were a chronological list of the activities of the
department. The remaining pages were for the reports of the state's attorneys for the Northern, Suffolk, Southern, Western, and Middle Districts.
**Senate No. 20 The Attorney General's annual report, 1840. The report is much larger now because of 1839 legislation. It is a compilation of
reports from the District and County Attorneys. Pages 6-20 was a chronological lit of activity by the office, with some discussion about bank cases.
Pages 24-27 explained the tables in the rest of the report. They were organized by court, county, list of offenses, sentences, and remarks, with a
recapitulation at the end. Suffolk County came first for many, many pages and the other counties followed. **Senate No. 15 The Attorney General's
annual report, 1841. Part I. This was a textual presentation of topics and observations on criminal jurisprudence. There were many more criminal cases
than past years, partly due to an increase in population. It would be helpful to have criminal cases heard by the same court in each county. Liquor
cases should only be brought by towns, with costs charged to the towns. Part II was 24 pages of tables that showed crime statistics, criminal cases
heard, sentences passed, cases in police courts, and costs in municipal courts. **Senate No. 20 The Attorney General's annual report, 1842 --- Pt.
I Intelligent people obey the law, and since education was ubiquitous in Massachusetts, crime had gone down. There was no instance of hired
assassination during the year. There was an interesting paragraph on rape on p. 5. Fraud often escaped judicial inquiry. The public did not think the
sale of liquor was much of a problem, so attempts to enforce the laws clogged the courts, juries often failed to convict, and the police were castigated
for wasting their time. The number of requests for extradition had increased and was somewhat of a burden. He had been trying to clear up old
contracts on public land sales. In Part 2, Statistics, only Suffolk County had high numbers. The vast proportion of crimes involved alcohol somehow. The
Attorney General's annual report--1842--Part II. The pagination continued from Part I. Pp. 17 and 18 explained the tables. Tables I-XV showed the
number of cases in various courts throughout the state. Tables XVI-XVIII showed the costs assessed in those courts. Table XIX showed the number of
defendants sent to the State Prison, their crimes, and sentencing details. The final page explained an error that had been made in the previous year's
report. (Digitized from a microfilm copy of title originally held by the Library of Congress).
Title:   Report of the Attorney-General, Commonwealth of Massachusetts : reformatted from the original and including, Annual report of the Attorney-General for the year ending ...
OCLC Number:   436231821
Available Volumes
NameFiche CountOnlinePaper Backup
1832YesNo
1833YesYes
1834, c.1YesYes
1834, c.2YesNo
1835, c.1YesYes
1835, c.2YesNo
1836, c.1YesYes
1836, c.2YesNo
1837, c.1YesYes
1837, c.2YesNo
1838, c.1YesYes
1838, c.2YesNo
1839, c.1YesYes
1839, c.2YesNo
1840, c.1YesYes
1840, c.2YesNo
1841, pt.1, c.1YesYes
1841, pt.1, c.2YesNo
1841, pt.2YesNo
1842, pt.1, c.1YesYes
1842, pt.2, c.1YesYes
1842, pt.1, c.2YesNo
1842, pt.2, c.2YesNo
1843YesYes
1851YesYes
1852YesYes
1853YesYes
1856YesYes
1865YesYes
1867YesYes
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1869YesYes
1870YesYes
1871YesYes
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1988 SupplementYesYes
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