LETTER FROM THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, TRANSMITTING His annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. DECEMBER 8, 1874.-Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, December 7, 1874. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith my annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. H. WILLIAMS, Attorney-General. Hon. JAMES G. BLAINE, Speaker of the House of Representatives. REPORT. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, December 7, 1874. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: By the first section of the act of Congress entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to establish the Department of Justice, and for other purposes,' " approved March 3, 1873, it becomes the duty of the Attorney-General to submit at the commencement of each regular session of Congress a report of the business of said Department for the preceding fiscal year; and also a report of such other matters as he may deem proper, including a statement of the several appropriations placed under the control of the Department, stating the amount appropriated, and a detailed statement of the amounts used for defraying the expenses of the United States courts in each judicial district; also, the statistics of crime under the laws of the United States, and a statement of the number of cases, civil and criminal, pending during the preceding year in each of the several courts of the United States. Pursuant to these requirements of law, I have the honor to respectfully submit the following report of the operations of this Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. CIVIL AND CRIMINAL SUITS. Exhibits marked A, B, and C, show the amount of business transacted in the courts of the United States in the several judicial districts. Exhibit A is a statement of the number of civil suits to which the United States was a party, pending in the circuit and district courts of the United States on the 1st day of July, 1874, with the number of such suits terminated in said courts during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. Civil suits, to which the United States was a party, were pending July 1, 1874, as follows: Customs suits, 3,772; internal-revenue suits, 2,014; post-office suits, 135; miscellaneous suits, 933; making, in the aggregate, 6,854 civil suits pending on that day. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, there were terminated 3,058 civil suits; 1,133 of these were customs suits, 16 of which were appealed from the district to the circuit court, and 12 from the circuit to the Supreme Court; 978 were internal-revenue suits, 7 of which were appealed from the district to the circuit court, and 10 from the circuit to the Supreme Court; 109 were post-office suits, of which 1 was appealed from the circuit to the Supreme Court; 838 were miscellaneous suits, 7 of which were appealed from the district to the circuit court, and 11 from the circuit to the Supreme Court. The aggregate amount of judgments in favor of the United States in these suits was $2,021,724.31, and the amount actually realized on these judgments during the last fiscal year was $867,192.18. Exhibit B is a statement of the number of criminal cases pending in the United States courts July 1, 1874, with the number of such cases terminated in said courts during the last fiscal year. There were pending on the 1st day of July, 1874, in the circuit and district courts of the United States 6,627 criminal prosecutions; 125 of these were for violations of the customs laws, 4,734 for violations of internal-revenue laws, 219 for violations of the post-office laws, 366 prosecutions under the enforcement acts, 13 under the naturalization laws, 93 for embezzlement, and 1,077 miscellaneous prosecutions. Six thousand and eighteen criminal cases were terminated during the fiscal year ending the 30th of June last, Two hundred and two of these were prosecutions under the customs laws, in which there were 147 convictions, 8 acquittals, and 47 discontinuances; 3,291 under the internalrevenue laws, in which there were 1,641 convictions, 392 acquittals, and 1,258 discontinuances; 251 under the post-office laws, in which there were 168 convictions, 25 acquittals, and 58 discontinuances; 966 under the enforcement acts, in which there were 102 convictions, 92 acquittals, and 772 discontinuances; 1 under the naturalization laws, in which there was a conviction; 37 for embezzlement, in which there were 11 convictions, 4 acquittals, and 22 discontinuances; 1,270 were miscel laneous prosecutions, in which there were 553 convictions, 224 acquittals, and 493 discontinuances. Exhibit C is a statement of the number of civil suits, to which the United States was not a party, commenced, and also those terminated, in the circuit and district courts of the United States during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. It appears from this exhibit that a total of 19,194 suits of this kind were commenced during the year, of which 2,362 were cases in admiralty, 7,231 in bankruptcy, and 9,601 other suits of a miscellaneous character. One thousand five hundred and fifty-two cases in admiralty, 3,703 in bankruptcy, and 6,235 miscellaneous cases, making a total of 11,490 cases of this kind, were terminated during the last fiscal year. Judgments for plaintiffs in these cases were as follows: 1,115 judg ments in admiralty suits, amounting to $962,074.40; 494 in bankruptcy suits, $30,203.55; 3,346 in other suits, $9,516,347.88; making a total of $10,508,625.83. Judgments for defendants were, 285 in admiralty, $29,215.01; 341 in bankruptcy, $24.30; 1,921 in other suits, $33,516.78; making a total of $62,756.09. In 3,988 cases in which the United States was not a party, reported terminated, the result is not stated, while from some of the districts no reports of this character of cases have been received, and therefore the aggregate of cases and judgments included in this statement is much less than it would have been if full reports from all the districts had been obtained. United States attorneys were called upon for this information, but the clerks, upon whom they relied for it, in some instances failed to furnish it, and I have no means of compelling clerks of the courts to make reports to United States attorneys or to this Department in such matters. COURT EXPENSES. Exhibit D shows the amount of funds advanced to the marshals of the United States for the several judicial districts during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, to defray the expenses of the courts of the United States, including fees of marshals, jurors, attorneys, clerks of the courts, United States commissioners, special counsel, the expenses of maintaining prisoners, the expenses of the United States jail in this District, and for rent, furnishing court-rooms, and other miscellaneous expenses properly chargeable to this appropriation. By this statement it appears that the amount advanced to marshals for court expenses, including their own fees and fees to jurors and witnesses, was $2,071,332.18; to the United States attorneys, their assistants, and substitutes, $275,476.90; to the clerks of the courts of the United States, $89,063.85; to United States commissioners, $75,830.10; for rent of court-rooms, $86,335.58; expenses of the United States jail in this District, $43,762.01; miscellaneous expenses, $27,930.19; the total expenditures, as shown in Exhibit D, $2,669,730.81, being $361,138.04 less in the aggregate than the expenditures for these purposes during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873. There was $401,335.95 less advanced to the marshals for defraying the expenses of the courts, their own fees, and fees to jurors and witnesses, than for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873. It has been my constant aim to keep the expenses of the courts within the limits of the amount provided for that purpose by Congress, and during the last fiscal year I have, both by correspondence and personal interviews with the marshals and other officers of the courts, endeavored to impress upon them the necessity for the most rigid economy in the disbursement of the public funds, and have asked of them an earnest co-operation with the Department in the interests of economy; and it is gratifying for me to be able to present to Congress a statement so creditable to the officers throughout the country who by their exertions contributed so largely to this result. There was on the 1st day of July last to the credit of the appropriation for the previous fiscal year $330,269.19. This balance is available for expenses incurred and services rendered during the fiscal year for which accounts had not been rendered until after the close of the year. Accounts have been presented since the first of July last amounting to $253,916.88, which were paid out of the balance, leaving on the day of the date of this report the sum of $76,352.31. The sum remaining, I think, will be sufficient to liquidate all claims that may hereafter be presented and which are properly chargeable to this appropriation. SUPREME COURT. Number of cases argued at October term, 1873, of the Supreme Of these there were decided in favor of the Government. Of these there remained undecided at the end of term... error ... Cases dismissed in which Government was appellee or defendant in error... Cases reversed by consent in which Government was appellee or defendant in error, the point in them having been decided by previous cases 55 32 19 1 3 1 1 2 Twelve of the above cases were suits decided against the United States to establish title to land in Louisiana under the act of June 22, 1860, (12 Stat. at L., 85,) which required appeals to the Supreme Court by the |