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Title: Amos T. Akerman to Isaiah M. Morris and Thomas S. Samson, 17 March 1871
Date: March 17, 1871
Whitman Archive ID: nar.01791
Source: National Archives and Records Administration. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Kevin McMullen, and John Schwaninger
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March 17, 1871.
To Isaiah M. Morris
and Thomas S. Samson, Esqs.
Washington, D. C.
Sirs:
I have received your letter of this date, inquiring whether I will review a case in which an Opinion was rendered by Attorney Gen'l Black, the same being the case in which Mrs. Harriet E. Parker, widow of William E. Parker, is interested. I suppose that the opinion to which you refer was given in response to a call from the Secretary of State, and is found in Volume 9 of Opinions of Attorneys General, p. 364.
I have no right to review, and undertake to set aside the opinion of any former Attorney General. If called upon either by the President, or the Head of a Department for advice in matter of law connected with their official duties, it is my duty to give such advice, and in so doing I should be bound to pay due respect to the opinion of former Attorneys General upon the same, or a similar question. Without such a call, I cannot consider the matter which you present.
Very respectfully, &c.
A. T. Akerman,
Attorney General.
Official action declined