Francis biddles circular 3591

  • Circular No. 3591 was a directive from Attorney General Francis Biddle United States attorneys concerning the procedure for handling cases.
  • Attorney General Francis Biddle, Circular No. 3591, December 12, 1941 This content is not available to read online or download.
  • 3591.

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    Francis Biddle

    Lawyer, judge, and 58th US Attorney General

    Francis Biddle

    Biddle in 1935

    In office
    August 26, 1941 – June 26, 1945
    PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
    Harry S. Truman
    Preceded byRobert H. Jackson
    Succeeded byTom C. Clark
    In office
    January 22, 1940 – August 25, 1941
    PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
    Preceded byRobert H. Jackson
    Succeeded byCharles Fahy
    In office
    March 4, 1939 – January 22, 1940
    Appointed byFranklin D. Roosevelt
    Preceded byJoseph Buffington
    Succeeded byHerbert Funk Goodrich
    In office
    December 31, 1938[1] – April 1939[1]
    Preceded byThomas B. McCabe[1]
    Succeeded byAlfred H. Williams[2]
    In office
    April 1938[3] – April 1939[1]
    Preceded byHarry L. Cannon[3]
    Succeeded byWarren F. Whittier[2]
    In office
    November 15, 1934[4]

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    In President’s Lecture, civil rights pionjär encourages ‘constitutional conversation’

    Robert Parris Moses received a standing ovation before he uttered a word.

    The raucous reception greeting Moses as he took the Razzo Hall scen to deliver the Oct. 8 President’s Lecture was a display of deep appreciation for the life and career of the prominent Civil Rights leader, who defied the violent racism of early-1960s Mississippi to register black voters at his own peril.

    Soft-spoken and deliberate, Moses told the Clark University audience that the United States has lurched through three distinct “constitutional eras” — each about 75 years in length — that continue to define and redefine the concept of “We the people.” The first era, from 1787 to the end of the Civil War, was marked by the finding that African slaves were the constitutional property of their owners. (That concept was successfully challenged by a slave named James Somerset, but not in the Un

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    Circular No. 3591

    OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

    WASHINGTON, D.C.

    December 12, 1941

    CIRCULAR NO. 3591

    TO ALL UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS:

    RE:Involuntary Servitude,

    Slavery, and Peonage
    A summary of the Department files on alleged peonage violations discloses numerous

    instances of "prosecution declined" by United States Attorneys, the chief reason stated
    as being the absence of the element of debt. It is apparent that these determinations
    were reached after considering the facts at hand only in accordance with the case law
    under Section 444, Title 18, U.S. Code, which holds that debt is the "basal element of
    peonage." It is further disclosed that only in a negligible number of instances was
    consideration given these complaints in light of:

    (a) Section 443, Title 18, U.S. Code, which punishes for causing persons
    to be held in involuntary servitude, regardless of the existence of
    a debt.
    (b) Section 51, Title 18, U.S. Code, which punis
  • francis biddles circular 3591