In re McDonald
District Court, D. Massachusetts
Habeas corpus to Colonel Wildrick; commanding officer of Fort Independence, in Boston harbor, to test the validity of the enlistment of James McDonald, in the army of the United States. By the return to the writ and the other evidence, it appeared that the boy was enlisted in May, 1866, being then seventeen years and six months old, without the consent of the petitioner, his father.
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Habeas corpus to Colonel Wildrick; commanding officer of Fort Independence, in Boston harbor, to test the validity of the enlistment of James McDonald, in the army of the United States. By the return to the writ and the other evidence, it appeared that the boy was enlisted in May, 1866, being then seventeen years and six months old, without the consent of the petitioner, his father. Upon the back of the enlistment paper was a declaration, signed by the boy, declaring his age to be eighteen; there was no jurat, nor was any evidence given that this declaration had been sworn to. The petition…
1Opinion of the Court
LOWELL, District Judge.
A careful ex-animation of the acts of congress regulating enlistments in the army is requisite to the determination of this case; and the more so, because comparatively few decisions are to be found in the books, each case being usually heard in a summary way, before a single judge, whose action is final. The act of March 16, 1S02, § 11 (2 Stat. 135). which is the foundation of the whole system, authorizes the enlistment of able-bodied citizens, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years; and provides that no one under the age of twenty-one years shall be…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- In re HigginsWisconsin Supreme Court · 1863
- Minge v. GilmourU.S. Circuit Court for the District of North Carolina · 1798
- In re DobbsThe Superior Court of New York City · 1860
3Cited by1 opinion
- McConologue's caseMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871