I have been asked to comment on this matter that appeared in the
Columbia SC. paper - "The State" - this morning.  It should be of
interest to all.  I would invite comments from all.  Here is the
article, followed by my views.  Paul
********
State wants Civil War documents
Restraining order filed to prevent letters' auction
By JOHN O'CONNOR
Staff Writer

The state of South Carolina has gone to court to recover more than 400
Civil War-era documents, a day before they were to be auctioned off.
A Charleston court on Friday issued a temporary restraining order
preventing the documents' sale, which had been scheduled for today.
Attorney General Henry McMaster also has filed a lawsuit alleging the
documents belong to the state and asking they be turned over to it.
But the attorney representing the anonymous seller said his client is
the rightful owner.
The more than 440 letters include correspondence to and from governors
Francis Wilkinson Pickens and Milledge Luke Bonham between 1861 and
1863. Among the collection are three letters from Confederate Gen.
Robert E. Lee.
The letters have an estimated value of $2.4 million.
The letters "are clearly state documents and always have been state
documents," McMaster said. "They should be returned to the people."
The letters were written by state officials completing state duties,
McMaster said.
Other states, such as Virginia and North Carolina, have gone to court
to recover historic items, but this is the first such suit in South
Carolina, McMaster said.
In a sworn statement filed with the suit, S.C. Archives and History
director Rodger Stroup said the letters likely were lost when state
leaders moved documents during the Civil War.
With Union Gen. William Sherman moving toward Columbia - and burning
everything in his path - Gov. A.G. Magrath ordered state documents put
on trains and shipped away from Columbia, Stroup said. The train car
with state documents eventually was stranded in Chester, where some of
the documents were hidden around town.
Many might not have been returned or recovered, Stroup said.
McMaster said USC historian Walter Edgar has examined the letters and
thought they were "very significant."
The letters belong to an anonymous Charleston seller, said attorney
Kenneth Krawcheck, who represents the seller. The seller's
great-great-grandfather was a Confederate general, and the letters
have been in his family since the Civil War. Krawcheck said.
His client did not want to sell the letters, Krawcheck said, but
needed the money they would generate. The lawsuit, he said, would be a
financial hardship.
The temporary restraining order gives the state 10 days to prove that
an injunction, a longer term stop of the auction, is needed. The case
would then head to court to decide who owns the letters.
The state would need to prove his client's family stole or acted
improperly in keeping the documents, Krawcheck said.
"We believe the law is on our side," Krawcheck said. "Everybody
thought back then that they were where they should be."
Krawcheck said he also was upset that the state filed suit so close to
the sale and gave him no warning the lawsuit was coming.
McMaster said the issue was brought to his attention a week ago.
The lawsuit also has inconvenienced many out-of-town buyers who
already had arrived or were on their way to Columbia for the auction,
said Bill Mishoe, owner of the auction house selling the items. Buyers
from Ohio, Tennessee, Florida and elsewhere were coming for the sale.
"They could have told me last week," Mishoe said. "I don't have any
way of heading them off."
*************

TOUGH QUESTIONS!!  Possession standing alone is NOT ownership!  AND,
title - ownership - to property does not float around in the air; it
is ALWAYS vested in some person(s), legal or living, or some govt.
Short of a new owner demonstrating that such title has descended to
him/her/it through a succession of previous owners who also had title
and legally passed it on, then a govt. still has title, i.e., is the
owner.  Just as we descend from some ancestor, so too does title pass
from one to his/her successor and forward through time.

So, the question becomes, which govt. owns it, if this fellow does
not?   SC??  The Confederacy?? The descendants of those who wrote the
letters? Or even the U.S. ????  Another tuf one!!

If those letters were necessary to the proper and reasonable function
of SC AFTER the war, then SC is that govt.  If those have ONLY to do
with the Confederate Govt. and were created as part of its business,
then WHO knows, since there ain't no Confederacy no more (or so they
say  hahaha).  However, though SC seceded, it did not cease to be a
functioning govt. with activities and business.  So, I would conclude
that for purposes of deciding title to these letters, the present
State of SC is the successor to the Confederate State of SC.

Next, if there is a lawsuit by SC, at the outset it will have the
burden to prove that those letters were in the hands of its govt. the
last time anyone knew of them.  The present would-be "owner" then must
establish that some act of the legislature, the Governor, or some
lawfully designated govt. custodian was granted or had the authority
to give, sell or abandon those letters to some other person long ago.

As said, it will not be presumed that the owner has title - owns
those, so he must have a "bill of sale" or some other evidence of
transfer recognized by the law from some person or other legal entity
to whomever came before him in ownership, just like a family
descendancy chart.  If that "owner" establishes a presumption (called
a "prima facie case") that some original owner sold it to his seller's
seller, and that seller's seller, etc., and all did so in good faith
from one who lawfully gained title from the Conf. govt. OR SC, then
the burden will again become the state's to show that the seller's
seller's seller, etc. could NOT have had good title since no one EVER
had the authority to sell or bargain those away.

All that legal mumbo-jumbo said, I very much suspect the SC
Attorneys-General will be 'chicken' to try this case, and will suggest
to the Governor and Legislature that they pay a "reasonable" price and
simply take the letters through their power of eminent domain, which
they surely can do.

What is reasonable?????????????????????????  Who knows????????  I
suppose it will be what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller for
the letters, and that will be determined by a gaggle of appraisers who
supposedly know what they are talking about.  Sorry for the long post,
but it may apply often in the future, what with EBay selling
everything imaginable.    Paul

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