Peter Vivian Daniel

“ Shawls are known in commerce as wearing apparel, these witnesses to the contrary notwithstanding. These witnesses say, in one breath, shawls are not, 'in a commercial sense, wearing apparel;' are not, 'commercially speaking, made up, nor known among merchants as wearing apparel;' and in the next breath tell us they are worn by women, and come from the manufacturer 'in a complete state to be worn,' with their fringes tied by hand, with separately woven borders united to them, ready for use ”

“ And it would seem to be a most extravagant supposition which could hold that, in the enactment of a law affecting the interests of the nation at large, the legislature should select for that purpose language by which the nation or the mass of the people must necessarily be misled. ”

“ Perhaps within the compass of the English language, and certainly within the popular comprehension of the inhabitants of this country, there can scarcely be found terms the import of which is better understood than is that of the words 'shawl' and 'wearing apparel,' or of 'shawl' as a familiar, every day and indispensable part of wearing apparel. ”

“ The proof shows that in trade and commerce the term 'made,' or 'made up,' used in schedule C, does not embrace goods to which fringes, borders, knots, or tassels, are added after the fabric is made in the loom ”

“ Such evidence, in favor of the plaintiffs, made 'commercially,' and 'in a commercial sense,' cannot outweigh commercial dictionaries and other lexicons; cannot do away long established usages, and make us disbelieve what our eyes see day after day; that is, shawls in actual use, as parts of the wearing apparel of females. ”

“ Congress, in legislating the system of duties on imports in the act of 1846, (schedule C,) has given a description for revenue purposes, which clearly comprises these shawls; the words of description employed in the statute must have their known signification as established by standard writers, use, and general acceptation. The sophistications attempted by the witnesses for plaintiffs about a 'commercial understanding,' and 'in a commercial sense,' are foreign to the case, and are overruled by this court in De Forest v. ”

“ And thereupon the counsel for the plaintiffs then and there excepted to the refusal of the said judge to instruct the jury in conformity with the said several prayers of the said plaintiffs, and also to the charge and instructing the jury by the said judge, in conformity with all, any, and every of the several prayers wherein the defendant's counsel had so prayed the court to instruct the jury as matter of law. ”