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Replevin and confiscation--Boston Globe article from RAIN re: Dec. of Ind.



(Please pardon grammatical errors in my previous post.  Webmail can be awkward...)

I remembered what else I was going to say.  Re: the Globe's representation of the situation involving the Declaration of Independence.

I have problems with the definition the article ascribes to "replevin"; according to Black's Law Dictionary, it is "an action whereby the owner or person entitled to repossession of goods or chattels may recover those goods or chattels from one who has wrongfully distrained or taken or who wrongfully details such goods or chattels."  What I see happening is that the document was a government record--it was an official document sent to a government official, in this case the Town Minister, and was never intended to be his personal property.  Although it had been kept in private hands, it doesn't in any way mean that it belonged to the family privately.  Basically, the State of Maine is asking back for a piece of government property that the family has witheld from them for however long (hundreds of years?), even though it may have been unintentionally witheld.

The article seems to imply that this is a case of the state seizing/confiscating whatever it wants, and I have problems equating replevin with confiscation.

Don't mind me, I'm just venting!


Holly Hodges

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