PRESUME - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PRESUMEAuthored

The Law Mind • 997 words

Definition

To presume is to accept or treat something as true based on probable evidence, established rule, or legal convention, without direct proof of that thing. In legal usage, the word carries two related but distinct senses:

1. In evidentiary and procedural law: To presume is to accept a fact as established because another foundational fact has been proven, or because a legal rule directs that the fact be assumed in the absence of contrary evidence. This is the operative legal sense. A court presumes innocence; a court presumes a person dead after seven years of unexplained absence. The presumption may be rebuttable or conclusive.

2. In common legal writing: To presume is to take something as true for the purpose of legal reasoning — not as a finding of fact, but as a working assumption that shifts the burden of production or persuasion to the party challenging it.

Bouvier's places the term between mere belief and formal inference: to presume is to believe or accept upon probable evidence, and is deliberately held to be a weaker operation than to infer. The distinction matters: inference follows from established facts by logical necessity; presumption follows from legal convention or probability, and can be defeated.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To assume or suggest something is true without proof; to take for granted; also, to act with undue boldness or without authority.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To take or suppose to be true without examination or proof, or on the strength of probability; to take for granted; to infer; to suppose. Also carries the sense of acting boldly or without leave.

The gap matters here. In common usage, "presume" often carries a mildly negative tone — acting without permission, or assuming something one has no right to assume. In law, the presumption is a deliberate, rule-governed operation. When a court presumes a fact, it is not overstepping or guessing: it is applying a structured legal mechanism that allocates the burden of proof. The colloquial sense of presumption as arrogance or overreach has no bearing on the legal operation.

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Common Confusion

PRESUME vs. INFER: Bouvier's draws the line explicitly, citing authority for the proposition that presume is not as strong as infer. Inference proceeds from facts to a logical conclusion; presumption proceeds from a rule, a policy, or a probability convention. A jury infers intent from conduct; a court presumes a letter was received when mailed in the ordinary course. The operations look similar but their evidentiary weight and rebuttability are governed by different rules. Researchers relying on historical sources that use the terms interchangeably should treat such usage with caution.

PRESUME vs. ASSUME: In legal drafting, to assume is to take something as given for the purpose of an argument or hypothetical, without any commitment to its truth. To presume invokes a legal mechanism with procedural consequences — burden-shifting, prima facie proof, or conclusive effect. The terms are not interchangeable in technical legal writing.

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Why It Matters in Research

The word "presume" in a legal source almost always signals something procedurally significant. When a court or statute says that a fact is "presumed," researchers must immediately ask: Is this a rebuttable presumption, a conclusive presumption, or a permissive inference? The answer determines what evidence can defeat it and who bears the burden of production.

In historical sources, the vocabulary is less standardized. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century legal writers frequently used "presume," "infer," "suppose," and "intend" interchangeably. Bouvier's own hedge — "not so strong a word as infer" — reflects a period in which the taxonomy of presumptions was still being formalized. Anderson's is largely silent on "presume" as a standalone term, pointing instead to the surrounding constitutional and administrative vocabulary of its era.

Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should treat the verb "presume" as a pointer: follow it to the noun form (PRESUMPTION) and to the evidentiary rules governing burden of proof in the relevant jurisdiction and period. The practical content lives in those entries, not in the verb itself.

For historical research: the presumption of death, the presumption of legitimacy, and the presumption of innocence each have their own doctrinal histories and appear in the corpus under their specific headings. Do not assume that a historical court's use of "presume" tracks modern doctrine — the rebuttability of many common law presumptions was settled only in the twentieth century.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's is the more useful source here. Its terse entry — "to believe or accept upon probable evidence" — is deliberate in its modesty. Bouvier flags the distinction from "infer" and cross-references INFERENCE and PRESUMPTION, signaling that the substantive doctrine lives in the noun forms. This is correct editorial judgment: the verb form is thin on its own.

Anderson's offers nothing directly on the verb, and the excerpt preserved in the Law Mind corpus is structural constitutional text unrelated to the term. Researchers should not interpret Anderson's silence as disagreement with Bouvier's; the dictionaries were built for different audiences and periods.

Both sources reflect the nineteenth-century understanding that presumption was an intermediate epistemic category — above bare conjecture, below logical deduction — with its probative weight calibrated by context and rebuttability. Neither source fully anticipates the modern systematization of presumptions in the Federal Rules of Evidence and their state equivalents, which formalized the burden-shifting mechanics that now define how courts treat presumed facts.

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Jurisdictional Note

Presumptions operate differently under different evidence codes. Federal Rule of Evidence 301 limits the effect of presumptions in civil cases to shifting the burden of production, not persuasion — a contested position rejected by some state codes. Researchers comparing federal and state materials should not assume uniform treatment.

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PRESUMEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

or of his Death. Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation, or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected." 1 An act approved January 19, 1886 (24 St. L. 1), provides, section one, that "in case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and Vice-President, the secretary of state, or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability," then each of the following officials, in the order here given and subject to the same conditions as to removal, death, etc., - the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of war, the attorney-general, the postmaster-general, the secretary of the navy, and the secretary of the interior, - "shall act as President until the disability of the President or Vice-President is removed or a President shall be elected: Provided, That whenever the powers and duties of the office of President shall devolve upon any of the persons named herein, if Congress be not then in session, or if it would not meet in accordance with law within twenty days thereafter, it shall be the duty of such person to issue a proclamation convening Congress in extraordinary session, giving twenty days' notice of the time of meeting." Sec. 2. The act shall only apply to officers appointed by the consent of the Senate, and to such as are eligible to the office of President, and not under impeachment by the House of Representatives at the time. Sec. 3. Repeals Rev. St. §§ 146-50. "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States or any of them." " His salary is at present fifty thousand dollars a year. "Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: - I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." 4 "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments (q. v.), upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons (q. v.) for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." ■ Constitution, Art. II, sec. 1, cl. 6. 2 Ibid., cl. 7. R. S. § 153: Act 3 March, 1873, c. 226. Constitution, Art. II, sec. 1, cl. 8. Ibid., sec. 2, cl. 1. He may meet invasion or insurrection by military force, previous to any declaration of war by Congress. 1 See WAR. "He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties (q. v.), provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint (q. v.) Ambassadors, other public Ministers (q. v.) and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Ap pointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments." 2 See OFFICE. "The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies (q. v.) that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session." "He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient [see MESSAGE); he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States." 4 He and the Vice-President "shall be removed from Office on Impeachment (q. v.) for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." 6 See subjects relating to the Constitution and government of the United States; in particular CONGRESS; SERVICE, 3. Civil. To take or assume a matter beforehand, without proof; to take for granted. Infer is stronger than presume. The law does not presume, much less infer, fraud. See INFER. Presumption. Next to positive is circumstantial evidence, or the doctrine of presumptions. When a fact cannot itself be demonstrated, that which comes nearest to 1 R. S. § 1642: Acts 28 Feb. 1795, 3 March, 1807. 2 Constitution, Art. II, sec. 2, cl. 2. "Had the consent of the Senate been made necessary to displace as well as to appoint, the Executive would have suffered degradation; and the relative importance of the House of Representatives a grave diminution." 2 Bancroft, Const. 191. Constitution, Art. II, sec. 2, cl. 3. Constitution, Art. II, sec. 3. Ibid., sec. 4. See generally 2 Bancroft, Const. 166-94; 2 Story, Const. §§ 1410-1572. • Morford v. Peck, 46 Conn. 385 (1878), Loomis, J.

PRESUMEmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

To believe or accept upon probable evidence. It is not so strong a word as infer; 46 Conn. 385. See INFER- ENCE; PRESUMPTION.

PRESUMEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To assume or take beforehand; esp., to do or undertake without leave or authority previously obtained. Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner Shak. Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve. Milton. To take or suppose to be true, or entitled to belief, without examination or proof, or on the strength of probability; to take for granted; to infer; to suppose. Every man is to be presumed innocent till he is proved to be guilty. Blackstone. What rests but that the mortal sentence pass, . . . Which he presumes already vain and void, Because not yet inflicted Milton.

PRESUMEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To suppose or assume something to be, or to be true, on grounds deemed valid, though not amounting to proof; to believe by anticipation; to infer; as, we may presume too far. To venture, go, or act, by an assumption of leave or authority not granted; to go beyond what is warranted by the circumstances of the case; to venture beyond license; to take liberties; -- often with on or upon before the ground of confidence. Do not presume too much upon my love. Shak. This man presumes upon his parts. Locke.

presumeverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To be so presumptuous as (to do something) without proper authority or permission [with to (+ infinitive)]. | To perform, do (something) without authority; to lay claim to without permission. | To assume or suggest to be true (without proof); to take for granted, to suppose. | To take as a premise; to assume for the sake of argument. | To impose (on) for one's advantage; to be presumptuous; to take advantage (of); to take liberties (with) [with on or upon].

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