CONTRACTS AND CONTRACTORS (Continued.)
other, it was held that the Department, in settling with the con-
tractor, might lawfully deduct from the moneys due on the first or
executed contract the amount of the forfeiture, stipulated to be
paid in the second contract, in the event of a failure on the part of
the contractor to perform it, 120.
2. But where moneys were due to several joint contractors, it was held
that the Navy Department could not deduct from those moneys the
amount of the forfeiture due to the United States under an unfulfilled
contract between the Government and one of the said joint con-
tractors. Ibid.
3. Under the act of March 3, 1865, "to provide ways and means for the
support of the Government," the Secretary of the Treasury has the
option to pay contractors for materials and supplies the amount of
money called for by the requisitions, or to give such contractors bonds
issued under authority of the act, when they have expressed a desire
to subscribe to the loan thereby authorized, 180.
4. The Government has a legal claim for damages against Kingsbury & Co.
on account of their failure to fulfill their contract with the Navy De-
partment for the delivery of blankets and blue flannel, 263.
5. The Secretary of the Navy is not bound to compel the payment of
damages, if he is of opinion that their default was the result of the
failure of the Government to pay their accounts, and it could not
have been avoided by the proper efforts of the parties. Ibid.
CONVENTION WITH UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA.
1. The convention of February 10, 1864, with the United States of Co-
lombia, confers on the commission thereby created jurisdiction to
determine, and it should determine, whether any, and what, claims
had been presented to, but not decided by, the commission under the
treaty with New Granada of September 10, 1857, 402.
CO-ORDINATECY OF THE DEPARTMENTS.
1. When one department of the Government has lawfully assumed juris-
diction of a particular case, any other co-ordinate department should
decline to interfere with, or assume to control, its legitimate action, 117.
2. There is no power in the Executive government to revise and reverse
the judgments of the prize or other courts of law of the United States,
or to criticize and condemn their supposed errors. Ibid.
3. When the courts have acquired jurisdiction of cases of maritime cap-
ture, the political department of the Government should postpone
the consideration of questions concerning reclamation and indemni-
ties until the judiciary has finally performed its functions in those
cases. Ibid.
1. After the trial and conviction of an officer of the navy by a court
martial having jurisdiction of the case, and the approval of the sen-
tence, dismissing him from the service, by the President, and such
sentence has been carried into execution, the President cannot re-
consider his approval and revoke the sentence of the court, 19.
2. But while the judgment entered by the President upon such a sentence
is, after it has been executed, irrevocable, he may remove the guilt
of the dismissed officer by pardon. Ibid.
3. It is clear that Congress did not intend, by the provision in section
17 of the act of July 16, 1862, to forbid the appointment of an
officer dismissed by sentence of a court-martial, to whom the Presi-
dent has extended pardon. Ibid.
4. Any person having an interest in the record of a naval court martial
on file in the Navy Department, is entitled to have an exemplified
copy of it after the proceedings are consummated by the action of the
proper revisory authority, 137.
COURTS-MARTIAL (Continued.)
5. Public justice and private right require that the Secretary of the Navy
and his subordinate officers should not withhold their testimony in
regard to the contents of such a record when required to give it by
the summons of a State court. Ibid.
1. The warrant of a judge of a circuit court of the United States will
run throughout the United States, 127.
1. This property should be proceeded against for forfeiture in the proper
United States court in Georgia, and the claimant remitted by the Sec-
retary of War to that forum for the ascertainment of his rights under
the pardon granted him by the President, 480.
DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH.
1. Brigadier General Saxton had no power, under the order of the War
Department of June 16, 1862, assigning him "to duty in the depart-
ment of the South," to erect at Port Royal, South Carolina, a judicial
tribunal with authority to determine civil causes between citizens of
the United States temporarily within that department, 149.
1. Property cannot lawfully be sold for direct taxes while in the custody of
the marshal under proceedings for confiscation, 318.
1. The fees received by the district attorney for the southern district of
New York, for services in confiscation cases, constitute a part of his
official emoluments, and as such must be accounted for, pursuant to
the 3d section of the act of February 26, 1853, 79.
2. The 21st section of the act of June 30, 1864, allows a district attorney,
in addition to his maximum compensation or salary, to retain three
thousand dollars from the moneys received for services in prize cases
during the year ending June 30, 1864. Ibid.
3. A district attorney is not required to return in his emolument accounts
the compensation received for services rendered, under the 12th section
of the act of March 3, 1863, in suits against collectors or other reve-
nue officers, and he is entitled to retain such compensation in addition
to the maximum compensation provided by the act of February 26,
1853, or in addition to any salary he may receive in lieu of such max-
imum compensation, 88.
4. Where a proceeding in rem, under the internal revenue laws, is directed
to be discontinued on the payment by the claimant of the legal costs
which have accrued, the district attorney is not entitled to charge,
under the 11th section of the act of March 3, 1863, two per cent. on
the value of the property, 329.
5. A district attorney cannot be allowed to retain two per cent. of any
moneys realized in a suit under the revenue laws without a previous
taxation of his account by the court, 393.
6. A district attorney is legally entitled to compensation for examining
the title of lands purchased by the Government, 433.
7. The amount of compensation may be agreed upon in advance, or may
be fixed after the work is completed. Ibid.
1. The Provost Marshal General is not required to change the quotas in a
draft ordered after the passage of the act of March 3, 1865, by reason
of corrections in the enrollment made since the assignment of the
quotas, 161.
2. The 23d section of the act of March 3, 1865, chap. 79, does not super-
sede the 4th section of the act of February 24, 1864, chap. 13, 163.
3. The "recruits" whom enrolled persons may cause to be mustered into
service under the 23d section of the act of March 3, 1865, are to be
considered as other volunteers obtained at the expense of the United
States. Ibid.
4. Rules for determining the "actual residence" of recruits with reference
to the execution of the 14th section of the act of March 3, 1865, to
provide for enrolling and calling out the national forces, 168.
5. The 14th section of the act of March 3, 1865, amendatory of the sev-
eral acts to provide for enrolling and calling out the national forces,
is applicable to the call for troops made by the President on December
19, 1864, 177.
6. A substitute liable to draft and enrolled must be credited to the place
of his actual residence, 187.
7. But if not liable to draft or enrollment, and is not enrolled, he may be
credited to the locality in which his principal is drafted. Ibid.
1. The commander of the military department of California has no au-
thority to prohibit our own citizens from exporting munitions of war,
by way of merchanize, to the belligerents in Mexico, 408
2. Belligerents have the right to purchase arms in a neutral country, and
to ship them therefrom at their own risk, 451.
1. Advice given to the President as to the course the Government should
take with reference to the massacre by the rebels of colored Union
soldiers at the capture of Fort Pillow, 43.
1. Under the postal act of March 3, 1863, section 42, the head of a bureau
in one of the Executive Departments can exercise the authority to
send mail-matter free of postage, by impressing his name on the out-
side of the package to be mailed, with an engraved stamp, as well as
by writing his signature thereon, 31.
2. The head of a bureau, entitled to frank mail-matter, cannot delegate to
another
person the
power to frank such matter by using his stamp, 35.
1. It is the duty of the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau to take
control only of such portions of the lands described in the statute of
1865 as he may, in the exercise of his authority, set apart for the use
of loyal refugees and freedmen, 255.
2. The direct tax commissioners are not required to give the Freedmen's
Bureau possession of any lands purchased for the United States at
direct tax sales, which are subject to redemption under the law, and
the Commissioner of the bureau has no authority to set apart those
lands, or any of them, for the uses mentioned in the statute of March
3, 1863, 344.
1. The Secretary of State ought not to revoke the proclamation issued
August 7, 1860, relative to Howland's island, in the Pacific ocean,
in favor of the United States Guano Company, upon the application
of the American Guano Company, 397.
2. The 8th section of the act of March 3, 1865, repeals that part of the act
of August 18, 1856, which requires the trade in guano from guano
islands to be carried on in coasting-vessels; and for two years from
and after July 14, 1865, all persons who have complied with the act
of 1856, section 3, may export guano in any vessels which may law-
fully export merchandize from the United States, 514.
INDIANS AND INDIAN TREATIES.
1. Where, under the treaty of May 10, 1854, between the Shawnee tribe
of Indians and the United States, the missionary society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church designated a person to whom the grant
of land made in that treaty to the society should be confirmed, and
such person applied ten thousand dollars to the education of the
Shawnees, it was held, that the person so designated was entitled to a
patent, although the society may have had an equity to the land
prior to the treaty of 1854, 145.
2. The United States car rightfully make no treaty which would deprive
the person mentioned of his right to the land. Ibid.
3. By the terms of the act of March 3, 1865, "making appropriations for
the current and contingent expenses of the Indian department," &c.,
for the year ending June 30, 1866, the appropriations therein made
for the relief and support of certain refugee Indians, and for payment
of interest on non-paying stock held in trust for Indian tribes, can
be rightfully drawn upon by the Secretary of the Interior before the
commencement of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, 171.
4. Construction of the article of the treaty of January 13, 1855, with the
Wyandott Indians, relative to the sale of lands allotted to the incom-
petent members of the tribe, 197.
5. No part of the amount appropriated by the act of March 3, 1865, for
the benefit of the Miami Indians, can be paid to persons other than
those embraced in the corrected list made by the Secretary of the
Interior under the act of June 12, 1858, 384.
1. The 35th article of the treaty of June 12, 1848, between the United
States and New Granada, binds this Government absolutely to
guaranty the perfect neutrality of the Isthmus of Panama, on the
demand of the proper party; and this obligation must be performed
by any and all means which may be found lawful and expedient, 67.
2. The 35th article of the treaty between the United States and New
Granada does not oblige this Government to protect the Isthmus of
Panama from invasion by a body of insurgents from the United
States of Colombia, 391.
1. The fines imposed upon indictments and convictions under the 9th
section of the internal revenue act of July 1, 1862, inure wholly
to the United States, and the collectors have no right or interest
therein, 62.
2. The offence created by the said 9th section can be tried and punished
only by indictment, and not otherwise. Ibid.
3. The 1st section of the act of March 3, 1865, providing for the appoint-
ment of assistant assessors of internal revenue by the assessors is
unconstitutional, 209.
4. The 16th section of that act, repealing all provisions of any former act
inconsistent therewith, repealed so much of the act of June 30, 1864,
as conferred on the Secretary of the Treasury the power of appointing,
with the approval of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the
assistant assessors. Ibid.
5 Under the circumstances, the President, since the passage of the act of
March 3, 1865, is authorized to commission the assistant assessors.
Ibid.
6 It is the duty of the President, before any judicial determination has
been had of the constitutionality of the provision of the act of March
3, 1865, before mentioned, to exercise his constitutional power of
appointment in the case of assistant assessors. Ibid.
7. Under the 14th section of the internal revenue act of June 30, 1864, the
assessor has power, in all cases of false or fraudulent lists or valuations,
to add the penal duty of one hundred per centum before the lists have
vol. xi.-35
INTERNAL REVENUE LAWS (Continued.)
been returned to the collector, but such power terminates on the
transmission of such lists to the collector, 280.
8. The 98th section of the internal revenue act of June 30, 1864, imposes
tax on sales at auction of Government property, 354.
9. Bankers doing business as brokers are liable to pay, under the 99th
section of the act of June 30, 1864, duties upon all their sales, whether
for the benefit of themselves or of others, 482.
1. Reply of the Attorney General to the resolution of the Senate relative
to the prosecution of Jefferson Davis for treason, 411.
1. The enlisted men of the marine corps are not entitled to the bounty
rovided by the 5th section of the act of July 29, 1861, for the men
enlisted in the regular forces," 100.
1. A marshal must account for the fees which he earned and failed or
neglected to collect, 455.
2. Without special legislation for his relief, a marshal cannot receive a
credit in his accounts for fees which he was unable to collect by
reason of the insolvency or non-residence of the parties. Ibid.
3. A marshal who may incur a greater expense than $20 a year for furni-
ture, without the previous authority of the Secretary of the Interior,
cannot be allowed in his accounts the amount expended exceeding
that allowance; and the same rule applies to the excess above $50 for
rent and improvements, when expended without such authority, 506.
4. The President has no authority, under the 11th section of the act of
August 31, 1852, to allow the payment of an account of a United
States marshal for extraordinary expenses, without a special previous
taxation of the proper district or circuit court, 522.
MARSHAL OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
1. The act of February 29, 1864, authorizing the appointment of a war-
den of the jail in the District of Columbia, deprives the marshal of
the District of Columbia of the power of executing sentence of death
upon any person imprisoned in the jail of that District under such
sentence, 34.
1. The national executive government has no authority to redress the
private and public wrongs committed during the riots in Memphis,
Tennessee, in May, 1866, 531.
1. The district attorney should not be instructed, in this case, to consent
to the bonding of the vessel, 444.
1. The persons charged with the assassination of the President in the city
of Washington, on the 14th of April, 1865, may be lawfully tried be-
fore a military tribunal, 297.
1. Letters from officers of national banking associations, employed as
depositaries of public moneys, on business arising from that employ-
ment, are not transmissible through the mail, free of postage, to the
Treasury Department, 23.
2. Such associations, employed under the 54th section of the national
currency act of February 25, 1863, are public depositaries" within
the meaning of the act of March 3, 1857, chap. 114, and disbursing
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