Edward Douglass White

“ But, as the court below rested its conclusion of power solely upon the existence of an assumed exception to the general rule, and as the correctness of that view is the sole ground relied upon to sustain the judgment, that question is the single subject for consideration, and we come to dispose of it. ”

“ And it must be further apparent that the inadequacy of authority which the proposition, if accepted, would bring about, could not be supplied, since it would come to pass that, although the property was yet in the control of the United States to carry out the trust, there would be an absence of all power, both in the administrative and judicial tribunals, to correct an order once rendered, however complete might be the proof of the fraud which had procured it. ”

“ We say this because, although it be conceded, for the sake of the argument only, that an exercise of power which was plainly an abuse of discretion, depriving of the right which the statute plainly gave, would be subject to correction by the courts, such concession would be here without influence, since there is no basis whatever upon which to rest an assumption of abuse of discretion. ”