Morrison Waite

“ It sits to pass upon the most sacred questions of human rights that are ever placed on trial in a court of justice,-rights which, in the very nature of things, can neither be exposed to danger, nor subjected to the uncontrolled will of any man, but which must be adjudged according to law. And the act of the officer who reviews the proceedings of the court, whether he be the commander of the fleet or the president, and without whose approval the sentence cannot be executed, is as much a part of this judgment, according to law, as is the trial or the sentence. ”

“ The court of claims has found as a fact in the case that the 'proceedings, findings, and sentence of said court-martial were transmitted to the secretary of war,' but it has not found that they were laid before the president, or acted on by him, otherwise than may be inferred argumentatively from the orders of the secretary of war, and the subsequent action of President Grant andPresident Hayes. There can be no doubt that the president, in the exercise of his executive power under the constitution, may act through the head of the appropriate executive department. ”

“ Thus it appears that the sentence of a general court-martial in time of peace, to the effect that a commissioned officer be cashiered,-dismissed from service,-is inoperative until approved by the president. Before then it is interlocutory and inchoate only. Mills v. Martin, 19 Johns. 7, 30; Sim. Cts. Mart. (6th Ed.) c. 17, p. 294. A court-martial organized under the law of the United States is a court of special and limited jurisdiction. It is called it o existence for a special purpose, and to perform a particular duty. When the object of its creation has been accomplished it is dissolved. ”