Morrison Waite

“ Rep. 585, in which it was held that, when an act of congress directed the secretary of the treasury to pay to a certain person a specific sum of money, the amount of taxes assessed upon and collected from him contrary to the provisions of certain treasury regulations, 'no discretion was vested in the secretary, or in any court, to determine whether the sum specified was or was not the amount of tax assessed contrary to the provisions of such regulations,' and that consequently the payment must be made whether the amount stated by congress was the true amount collected or not. ”

“ The court of claims had held that the language of the act, 'taken together, was too clear to admit of doubt that congress undertook, as it had the right to do, to determine, not only what particular citizens of Tennessee, by name, should have relief, but also the exact amount which should be paid to each of them.' In this we fully concurred. ”