Noah Haynes Swayne

“ The exemption of the United States from suits, except as they themselves may provide, rests upon the same foundation as the rule of nullum tempus with respect to them. If the States can pass statutes of limitation binding upon the Federal government, they can by like means make it suable within their respective jurisdictions. The evils of such a state of things are too obvious to require remark.
But viewing the subject in the light of considerations ab inconvenienti, we need not look beyond the consequences of the ruling, if sustained, of the court below. ”

“ The United States not being named in the statute of Minnesota, are not within its provisions. It does not and cannot 'apply' to them. If it did, it would be beyond the power of the State to pass it, a gross usurpation, and void. ”

“ In that case, Chief Justice Parsons said: 'No laches can be imputed to the government, and against it no time runs so as to bar its rights.' The examination of the subject by Judge Story, in United States v. Hoar (supra) , is a fuller one than we have found anywhere else. He and Parsons are in accord. So far as we are advised, the case before us stands alone in American jurisprudence. It certainly has no precedent in the reported adjudications of the Federal courts.
The United States possess other attributes of sovereignty resting also upon the basis of universal consent and recognition. ”