Portal:United States Congress

“ Wherever the terms in which a power is granted by the constitution to Congress, or wherever the nature of the power itself, requires that it shall be exclusively exercised by Congress, the subject is completely taken away from state legislatures, as if they had been forbidden to act upon it. ”

“ March 3, 1823.
Chap. XL.—An Act granting to the state of Alabama the right of pre-emption to certain quarter sections of land.
Alabama allowed the right of pre-emption of lands for seats of justice. ”

“ It would excite some surprise if, in a government of laws and of principle, furnished with a department whose appropriate duty is to decide questions of right, not only between individuals, but between the government and individuals, a ministerial officer might, at his discretion, issue this powerful process, and levy on the person, lands, and chattels of the debtor, any sum he might believe to be due, leaving to that debtor no remedy, no appeal to the laws of his country, if he should believe the claim to be unjust. ”

“ But when an action is brought by the United States, to recover money in the hands of a party, who has a legal claim against them for costs, it would be a very rigid principle, to deny to him the right of setting up such claim in a court of justice, and turn him round to an application to Congress. If the right of the party is fixed by the existing law, there can be no necessity for an application to Congress, except for the purpose of remedy. And no such necessity can exist, when this right can properly be set up by way of defence to a suit by the United States. ”

“ It is undoubtedly a general rule, that no court can give a direct judgment against the United States for costs, in a suit to which they are a party, either on behalf of any suitor, or any officer of the government. But it by no means follows, from this, that they are not liable for their own costs. No direct suit can be maintained against the United States. ”

“ Even in cases of conquest, it is very unusual for the conqueror to do more than to displace the sovereign and assume dominion over the country. The modern usage of nations, which has become law, would be violated; that sense of justice and of right, which is acknowledged and felt by the whole civilized world, would be outraged, if private property should be generally confiscated, and private rights annulled on a change in the sovereignty of the country, by the Florida treaty. The people change their allegiance, their relation to their ancient sovereign is dissolved ”

“ If that government remains neutral, but recognises the existence of a civil war, the courts of the Union cannot consider as criminal, those acts of hostility which war authorizes, and which the new government may direct against its enemy. ”

“ In the adjustment of an account, they sometimes act judicially, and their acts are all recorded on the books and files of the treasury department. So far as they act strictly within the rules prescribed for the exercise of their powers, their decisions are, in effect, final; for if an appeal be made, they will receive judicial sanction. Accounts, amounting to many millions annually, come under the action of these officers. It is, therefore, of great importance to the public, and to individuals, that the rules by which they exercise their powers, should be fixed and known. ”

“ When a civil war rages in a foreign nation, one part of which separates itself from the old established government, and erects itself into a distinct government, the courts of the United States must view such newly constituted government as it is viewed by the legislative and executive departments of the government of the United States. ”

“ The government has no authority, under its existing laws, to release the collector’s share, as such, and yet to retain to itself the other part of the forfeiture. Ibid.
In point of law, no duties, as such, can legally accrue upon the importation of prohibited goods. They are not entitled to entry at the custom-house, or to be bonded. They are, ipso facto, forfeited by the mere act of importation. Ibid.
The Secretary of the Treasury may remit not only the interest of the United States, but of individuals, in penalties and forfeitures in certain cases, after suit brought, and before judgment. ”

“ If the courts are to regard the constitution, and the constitution is superior to any ordinary act of the legislature; the constitution, and not such ordinary act, must govern the case to which they both apply. ”

“ Whenever a tract of land has been once legally appropriated to any purpose, from that moment the land thus appropriated becomes severed from the mass of public lands: and no subsequent law or proclamation, or sale, would be construed to embrace it, or to operate upon it, although no other reservation were made of it. Ibid.
Nothing passes a perfect title to public lands, with the exception of a few cases, but a patent. The exceptions are where Congress grants lands in words of present grant. ”

“ If the court can trust the information received on this subject, neither the governor nor the intendant-general has ever refused to perfect an incomplete title granted by a deputy-governor or a sub-delegate.
The regulation made by Don O’Reilly, as to the quantity of land to be granted to an individual, is not that no individual shall receive grants for more than one league square, but that no grant shall exceed a league square. The words of the regulation do not forbid different grants to the same person, and, so far as the court are informed, it has never been so construed. ”

“ There is no act of Congress which authorizes a circuit court to issue a compulsory process to the district court for the removal of a cause from that jurisdiction before a final judgment or decree is pronounced. ”

“ A bankrupt is bound to state, upon his schedule, the nature of a debt if it be a fiduciary one. Should he omit to do so, he would be guilty of a fraud, and his discharge will not avail him; but if a creditor, in such case, proves his debt and receives a dividend from the estate, he is estopped from afterwards saying that his debt was not within the law. ”

“ It would be a novel principle to refuse payment to the subordinates of a department because their chief, under whose direction they had faithfully served the public, had given an erroneous construction to the law. ”

“ The condition of the Indians, in relation to the United States, is perhaps unlike that of any other two people in existence. In general, nations not owing a common allegiance, are foreign to each other. The term foreign nation, is with strict propriety applicable by either to the other. But the relation of the Indians to the United States, is marked by peculiar and cardinal distinctions, which exist no where else. ”

“ XXV. If any person in the navy shall unlawfully set fire to or burn any kind of public property, not then in the possession of an enemy, pirate, or rebel, he shall suffer death: And if any person shall, in any other manner, destroy such property, or shall not use his best exertions to prevent the destruction thereof by others, he shall be punished at the discretion of a court martial. ”

“ LVI.—An Act to repeal an act, entitled “An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the United States,” and so much of any act or acts as prohibit the importation of goods, wares and merchandise of the growth, produce, or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, or of any of the colonies or dependencies thereof, or of any place or country in the actual possession of Great Britain. ”

“ That a law is the best expositor of itself; that every part of an act is to be taken into view for the purpose of discovering the mind of the legislature; and that the details of one part may contain regulations restricting the extent of general expressions used in another part of the same act; are among those plain rules laid down by common sense for the exposition of statutes, which have been uniformly acknowledged. ”

“ The head of an executive department of the government, in the administration of the various and important concerns of his office, is continually required to exercise judgment and discretion. He must exercise his judgment in expounding the laws and resolutions of Congress, under which he is from time to time required to act. If he doubts, he has a right to call on the Attorney General to assist him with his counsel ”

“ If it be destroyed, the loss, in contemplation of law, is his. If the purchase money be paid, it is his in fact. If he owed the purchase money, the property is equivalent, and is still valuable to him. The embarrassment of his affairs may be such that his debts may absorb all his property; but this circumstance has never been considered as providing a want of interest in it. The destruction of the property is a real loss to the person in possession, who claims title under an executory contract ”

“ If any rule has been made by the district court of Louisiana, abolishing chancery practice in that court, it is a violation of those rules which the Supreme Court of the United States has passed to regulate the courts of equity of the United States. ”

“ That an ex-collector, who is not in office, cannot lawfully appropriate the moneys of the United States in his hands to such a payment, for the act is an official act, and the authority can be exercised only by the collector actually in office. ”

“ The Indian right to the lands as property was not merely of possession, that of alienation was concomitant; both were equally secured, protected, and guarantied by Great Britain and Spain, subject only to ratification and confirmation by the license, charter or deed from the governor representing the king. Such purchases enabled the Indians to pay their debts, compensate for their depredations on the traders resident among them, to provide for their wants; while they were available to the purchasers as payment of the considerations which at their expense had been received by the Indians. ”

“ No man shall be deprived of his life, liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers and the law of the land. If the public exigencies make it necessary for the common preservation to take the property of any person, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. ”

“ The right of property is protected and secured by the treaty, and no principle is better settled in this country, than that an inchoate title to lands is property. This right would have been sacred, independent of the treaty. ”

“ A treaty of cession is a deed or grant by one sovereign to another, which transferred nothing to which he had no right of property; and only such right as he owned, and could convey to the grantee. By the treaty with Spain, the United States acquired no lands in Florida to which any person had lawfully obtained such a right, by a perfect or inchoate title, that this court could consider it as property under the second article; or which had, according to the stipulations of the eighth article of the treaty, been granted by the lawful authorities of the king ”

“ This is true, and the Supreme Court would certainly not feel itself at liberty to exercise, on a common occasion, a discretionary power, limited only by the opinion entertained of the naked justice of the case. ”

“ Congress has the sole power to declare the dignity and effect of titles emanating from the United States; and the whole legislation of the government, in reference to public lands, declares the patent to be the superior and conclusive evidence of legal title. ”