Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ When the entryman goes to the public land office for the purpose of obtaining the land he desires, and is told that his proofs cannot be filed or accepted unless and until he pays the purchase price of the land, which he thereupon does, he makes such payment to the receiver as a public officer, acting in the line of his duty; and it is safe to say that the entryman is without any thought or intention of paying the money to such receiver as his own private agent, to be kept by that agent in trust until the proofs are satisfactory, and to be then paid by him to the government ”

“ These distinctions between the acts of the receiver as an alleged agent of the entryman in receiving the money prior to the decision upon the sufficiency of the proofs, and the same receiver as agent of the government in the keeping of public moneys, ought not to be created by any refined reasoning. Fairprotection of the entryman in his dealings with the government ought to be given when possible. ”

“ The decision does not refer to the regulation made by the department that no proof shall be accepted from the entryman without payment of the money. This regulation is a most vital part of the whole proceeding, and, instead of the moneys not being payable to the receiver until an entry had been allowed by the register and a certificate given, the regulation of the department distinctly provided that payment of the purchase price was to be insisted upon as a condition precedent to the acceptance of proofs at all. ”