Samuel Freeman Miller

“ It certainly cannot be admitted for a moment that a statute of the Confederate States, or the order of its postmaster-general, could have any legal effect in making the payment to Clemmens valid. The whole Confederate power must be regarded by us as a usurpation of unlawful authority, incapable of passing any valid laws, and certainly incapable of divesting, by an act of its Congress or an order of one of its departments, any right or property of the United States. ”

“ We cannot concede that a man, who, as a citizen, owes allegiance to the United States, and as an officer of the government holds its money or property, is at liberty to turn over the latter to an insurrectionary government, which only demands it by ordinances and drafts drawn on the bailee, but which exercises no force or threat of personal violence to himself or property in the enforcement of its illegal orders. ”

“ Whatever weight may be given under some circumstances to its acts of force, on the ground of irresistible power, or whatever effect may be allowed in proper cases to the legislation of the States while in insurrection-questions which we propose to decide only when they arise-the acts of the Confederate Congress can have no force, as law, in divesting or transferring rights, or as authority for any act opposed to the just authority of the Federal government. ”