Samuel Freeman Miller

“ The wisdom of the act of Congress of 1790 in fixing a date after which the States could not make allowances of claims which should bind the United States is apparent; and nothing could be more just or honorable than that Congress, when appealed to for a relaxation of this salutary general rule of exclusion in favor of the private citizen who had a meritorious case, should grant relief. It seems clear to us, that, in the act of 1872, Congress did mean to remove this bar of the lapse of time, and to authorize the Court of Claims, if they found the claim to be a just one, to settle and allow it. ”

“ As the 'rules and regulations' of the United States refuse interest unless specially given by some act of Congress, and as the present act refers the question of interest entirely to the 'rules and regulations,' and otherwise is silent thereupon, it seems that the claimants are, at all events, entitled to no interest. ”

“ But by the act of Aug. 5, 1790, by which Congress constituted a board of commissioners to adjust all claims of the several States against the United States, there was a provision that no claim of a citizen of a State should be admitted as a claim against the United States which had not been allowed by the State before the twenty-fourth day of September, 1788. ”