Stanley Matthews

“ Nor do I see how any distinction can be made between the cattle that actually died when in the army trains and those that may have been lost between South Pass and Fort Scott; for when they had been once used with the army cattle to haul the trains, they were actually employed in the service of the United States, being under military control, and liable to be applied to that work when needed. It is too rigid a construction to say that 'actual service' means only the time employed in labor. ”

“ However proper it might have been for the legislature to have provided indemnity for the losses occurring by reason simply of the detention thus occasioned, we cannot think it was the intention of the act to go beyond payment for property actually used and employed by the government in its service. To require the plaintiffs' trains to remain with the military force, in order to insure the success of the expedition by preventing the enemy from obtaining information and supplies, cannot be construed as a seizure and impressment of their property into the public service. ”

“ The reference made by the statute is limited by its express language to a judgment 'for property claimed to have been taken and impressed into the service of the United States in the year 1857 by orders of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, in command of the Utah expedition, as well as for property alleged to have been sold to the government.' Of course, there would be no doubt as to the legality of so much of the claims as aris upon sales proven to have been made by the plaintiffs to the government of their property for its use, but in point of fact no such sales are found to have been made. ”