Stephen Johnson Field

“ But where, instead of placing before the officers of the government the information which should properly guide their judgments, personal influence is the means used to secure the sales, and is allowed to prevail, the public good is lost sight of, unnecessary expenditures are incurred, and, generally, defective supplies are obtained, producing inefficiency in the public service. ”

“ We may doubt whether we are compelled to take as correct, with the facts mentioned touching the contract in court, his statement of the law or customs of other countries. But admitting this to be otherwise, and that the Turkish government was willing that its officers should be allowed to take commissions on contracts obtained for it by their influence, that is no reason why the courts of the United States should enforce them. Contracts permissible by other countries are not enforceable in our courts, if they contravene our laws, our morality, or our policy. ”

“ On the trial, the court below, among other things, instructed the jury that if the contract was illegal, the illegality had been waived by the reconventional demand of the defendant; but this court said, speaking through Mr. Justice Swayne, that the instruction 'was founded upon a misconception of the law. In such cases,' he added, 'there can be no waiver. The defence is allowed, not for the sake of the defendant, but of the law itself. The principle is indispensable to the purity of its administration. It will not enforce what it has forbidden and denounced. ”

“ Whenever other considerations are allowed to intervene and control their exercise, the trust is perverted and the community suffers. The plaintiff, it is true, was not the purchasing agent of the Turkish government, but he was its honored officer, upon whose fidelity to its interests it had a right to rely in any advice which he might give to its agent. But so far from justifying this confidence, the only motive upon which he appears to have acted was the hope of gain to himself by high commissions on the sales effected. ”

“ All agreements for pecuniary considerations to control the business operations of the government or the regular administration of justice, or the appointments to public offices, or the ordinary course of legislation, are void as against public policy, without reference to the question whether improper means are contemplated or used in their execution. ”

“ The proposition to the contrary strikes us as hardly worthy of serious refutation. Whenever the illegality appears, whether the evidence comes from one side or the other, the disclosure is fatal to the case. No consent of the defendant can neutralize its effect. A stipulation in the most solemn form to waive the objection would be tainted with the vice of the original contract, and void for the same reasons. Wherever the contamination reaches it destroys. ”

“ Several reasons are presented against the power of the court to direct a verdict upon the statement of the facts which the plaintiff proposed to prove, that might be more properly urged against its exercise in particular cases. The power of the court to act in the disposition of a trial upon facts conceded by counsel is as plain as its power to act upon the evidence produced. The question in either case must be whether the facts upon which it is called to instruct the jury be clearly established. ”

“ The members of Parliament in England receive no pay for their services, and the expenses of many official positions, in this and other countries, exceed the compensation allowed to the incumbents; but this circumstance would not excuse much less justify them in sacrificing the public interests for individual gains or profits. All such positions are trusts to be exercised from considerations of duty and for the public good. ”

“ And here it may be observed, in answer to some authorities cited, that the percentage allowed by established custom of commission merchants and brokers, though dependent upon sales made, is not regarded as contingent compensation in the obnoxious sense of that term, which has been so often the subject of animadversion by this court, as suggesting the use of sinister or corrupt means for accomplishing a desired end. They are the rates established by merchants for legitimate services in the regular course of business. ”

“ It was a case where nothing was to be paid if no contract was obtained, and if obtained the compensation was to be proportionate to its extent. In deciding the case the court said: 'Considerations as to the most efficient and economical mode of meeting the public wants should alond control in this respect the action of every department of government. No other consideration can lawfully enter into the transaction, so far as the government is concerned. Such is the rule of public policy, and whatever tends to introduce any other elements into the transaction is against public policy. ”

“ This is true when the vendor holds no official relations with the government, though the turpitude of the transaction becomes more glaring when he is also its officer.
In Tool Company v. Norris, reported in the 2d of Wallace, this court held that an agreement for compensation to procure a contract with the government to furnish it with supplies was against public policy and could not be enforced. ”

“ In January, 1870, the Bey received instructions from the Turkish minister of ordinance to examine and report upon the Spencer gun. These instructions were given because the Turkish government had heard that the United States had a large number of these guns on hand which they desired to dispose of. They immediately became known to Oscanyan, and as he had agreed with Winchester to press the claims of the Winchester gun, he at once proceeded to use his influence with the Bey to condemn the Spencer gun. ”

“ He then called Winchester's attention to an objection raised by the Bey relating to the spring of the magazine of the rifle, and advised him to meet it; and this advice was acted upon. Soon afterwards Winchester, as president of the company, put in writing his agreement with Oscanyan, to give ten per cent upon all sales of arms of the company made to or by the latter to the Ottoman government, provided that such sales were made at prices and upon terms having his approval. ”

“ In that case Coppell was the acting British consul in New Orleans, and during the late civil war entered into a contract with one Hall, by which the latter agreed to furnish him with sundry bales of cotton, which he was to cause to be protected from seizure by our forces and transported to New Orleans, and there disposed of to the best advantage, he to receive one-third of the profits for his compensation. ”

“ Their necessary consequence is the demoralization of the agent who covenants for them; he is soon brought to believe that any means which will produce so beneficial a result to himself are 'proper means;' and that a share of these profits may have the same effect of quickening the perceptions and warming the zeal of influential or 'careless' members in favor of his bill.' See also Wood v. ”

“ By some governments he is invested-in the absence of a minister or ambassador to represent them-with diplomatic powers, and, as between their citizens or subjects, may also exercise judicial functions. ”

“ The manufacturers soon became aware of the relation of the men to each other, and accordingly opened a correspondence with the plaintiff, or waited upon him, to secure his influence with the Bey in presenting their arms. Among others, Winchester, the president of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, of Connecticut, the defendant here, sought an introduction to him, and the scene is thus narrated: 'Said Mr. Winchester to Oscanyan, 'Will you be kind enough to call the attention of Rustem Bey to my repeating rifle?' 'Well,' said Oscanyan, 'Mr. ”