William Strong

“ Notwithstanding the old rule that a corporation suing must prove its corporate existence, it has been many times decided that a plea of the general issue admits its capacity to sue, as does going to trial upon the merits. ”

“ It is that even if the plaintiffs below are corporations which this court can recognize as such, they cannot sue in the Court of Claims for the proceeds of the sale of captured and abandoned property because, as it is argued, the Captured and Abandoned Property Act provides only for suits by persons who could have given aid and comfort to the rebellion. It is said, corporations were incapable of giving such aid, and that they cannot make proof that they have never given it. ”

“ No one that we are aware of seriously questions the validity of judicial or legislative acts in the insurrectionary States, touching these and kindred subjects, when they were not hostile in their purpose or mode of enforcement to the authority of the National government, and did not impair the rights of citizens under the Constitution.' After these emphatic utterances controversy upon this subject should cease. ”