by John Marshall Harlan

“ If it is supposed that the law operates unjustly against the officers and soldiers who became 'totally disabled' in the service, or that an unreasonable distinction is made between different kinds of disability, the remedy is with another department of the government. The courts must give effect to the intention of congress as manifested by the statute. They cannot make, but can only declare, the law. ”

“ It is not to be doubted that the words 'total disability' in the pension laws have a technical signification which cannot be disregarded. And when the statute fixes $30 per month as the pension, in case of total disability, of an officer of the rank of Gen. Burnett, and declares that his widow shall receive the same pension as her husband would have received had he been 'totally disabled,' there is no room left for a construction that would give her a pension in excess of that amount. ”