by John Marshall Harlan

“ The clause of the statute investing that court with jurisdiction to hear and determine all claims referred to it 'by either house of congress' must be interpreted in the light of other clause defining its jurisdiction, and fixing, in respect of all claims, the period within which they must be asserted against the United States. Congress, by statute, which has received the approval of the president, has declared that all claims, specifically for the proceeds of captured or abandoned property, must be brought within two years after the suppression of the rebellion ”

“ It is undoubtedly within the power of congress to place claims referred to that court by the senate or by the house of representatives on a better footing than other claims, by providing that they may be determined upon their merits, without reference to lapse of time, or any previous bar by limitation. But congress had no purpose by its general legislation to establish such a policy. It has, in special cases, invested the court of claims with jurisdiction to determine a claim, relieved of the bar of limitation. ”

“ The petition of the claimant was filed in the court of claims on the tenth of March, 1885. It represented that he is a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York; that John G. Robinson was born in England, and was a subject of Great Britain, residing during the recent civil war in New Orleans; that on or about March 7, 1863, his intestate purchased of one Robert B. Hurt, of Madison county, Tennessee, 238 bales of cotton, worth about $88,260, which was delivered to said Robinson, at Ponchatoula, Louisiana, on or about the date last named ”