by John Marshall Harlan

“ We are of opinion that congress intended to provide for the payment of only such claims as appeared not to have been paid by the Confederate government. As the claims described in that act had been, at the date of its passage, outlawed by limitation or by express enactment forbidding their payment, and as congress must be presumed to have passed that act with knowledge of the Confederate legislation of 1861 and 1862, we cannot believe that it was intended to impose upon the United States the burden of showing, affirmatively, that such claims had been paid by the Confederate government. ”

“ In order to prevent this, it has been established as a general rule of evidence that the burden of proof lies on the person who wishes to support his case by a particular fact which lies more peculiarly within his knowledge, or of which he is supposed to be cognizant.' 1 Best, Ev. ”