by John Marshall Harlan

“ It depends entirely upon the ownership of certain personal property. The rule established in Coffey's Case can have no application in a civil case not involving any question of criminal intent, or of forfeiture for prohibited acts, but turning wholly upon an issue as to the ownership of property. In the criminal case the government sought to punish a criminal offense, while in the civil case it only seeks, in its capacity as owner of property illegally converted, to recover its value. ”

“ If any person shall cut, or cause or procure to be cut, or aid, assist, or be employed in cutting, or shall wantonly destroy, or cause or procure to be wantonly destroyed, or aid, assist, or be employed in wantonly destroying any live oak or red cedar trees, or other timber standing, growing, or being on any lands of the United States, which, in pursuance of any law passed, or hereafter to be passed, have been reserved or purchased for the use of the United States, for supplying or furnishing therefrom timber for the navy of the United States ”

“ All the remedies were open to the owner which the law affords in other cases of the wrongful removal or conversion of personal property.' If a suit like this cannot be maintained, then persons depredating on the public lands may escape civil liability by simply removing from the state in which the depredation occurred, whereby the government would be compelled to rely altogether upon a criminal prosecution, in which it could not succeed except by proving the guilt of the defendant beyond all reasonable doubt. ”

“ This court said: 'Where an issue raised as to the existence of the act or fact denounced has been tried in a criminal proceeding instituted by the United States, and a judgment of acquittal has been rendered in favor of a particular person, that judgment is conclusive in favor of such person on the subsequent trial of a suit in rem by the United States, where, as against him, the existence of the same act or fact is the matter in issue, as a cause for the forfeiture of the property prosecuted in such suit in rem. ”

“ It does not provide that if there is not any timber convenient, or within a convenient distance to the building and construction of a new railroad, that the railroad company has a right to require the United States to provide them with material, or go upon distant lands and procure the material that they require. ”

“ Unless the declaration is an honest declaration, and is supported by compliance with the requirements of the law, by making a home upon the land, actually living upon it, and actually proceeding in the regular way by regular process of improving the land and putting it in cultivation, and until he has perfected his right by full compliance with the law, he has no right to cut down and sell the timber on other portions of the land which he is not intending to immediately put into cultivation. ”

“ But a man whose primary purpose is to cut the timber on a piece of land is no more authorized to go and cut that timber, by reason of his having filed in the land office a declaration of his intention to take the land under the pre-emption law, than if he goes and cuts it without filing any declaration. ”

“ On the succeeding day the defendant asked to have the benefit of an exception to the jury having been sent out, and to the receiving of the verdict on Sunday. The court did not directly allow the exception, but expressed its willingness to sign a bill of exceptions, reciting facts as they occurred. The judgment on the verdict for $19,000 was entered on the Friday succeeding the day on which the verdict was returned.
There is no statute of the United States making Sunday dies non juridicus. ”

“ The fact that claimants to lands under the homestead and pre-emption laws after occupation for a time abandon the lands is not alone proof that they intended to defraud the government, although in the meantime they have cut and sold the timber from the lands during the occupation ”

“ As, therefore, suits for penalties and forfeitures incurred by the commission of offenses against the law are of this quasi criminal nature, we think that they are within the reason of criminal proceedings for all the purposes of the fourth amendment of the constitution, and of that portion of the fifth amendment which declares that no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself ”

“ This action was brought in the district court of the United States for the district of Washington, Eastern division, to recover the reasonable value of certain timber and railroad ties manufactured from trees alleged to have been unlawfully cut by the defendant, Stone, from certain lands in Idaho, of which, it was averred, the United States was the owner. ”