by John Marshall Harlan

“ No public money shall be expended upon any site or land purchased by the United States for the purpose of erecting thereon any armory, arsenal, fort, fortification, navy-yard, custom-house, light-house, or other public building, of any kind whatever, until the written opinion of the attorney general shall be had in favor of the validity of the title, nor until the consent of the legislature of the state in which the land or site may be, to such purchase, has been given. ”

“ No officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salary, pay, or emoluments are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation, in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or for any other service or duty whatever, unless the same is authorized by law, and the appropriation therefor expressly states that it is for such additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation. ”

“ All other fees, charges, and emoluments to which a district attorney or a marshal may be entitled by reason of the discharge of the duties of his office, as now or hereafter prescribed by law, or in any case in which the United States will be bound by the judgment rendered therein, whether prescribed by statute or allowed by a court, or any judge thereof, shall be included in the semi-annual return required of said officers by the preceding section. ”

“ Every district attorney, clerk of a district court, clerk of circuit court, and marshal, shall, on the first days of January and July, in each year, or within thirty days thereafter, make to the attorney general, in such form as he may prescribe, a written return for the half year ending on said days, respectively, of all the fees and emoluments of his office, of every name and character, and of all the necessary expenses of his office, including necessary clerk hire, together with the vouchers for the payment of the same for such last half year. ”

“ Our duty is to give effect to the legislation of congress, and not to defeat it by an interpretation plainly inconsistent with the words used.
The conclusion is that, as the defendant in error was under a duty, as district attorney, to represent the United States in the condemnation proceedings referred to (section 771) ; as his attendance in court on those proceedings was on the business of the United States (section 824) ; as no statute provides for extra or special compensation for services of that character ”

“ How long such usage or custom prevailed, upon what specific grounds it rested, and in what way it is evidenced, do not appear from the statement of facts accompanying the certificate of questions. The opinions of attorneys general to which our attention has been called by counsel certainly do not cover the precise question now before us. ”

“ It would involve a very narrow construction of section 771 to hold that judicial proceedings in a court of the United States to condemn lands for the use of the government were not civil actions in which the United States was concerned. ”

“ In the statement that accompanies the questions certified it is said that for many years before 1892, and for many years prior to Johnson's employment, it was the custom and usage of the government to pay to district attorneys, under like employment, and for like services, compensation outside of their annual salaries as fixed by statute at the sum of $200. ”