484 UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER-VIRGINIA BOUNTY LAND-WARRANTS. funds, &c., demanded of them. The order itself, in this case, is an ample voucher and indemnity to the agents complying with it. This case is distinguishable from cases of payments in detail to those who claim to be the creditors of the Government. Ibid. 6. The directors of the Bank of the United States are not justifiable in withholding dividends on the stock of that institution owned by Government, and to apply the same in satisfaction of a controverted claim against the latter for damages, costs, and interest upon a bill drawn on the Government of France. Opinion of Nov. 28, 1834, 2 Op. 663. 1. Where a vessel, foreign-built, was wrecked in the United States and afterwards purchased and repaired by a citizen of the United States: Held, that the expense of getting such vessel afloat, and in a proper position for being repaired, should be taken into account in deciding whether the repairs put upon such vessel shall be equal to three-fourths of the cost of said vessel when repaired. Opinion of Feb. 14, 1853, 5 Op. 674. 2. By the fourth section of the act of 30th August, 1852, chap. 106, vessels which are required to have two, three, four, or six lifeboats, must have one of metal, fire-proof. Opinion of Feb. 14, 1853, 5 Op. 676. 4. Masters of American vessels cannot lawfully discharge seamen in foreign ports without intervention of the consul. Opinion of July 17, 1855, 7 Op. 349. 5. It does not help the matter to allege that the seamen consent, or have misconducted themselves, or are not Americans; of all that it is for the consul to judge. Ibid. 6. Masters of American vessels are subject to prosecution in the name of the consul for omission to deposit with him the papers according to law, but not to indictment. Opinion of Aug. 22, 1855, 7 Op. 395. 7. The act of March 3, 1855, chap. 213, regulating the carriage of passengers in steamships and other vessels, and imposing penalties and punishment for contravention, is made applicable to ships abroad in sixty days in Europe, and six months in other parts of the world, and requires notice of the act to be given in all foreign ports through the Department of State: Held, that where such notice had failed to be given in such foreign port, and the owner or master of a vessel had thus unconsciously offended, it was a proper case for remission of forfeiture and for pardon of the master. Opinion of Sept. 11, 1855, 7 Op. 489. 8. Shipmasters in foreign ports are subject, on the requisition of the consul, to take on board and convey to the United States distressed mariners; but not seamen or other persons accused of crimes, and to be transported to the United States for prosecution. Opinion of June 25, 1856, 7 Op. 722. 9. Officers and crews of the public ships of the United States are not entitled to salvage, civil or military, as of complete legal right. Opinion of July 8, 1856, 7 Op. 756. 10. The allowance of salvage, civil or military, in such cases, like the allowance of prize money on captures, is against public policy, and ought to be abolished in the sea service, as it was long ago in the land service. Ibid. 3. By the ninth section of said act, public vessels of the United States, or vessels of other VIRGINIA BOUNTY LAND-WAR countries; steamers used as ferry-boats tugboats, and towing boats; and steamers not exceeding one hundred and fifty tons burden, which are used in whole or in part for navigating canals, are exempted from inspection. Ibid. RANTS. See also PUBLIC LANDS, VI. 1. The United States have by the act of August 31, 1852, chap. 114, assumed all unsatisfied outstanding military land-warrants of the State of Virginia, issued by the proper authorities thereof, for Revolutionary services of its officers, soldiers, seamen, and marines, such warrants having been fairly and justly issued in pursuance of the laws of the State. Opinion of Jan. 7, 1854, 6 Op. 243. 2. Persons, called in the laws of Virginia "supernumerary officers," and in the resolves of Congress "deranged officers," are to be treated as in service, and warrants, issued to them by the State for additional land on account of such services, are entitled to be exchanged for land scrip of the United States. I bid. 3. By the laws of the State of Virginia, the legal representatives, the heirs or devisees of any one of her officers or privates, who fell or died in the service during the Revolutionary war, are entitled to the same quantity of bounty land as would have been due to him had he continued to live and to serve to the end of the war, and warrants therefor lawfully issued are to be satisfied by scrip of the United States. Opinion of Jan. 9, 1854, 6 Op. 258. the governor of Virginia after the time limited by the statute of the State passed March 16, 1850, was not "justly" issued according to the laws of Virginia. Ibid. 9. In order to entitle the holder of a warrant issued by the State of Virginia to scrip under the act of August 31, 1852, chap. 114, it is not necessary that he should prove to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that the military services for which it was issued were in fact rendered. Opinion of June 28, 1859, 9 Op. 354. 4. A decision regularly made by the governor See VIRGINIA BOUNTY LAND-WARRANTS. and council of Virginia on a claim for military bounty lands under her laws is in its nature as conclusive as if the same jurisdiction had been conferred upon and exercised by a judicial tribunal. Opinion of May 30, 1858, 9 Op. 156. 5. A claimant of scrip for Revolutionary services in the Virginia line, under the act of August 31, 1852, chap. 114, must produce a warrant from the proper authorities of that State. Ibid. 6. The provision in the act of 1852, which requires the Secretary of the Interior, in granting scrip, to be satisfied that each warrant was "fairly and justly issued according to the laws of Virginia," simply requires an examination as to the fairness and justness which gave character to the act of issuing the warrant, and does not authorize or require the Secretary to try over again the questions of fact and law settled by the governor and council. Ibid. 7. Under the act of August 31, 1852, chap. 114, the Secretary of the Interior has no power to issue scrip on a military land-warrant not issued or allowed by the State of Virginia prior to the 1st of March, 1852. Opinion of June 28, 1859, 9 Op. 352. WAR DEPARTMENT. See also EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS; SECRE- 1. The nature and extent of the relations sustained by the National Government to the State militia, before they are called into the actual service of the United States, are not such as to render proper the establishment of a separate bureau in the War Department to supervise and control them, if the President were competent to establish such a bureau without authority of an act of Congress. Opinion of April 18, 1861, 11 Op. 11. 2. The President has no power to establish such a bureau in the War Department without an act of Congress authorizing it. Ibid. 3. An explicit appropriation would be needed to provide compensation for any extra duty performed by an officer of the Army as chief of such a bureau. Ibid. 4. An officer of a mounted corps could not be the chief of such a bureau under existing 8. A warrant issued under the authority of regulations of the Army. Ibid. WASHINGTON AQUEDUCT. 1. On March 3, 1857, by effect of the joint resolution of that date, the contract for manufacturing brick for the Washington aqueduct was rescinded with the full consent of all parties concerned, and the Government was thereby released from obligation to pay for any bricks which the parties could have made after that date. Opinion of Sept. 20, 1860, 9 Op. 480. 2. The appropriation of $500,000 made by the act of June 25, 1860, chap. 211, for the completion of the Washington aqueduct is applicable to the payment of debts and liabilities created in the prosecution of that work previous to and existing at the date of the appropriation. Opinion of Sept. 10, 1860, 9 Op. 493. 3. The superintendent of the Washington aqueduct is not authorized to withhold a payment which the Secretary of War or the engineer-in-chief has ordered him to make, though he himself may differ with his superior officers in regard to the justice of the debt. Ibid. 4. The Secretary of War has no authority to review and change the decision of the superintendent, made while he was chief engineer of the aqueduct, on a question arising under a contract containing a stipulation which expressly binds both contractor and the United States to abide by the decision of the chief engineer as final and conclusive upon all questions arising out of, or connected with, the contract. Ibid. WASHINGTON CITY. See also DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 1. So long as the law of Maryland, and the order of the commissioners under it, remain unrepealed, the wharves proposed to be built by the owners of water-lots on the Potomac and Eastern Branch must follow the direction of the present streets of the city, and cannot be projected at right angles from Water street to the channel. Opinion of July 8, 1818, 1 Op. 223. 2. Commissioners of public buildings have no power to make an order allowing the proprietors to erect buildings beyond the line of Water street. Ibid. 3. It is the duty of the President to exer cise a general supervision over the subject of the appropriation of the public grounds in the city of Washington; and as the right to occupy and improve any of these grounds depends upon whether the improvements are for public purposes, so the power of the President to assent to improvements depends upon whether they are for public purposes and are useful. Opinion of May 29, 1820, 1 Op. 369. 4. The resolution of the corporation of Washington city, proposing to improve a part of Judiciary Square, by erecting thereon a city hall, is to appropriate the public grounds for both a public and a useful purpose, and may be approved by the President; provided, that the quantity of ground required neither exceeds nor falls short of the purpose. Ibid. 5. The assent of the President to acts of the corporation of Washington should be expressed in the same manner as his assent is expressed to acts of Congress. Ibid. 6. The act of July 16, 1790, chap. 28, for establishing the seat of government of the United States, authorized commissioners, who were to be appointed by the President, to purchase or accept such quantity of land on the eastern side of the Potomac, within the District of Columbia, as the President should deem proper for the use of the United States; and by a liberal construction of that provision, only, has it been claimed that the President had power to establish a plan of the city; but the deeds of the original proprietors require the trustees appointed by them to convey to the commissioners such streets, squares, parcels, and lots as the President should deem proper. In pursu ance of the power thus conferred, President Washington, in 1797, executed an instrument of writing, in which he directed the trustees to convey to the commissioners all the streets delineated in a plan intended to be, but not, annexed. President Washington having previously ratified Ellicott's engraved plan of the city, it must now be presumed that Ellicott's plan was what he intended to annex; and that, as it indicated streets through the mall, it was originally intended that streets might be opened through it. Opinion of Dec. 16, 1820, 1 Op. 416. 7. Although President Adams subsequently gave his sanction to another plan, said by the commissioners to have been annexed, which did not indicate streets through the mall, the pro tion of the company. Opinion of Aug. 6, 1828, 2 Op. 166. 16. A surveyor of Washington who is appointed by the Commissioner of Public Build mulgation, publication, and exhibition of Ellicott's plan, on the day of sale of lots, amount to a pledge of the public faith that the streets thus indicated should be opened. Ibid. 8. No authority has been given to the Presi-ings, with the understanding that no salary is dent to cause public lots in Washington to be filled up, or stagnant water thereon to be removed. Opinion of May 31, 1823, 1 Op. 615. 9. The corporation of the city of Washington has power to establish a board of health, to make regulations for the preservation of health, to open all necessary drains, and to do every act which the health of the city may require, and to lay taxes, &c., for the purpose of defraying the expenses. Ibid. 10. The act of May 7, 1822, chap. 96, specially authorized the draining and filling up of the low grounds near Tiber Creek and the canal, and appropriated funds for that purpose. Ibid. to be claimed, cannot receive any pay out of he fund appropriated for the District. Opinion of Dec. 1, 1831, 2 Op. 471. 17. But the President is advised to make an unconditional appointment of surveyor, leaving the necessity of the office to Congress, which will apply the remedy, if it be unnecessary, and the salary be too great. Ibid. 18. The power to grade the streets in the city of Washington is in the corporation, not in the Commissioner of Public Buildings, and can be exercised only under its authority. Opinion of Oct. 31, 1832, 2 Op. 541. 19. Congress by the acts of March 2, 1831, chap. 85, and March 3, 1835, chap. 28, has not granted to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company the right to pass through the public reservations in the city of Washington, the same not being included in the "other squares and lots" in the city. Opinion of June 15, 1835, 2 Op. 715. 20. The Secretary of the Treasury may give to the corporation of Washington the certificate described in the seventh section of the act of May 31, 1832, chap. 113, vesting in that cor 11. The mayor and commissioners of the city of Washington were authorized to convey to the United States "one room for the court, and six rooms for the marshal, clerk, and jurors, and the books, papers, and records of the court;" but, in addition, they convey the use of so much of the basement story of said hall, under the said court-room, as shall be necessary for the safe and convenient keeping of fuel," &c.: Held, that the latter clause was void. Ibid. 12. Although the corporation of Washing-poration the rights of the Washington Canal ton have the power by their charter, with the approbation of the President of the United States, to draw lotteries, the amount to be thus raised cannot exceed $10,000 in any one year. Opinion of May 18, 1825, 1 Op. 721. 13. If the corporation has not improved this provision during any former years, the right to do so for those years has gone; for the President during those years only had the right to judge of the expediency of a lottery or lotteries by the circumstances then existing. Ibid. 14. The power is a limited one and must be exercised as specified in the charter. Ibid. 15. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company may commence the eastern section of the canal at any point on the tide-water of the Potomac within the District of Columbia which hey may select. The route of the canal through the city of Washington from that point, and the time within which the work shall be finished, rest entirely in the discre Company, notwithstanding the work was not completed by the 1st of March, 1833; provided the work has been finished in the manner prescribed, and the time when it was actually completed be stated. Opinion of Nov. 7, 1837, 3 Op. 290. 21. Repairs in front of leased tenements in the city of Washington are, by the corporation act of 1st August, 1831, required to be made by the owners, who are, in general, the lessors; and where the leases are silent upon the subject of such repairs, the law regulating repairs in the District may properly be considered and taken as a part of the contract. Opinion of Feb. 13, 1840, 3 Op. 496. 22. The act of May 15, 1820, chap. 104, pledged the proceeds of sales of public lots in the city of Washington to the payment of certain expenses to be incurred by the corporation in making certain improvements; wherefore, the funds in the treasury derived from that source should be applied to reimburse certain advances made by the corporation, notwithstanding the act of 17th May, 1848, chap 42. Opinion of Sept. 6, 1849, 5 Op. 151. 23. The commissioners appointed under the act of 16th July, 1790, chap. 28, to purchase or accept a site for the seat of Government of the United States, had no power to convey any lands in the city of Washington which had been appropriated as a public reservation for the use of the United States: Held, therefore, that the conveyance of such commissioners, made on the 25th May, 1798, of a part of the President's square to the minister of Portugal, in behalf of his Government, was void, though approved by the President. Opinion of Nov. 24, 1851, 5 Op. 465. 24. The non-user of the land so granted, by any minister of Portugal, for fifty years and more next after the date of the deed, supports the inference that the want of authority to make the grant was known to and acquiesced in by the grantee. Ibid. 25. The original reservation in the plat of the city of Washington for the President's mansion extended south to the bank of the stream called Goose Creek. Opinion of May 4, 1854, 6 Op. 444. 26. There is no public street lawfully existing across that reservation south of the President's mansion. Ibid. 27. At the foundation of the Government's title to city lots in the city of Washington are trust deeds from the original proprietors of the land to Thomas Beall and John M. Gantt, who thus held the fee in trust for the original proprietors and for the United States. Opinion of Aug. 1, 1855, 7 Op. 355. 28. By force of a legislative act of the State of Maryland of 1791, the fee of these lots came vested in the several cestui que trusts, whether the original grantors, the United States, or purchasers under either. Ibid. vided the conveyances were otherwise valid, and the sales were made by the direction of, and in the time and manner prescribed by, the President of the United States. Ibid. 31. The same power is held by the present Commissioner. Ibid. 32. By the charter of Washington the councils have power to regulate the manner of erecting, and the character of the materials to be used in the erection of houses. But no such regulation can be made without the approbation of the President of the United States. Opinion of June 11, 1857, 9 Op. 51. 33. There is no provision of law which expressly, or by implica ion, gives the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of Public Buildings any authority to consent to the laying of a railway along the streets or avenues of the city of Washington. Opinion of April 2, 1862, 10 Op. 220. 34. The extent of the power of the Commissioner of Public Buildings and, intermediately, of the Secretary of the Interior, over the streets and avenues of the city of Washington, considered. Ibid. WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 1. Provisions of the act of August 2, 1876, chap. 250, entitled "An act providing for the completion of the Washington Monument," examined and explained. Opinion of Aug. 12, 1876, 15 Op. 149. 2. The act contemplates that the joint commission, by the use of the sum appropriated and such money and materials as may be collected by the Washington National Monument Society, shall continue the construction of the monument and carry it forward towards com be-pletion, not that it shall be completed within the sum appropriated; and, furthermore, that the plan adopted and partly executed by the society shall be followed by the commission. The entire direction and supervision of the work are intrusted to the joint commission. Ibid. 29. By force of the same act of the State of Maryland, as construed by subsequent acts of Congress, the power to convey the Government lots became vested in different statute officers of the United States, namely, first, a board of commissioners, then a superintendent, and, finally, the Commissioner of Public Buildings. Ibid. 30. All conveyances heretofore made by the board of commissioners, the superintendent, or the Commissioner, suffice to pass the title, pro WEST POINT. See also MILITARY ACADEMY. 1. The privilege conferred by the act of December 14, 1867, chap. 1, upon the Hudson River West Shore Railroad Company "to lo |