[DOWNLOAD] "State of Lowa v. Mcfarland, Com'r, Etc. State of Illinois v. Same" by United States Supreme Court " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State of Lowa v. Mcfarland, Com'r, Etc. State of Illinois v. Same
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 03, 1884
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 81 KB
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Sol. Gen. Phillips, for respondent. The first question argued in each of these cases may be shortly stated thus: Is the state, under the compact made with it by congress at the time of its admission into the Union, by which 'five per cent. of the net proceeds' of public lands lying within the state, and 'sold by congress' after such admission, shall be reserved and appropriated for the benefit of the state, entitled to a percentage on the value of lands not sold by the United States for cash, but disposed of by the United States in satisfaction of military landwarrants? This question is rendered important by the large sums of money involved, and by the fact that similar stipulations are contained in acts passed by congress relating to 17 other western or southern states, beginning with section 7 of the act of April 30, 1802, c. 40, for the admission of the state of Ohio into the Union. 2 St. 175. Upon full consideration of the question, with the aid of the able arguments of counsel, the court is of opinion that lands disposed of by the United States in satisfaction of military land-warrants are not sold, within the meaning of the statutes upon which the petitioners rely. A sale, in the ordinary sense of the word, is a transfer of property for a fixed price in money or its equivalent. When property or money is transferred or paid as a compensation for service, the property or money may be said to be the price of the service; but it can hardly be said that the service is the price of the property or money, or that the property or money is sold to the person performing the service. Nor can it be said that the pay of an officer or soldier in the army or navy is sold to him by the government in consideration of a price paid by him. Land or money, other than current salary or pay, granted by the government to a person entering the military or naval service of the country, has always been called a bounty; and while it is by no means a gratuity, because the promise to grant is one of the considerations for which the soldier or sailor enters the service, yet it is clearly distinguishable from salary or pay measured by the time of service. For example, it was held by Lord MANSFIELD and the court of king's bench, in 1784, that though the master of an apprentice was entitled by the act of parliament of 2 & 3 Anne, c. 6, § 17, to the wages of his apprentice enlisting into the navy, yet the apprentice's share of prize money belonged to himself, and not to his master, because it was not wages, but the bounty of the crown. Carsan v. Watts, 3 Doug. 350; Eades v. Vandeput, 4 Doug. 1. Upon like grounds it has been held that bounty money paid by the United States, or by a state, city, or town, upon the enlistment of a minor as a soldier, during the recent war, belonged to him, and not to his father or master. Banks v. Conant, 14 Allen, 497; Kelly v. Sprout, 97 Mass. 169. See, also, Alexander v. Wellington, 2 Russ. & M. 35, 56, 64.