Opinion of the Court.

from its control by the presence of the armed forces of the United States; and the United States, from motives of humanity and expediency, had conceded to that government some of the rights and obligations of a belligerent. Prize cases, 2 Black, 635, 673, 674; Thorington v. Smith, 8 Wall. 1, 7, 9, 10; Ford v. Surget, 97 U. S. 594, 604, 605; The Lilla, 2 Sprague, 177, and 2 Clifford, 169.

No better evidence of the doings of that organization assuming to act as a government can be found than in papers contemporaneously drawn up by its officers in the performance of their supposed duties to that government.

For the collection and preservation of such papers, a bureau, office or division in the War Department (now known as the Confederate Archives Office) was created by the Executive authority of the United States soon after the close of the war of the rebellion, and has been maintained ever since, and has been recognized by many acts of Congress.

For instance, Congress, beginning in 1872, has made frequent appropriations" to enable the Secretary of War to have the rebel archives examined and copies furnished from time to time for the use of the Government." Acts of May 8, 1872, c. 140, and March 3, 1873, c. 226; 17 Stat. 79, 500; August 15, 1876, c. 287; March 3, 1877, c. 102; 19 Stat. 160, 310; June 19, 1878, c. 329; 20 Stat. 195; June 21, 1879, c. 34; June 15, 1880, c. 225; March 3, 1881, c. 130; 21 Stat. 23, 226, 402. And the appropriations for the War Department in 1882 included one "for travelling expenses in connection with the collection of Confederate records placed by gift or loan at the disposal of the Government." Act of August 5, 1882, c. 389; 22 Stat. 241. Congress has also occasionally made appropriations "to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to have the rebel archives and records of captured property examined, and information furnished therefrom for the use of the Government." Acts of March 3, 1875, c. 130; 18 Stat. 376; March 3, 1879, c. 182; 20 Stat. 384; June 16, 1880, c. 235; 21 Stat. 266. It has once, at least, made an appropriation "for collecting, compiling and arranging the naval records of the war of the rebellion, including Confederate

Opinion of the Court.

naval records." Act of July 7, 1884, c. 331; 23 Stat. 185. And it has made appropriations "for the preparation of a general card index of the books, muster rolls, orders and other official papers preserved in the Confederate Archives Office." Acts of May 13, 1892, c. 72, and March 3, 1893, c. 208; 27 Stat. 36, 600.

It would be an anomalous condition of things if records of this kind, collected and preserved by the Government of the United States in a public office at great expense, were wholly inadmissible in a court of justice to show facts of which they afford the most distinct and appropriate evidence, and which, in the nature of things, can hardly be satisfactorily proved in any other manner.

The act of March 3, 1871, c. 116, § 2, provided for the appointment of a board of commissioners, "to receive, examine and consider the justice and validity of such claims as shall be brought before them, of those citizens who remained loyal adherents to the cause and the Government of the United States during the war, for stores or supplies taken or furnished during the rebellion for the use of the Army of the United States in States proclaimed as in insurrection against the United States, including the use and loss of vessels or boats while employed in the military service of the United States." 16 Stat. 524. By the act of April 20, 1871, c. 21, § 1, it was enacted that "all books, records, papers and documents relative to transactions of or with the late so-called government of the Confederate States, or the government of any State lately in insurrection, now in the possession, or which may at any time come into the possession, of the Government of the United States, or of any department thereof, may be resorted to for information by the board of commissioners of claims created by act approved March 3, 1871; and copies thereof, duly certified by the officer having custody of the same, shall be treated with like force and effect as the original." 17 Stat. 6. The latter act thus not only allowed a particular board of commissioners, appointed to pass upon certain claims against the United States for property taken for the use of the Army during the war of the rebellion,

Opinion of the Court.

to have access to such archives for information as to transactions of or with the so-called government of the Confederate States; but it declared the records and papers in such archives, or duly certified copies thereof, to be competent evidence of such transactions.

Section 882 of the Revised Statutes, also, reënacting earlier acts of Congress, provides that "copies of any books, records, papers or documents in any of the Executive Departments, authenticated under the seals of such Departments respectively, shall be admitted in evidence equally with the originals thereof." And, by section 1076, the Court of Claims has "power to call upon any of the Departments for any information or papers it may deem necessary;" "but the head of any Department may refuse and omit to comply with any call for information or papers, when, in his opinion, such compliance would be injurious to the public interest."

The certificate of the officer of the United States in charge of the Confederate Archives Office, embodied in the findings of fact, would appear to have been furnished upon a call from the Court of Claims; and it is not open, at this stage of the case, to objection for not being under the seal of the War Department, since that court has found that the papers in that office show the facts stated in that certificate. Those facts consist of official communications, between high civil and military officers of the Confederate States, including a dispatch from one of their generals in Kentucky, October 31, 1861, to the secretary of the navy, that the price of the Eastport was $12,000; a reply of the secretary of war of the same date, giving authority to the general to buy her if thought worth. that sum; a letter of January 5, 1862, from the general to the secretary of war, informing him that, by virtue of that authority, he had bought her, and she was being converted into a gunboat; a letter of January 16, 1862, from the secretary of war to the general, saying that he would at once order to be forwarded the necessary funds for the Eastport; and a statement of disbursements, dated February 2, 1863, by the general to the secretary of war, in which one item was a sum of $9688.92,"expended in purchase of Steamer Eastport."

Opinion of the Court.

Not going beyond what is required for the purposes of this case, we are of opinion that the originals of these communications, and consequently the certified copies thereof from the Confederate Archives Office, are competent and persuasive evidence that the Confederate authorities did not obtain possession of the Eastport by capture or by other forcible and compulsory appropriation.

The claimant therefore wholly fails to support the allegation of her petition that the Eastport was captured by the insurgents.

Judgment affirmed.

Decisions announced without Opinions.

DECISIONS

ANNOUNCED WITHOUT OPINIONS

DURING THE TIME COVERED BY THIS VOL

UME.

No. 261. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS, V. STATE OF KANSAS. Error to the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas. Argued and submitted April 24, 1899. Decided May 1, 1899. Per Curiam. Dismissed on the authority of Union Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Kirchoff, 160 U. S. 374. Mr. S. S. Ashbaugh for plaintiff in error. A. A. Godard for defendant in error.

Mr.

No. 356. STONE v. BANK OF KENTUCKY. Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kentucky. Argued February 28 and March 2 and 3, 1899. Decided May 15, 1899. Decree affirmed with costs by a divided court. Mr. H. L. Stone, Mr. W. S. Taylor and Mr. Ira Julian for appellants. Mr. Alexander Pope Humphrey and Mr. George M. Davie for appellees.

No. 357. CITY OF LOUISVILLE v. Bank of KENTUCKY. Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kentucky. Argued February 28 and March 2 and 3, 1899. Decided May 15, 1899. Decree affirmed with costs by a divided court. Mr. H. L. Stone for appellant. Mr. Alexander Pope Humphrey and Mr. George M. Davie for appellee.

No. 360. STONE v. LOUISVILLE BANKING COMPANY. Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kentucky. Argued February 28 and March 2 and 3, 1899. Decided May 15, 1899. Decree affirmed with costs by a divided court. Mr. H. L. Stone and Mr. W. S. Taylor for appellants. Mr. James P. Helm and Mr. Helm Bruce for appellee.