ico. In the case of Leitensdorfer v. Webb, 20 How. 176, 15 L. Ed. 891, the authority of the officer holding possession for the United States to establish a provisional government was sustained; and the reasons by which that judgment was supported, apply directly to the establishment of the Provisional Court in Louisiana. The cases of Jecker v. Montgomery, 13 How. 498, 14 L. Ed. 240, and Cross v. Harrison, 16 How. 164, 14 L. Ed. 889, may also be cited in illustration of the principles applicable to military occupation.

We have no doubt that the Provisional Court of Louisiana was properly established by the President in the exercise of his constitutional authority during war; or that Congress had power, upon the close of the war, and the dissolution of the Provisional Court, to provide for the transfer of cases pending in that Court, and of its judgments and decrees, to the proper courts of the United States.

(Supreme Court of the United States, 1874. 21 Wall. 73, 22 L. Ed. 528.) Error to the Circuit Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mr. Justice BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the court. There can be no question that the condition requiring the payment of four cents per pound for a permit to purchase cotton in, and transport it from, the insurrectionary States during the late civil war, was competent to the war power of the United States government to impose. The war was a public one. The government in prosecuting it had at least all the rights which any belligerent power has when prosecuting a public war. That war was itself a suspension of commercial intercourse between the opposing sections of the country. No cotton or other merchandise could be lawfully purchased in the insurrectionary States and transported to the loyal States without the consent of the government. If such a course of dealing were to be permitted at all, it would necessarily be upon such conditions as the government chose to prescribe. The war power vested in the government implied all this without any specific mention of it in the Constitution.

In England this power to remit the restrictions on commercial intercourse with a hostile nation is exercised by the crown. Lord Stowell says: "By the law and constitution of this country, the sovereign. alone has the power of declaring war and peace. He alone, therefore, who has the power of entirely removing a state of war, has the power of removing it in part, by permitting, where he sees proper, that commercial intercourse which is a partial suspension of the war." The Hoop, 1 Robinson, 199. Bynhershoek says: "It is in all cases the act of the sovereign." Questionum Juris Publici, bk. 1, c. 3. By the Constitution of the United States the power to declare war is confided to Congress. The executive power and the command of the military and naval forces is vested in the President. Whether, in the absence of Congressional action, the power of permitting partial intercourse with a public enemy may or may not be exercised by the President alone, who is constitutionally invested with the entire charge of

hostile operations, it is not now necessary to decide, although it would seem that little doubt could be raised on the subject. In the case of Cross v. Harrison, 16 How. 164, 190, 14 L. Ed. 889, it was held that the President, as commander-in-chief, had power to form a temporary civil government for California as a conquered country, and to impose duties on imports and tonnage for the support of the government and for aiding to sustain the burdens of the war, which were held valid until Congress saw fit to supersede them; and an action brought to recover back duties paid under such regulation was adjudged to be not maintainable. The same views were held in Leitensdorfer et al. v. Webb, 20 How. 176, 15 L. Ed. 891, in reference to the establishment of a provisional government in New Mexico, in the war with Mexico in 1846, ond were reiterated by this court in the case of The Grapeshot, 9 Wall. 129, 19 L. Ed. 651.

But without pursuing this inquiry, and whatever view may be taken as to the precise boundary between the legislative and executive powers in reference to the question under consideration, there is no doubt. that a concurrence of both affords ample foundation for any regulations on the subject.

Our first inquiry, therefore, will be, whether the action of the executive was authorized, or, if not originally authorized, was confirmed by Congress.

By the act of July 13th, 1861, (section 5, 12 Stat. at Large, 257,) the President was authorized, after certain preliminary measures for suppressing the insurrection, to declare by proclamation what States and parts of States were in a state of insurrection against the United States; "and thereupon," the act proceeds to say, "all commercial intercourse by and between the same and the citizens thereof and the citizens of the rest of the United States shall cease and be unlawful so long as such condition of hostility shall continue; and all goods, &c., coming from said States or section into the other parts of the United States, and all proceeding to such States or section, by land or water, shall, together with the vessel or vehicle, &c., be forfeited to the United States: Provided, however, that the President may, in his discretion, license and permit commercial intercourse with any such part of said States or section, the inhabitants of which are so declared in a state of insurrection, in such articles, and for such time, and by such persons, as he, in his discretion, may think most conducive to the public interest; and such intercourse, so far as by him licensed, shall be conducted and carried on only in pursuance of rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury."

In pursuance of this act the President, on the 16th of August, 1861, issued a proclamation, (12 Stat. at Large, 1262,) declaring that the inhabitants of certain States (including Tennessee) were in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all commercial intercourse between them and the citizens of other States was unlawful, and that all goods, &c., coming from said States without the special license and permission of the President, through the Secretary of the Treasury, or proceeding to any of said States, &c., would be forfeited, &c. This proclamation excepted from its operation, amongst other things, such parts of the enumerated States as might maintain a loyal

adhesion to the Union and Constitution, or might be from time to time occupied and controlled by forces of the United States. A subsequent proclamation, issued April 2d, 1863 (13 Id. 731,) abrogated the said exception as embarrassing "to the due enforcement of said act of July 13th, 1861, and the proper regulation of the commercial intercourse authorized by said act;" such abrogation, however, not extending to West Virginia, or the ports of New Orleans, Key West, Port Royal, or Beaufort, in South Carolina.

Under, and in supposed pursuance of, this act and these proclamations, the license of the President and the trade regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury were made under which the plaintiffs purchased and shipped the cotton in question. These public acts of the executive department must be construed as one system. The license of the President to hold commercial intercourse cannot be separated, in determining this controversy, from the treasury regulations which were adopted for the government of that intercourse. There is an evident effort on the part of the plaintiffs to separate them; and it is worthy of passing observation that the actual license of the President was not put in evidence. But a public act of the government of such importance may receive the judicial notice of the court; and availing ourselves of that right we find that the regulations referred to as adopted September 11th, 1863, are revised regulations, expressly approved by the President, and supplementary to previous regulations adopted March 31st, 1863, to which the President had attached the license of same date, under which the entire authority to pursue the trade in this cotton arose. This license, after reciting the act of Congress of July 13th, 1861, so far as relates to commercial intercourse, proceeds as follows: "And whereas it appears that a partial restoration of such intercourse between the inhabitants of sundry places and sections heretofore declared in insurrection, in pursuance of said act, and the citizens of the rest of the United States, will favorably affect the public interests: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, exercising the authority and discretion confided to me by the said act of Congress, do hereby license and permit such commercial intercourse between the citizens of loyal States and the inhabitants of such insurrectionary States in the cases and under the restrictions described and expressed in the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, bearing even date with these presents, or in other such regulations as he may hereafter, with my approval, prescribe."

It is clear, therefore, that the license to trade given by the President was a conditional one, requiring a full compliance with the regulations adopted by the Secretary of the Treasury, between whom and the President, as would be supposed, there was entire harmony and even unity of action.

The question then comes to this: Under the supposed authority of the act of July 13th, 1861, the President and Secretary of the Treasury authorized and licensed cotton to be purchased in and transported from insurrectionary districts, on condition that the parties availing themselves of the license should pay to the government four cents per pound and all other fees. If we might offer a conjecture as to the

motive for this regulation, it may have been this, namely: that such a bonus would help to counterbalance, in favor of our government, any benefit which the enemy might derive from a sale of the cotton instead of its destruction. But the actual motive is not material. The government chose to impose this condition. It supposed it had a right to do so. No one was bound to accept it. No one was compelled to engage in the trade. Not the least compulsion was exercised. The plaintiffs endeavor to put the case as if they were obliged to pay this exaction to save their property. This is not a true view of it. It is admitted that the property was purchased under the license. If so, it was also purchased in view of the regulations to which the license referred. The regulations themselves show that the permit to purchase and the permit to export were correlative to each other; that no one was permitted to purchase who did not enter into bond to pay all fees required by the regulations, amongst which the charge of four cents per pound on cotton was expressly inserted. In short, the permit to purchase and export constituted substantially one permit, and that was granted only on the condition of paying the prescribed fees, as before stated. The clearance of particular lots or cargoes required afterwards, when the property was actually shipped, was necessary to show that the stipulated conditions had been complied with, and that the particular articles specified were free for transportation. The whole series of acts constituted, so far as the right to trade and transport was concerned, but one transaction; a conditional permission. given on the part of the government, and the acceptance of and compliance with that condition on the part of the trader.

The position in which the plaintiffs put themselves, therefore, was an entirely voluntary one. They have no right now to say: "It is true we purchased the cotton under a license which required us to pay a certain bonus; but having purchased it, we were entitled to repudiate the condition, although we had no right to make the purchase except by virtue of the license." Much less have they now a right to say, after having complied with the condition without murmur or objection, that the bonus was extorted from them by compulsion.

Whether, therefore, the President and Secretary of the Treasury did or did not rightly judge as to their powers under the act, the plaintiffs evidently agreed with them and voluntarily applied for permission to engage in the trade on the conditions imposed, and voluntarily paid the bonus which is now sought to be recovered back. The case does not come within any class of cases on which the plaintiffs rely to take it out of the rule as to voluntary payments. In our judgment, therefore, the defence in this case might have rested on this ground alone.

But we are also of opinion that the conditions imposed were authorized by the act of July 13th, 1861. Its language has been already quoted. The material part in reference to the question under discussion is the proviso of section three, which is as follows: "The President may, in his discretion, license and permit commercial intercourse * * * in such articles, and for such time, and by such persons as he in his discretion may think most conducive to the public interest; and such intercourse * * * shall be conducted and carried on

only in pursuance of rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury."

It is contended that the imposition of the bonus of four cents per pound was not a "rule" or a "regulation" within the fair meaning of the act; and it is conceded that in many cases the power to make rules and regulations on a particular subject is a limited power, having respect to mode and form, and time and circumstance, and not to substance. But it must also be conceded that in other cases the power is much more extensive and substantial. Thus, in the Constitution, the several powers "to regulate commerce," "to establish a uniform rule of naturalization," "to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States," are understood to give plenary control over those subjects. The power to regulate commerce has been held to include the power to suspend it, (1 Kent, 432,) and the power to make rules and regulations respecting the territory of the United States, has been held to include the power to legislate for and govern such territory, and establish governments therein, (4 Wheaton, 422; Story on the Constitution, § 1328.) The extensive effect given to these clauses is undoubtedly largely due to the character of the instrument and that of the donee of the powers, to wit, the legislature of the United States to whom the grant of a power means the grant of a branch of sovereignty. It shows, however, that the rule of construction depends, at least in some sort, upon the nature of the subject-matter. In the case before us, the power of the government to open and regulate trade with the enemy was intended to be conferred upon the President and the Secretary of the Treasury. The power of regulation in such a case is to be taken in its broadest sense, and, in our judgment, included the power to impose such conditions as the President and Secretary should see fit.

The statutes relating to the internal revenue, passed July 1st, 1862, and March 7th, 1864, which have been referred to for the purpose of showing that Congress imposed a special tax upon cotton, and, therefore, could not have intended by the act of 1861 to sanction the regulations of the treasury now in question, do not, in our judgment, have that effect. The act of 1862 imposed a tax of half a cent per pound on all cotton, to be paid before its removal from the place of production. The same act and section imposed various taxes on a hundred other articles. The question is, did Congress intend, by the imposition of these taxes, to revoke by implication, any power given to the Executive Department of imposing such regulations as it might see fit for the carrying on of trade with insurrectionary districts? We answer, certainly not. The two subjects were entirely distinct. No conflict or repugnancy could arise in relation thereto. When, in March, 1863, the President issued his license to trade in cotton and other articles in the insurrectionary districts, under and subject to the conditions contained in the regulations adopted by the Secretary of the Treasury, his action was not inconsistent with or repugnant to the internal revenue law passed the year before. It had nothing to do with that law or the subject-matter of it. The conditions exacted by him were not imposed in the exercise of the taxing power, but of the war power of the government. The exaction itself was not properly a tax, but a bonus