be executed only in the country where the trial and imminent danger, the contractor had a and conviction were had. Ibid. CONTRACT. See also INDIANS, II; POSTAL SERVICE, II. I. Generally. II. Authority to make.-Parties. III. Advertisement.-Proposals.—Bid ders, &c. IV. Condition. V. Assignment of.-Annulment. Damages. VII. Release of Contractor. VIII. Payment. I. Generally. 1. The stockholders are not individually liable for the notes of the Saline Bank, for the reason that both the notes issued by the bank and the discount notes given to it are contracts founded in a breach of the law, and which a court will not aid in enforcing. Opinion of June 29, 1818, 1 Op. 214. 2. Where contracts for supplies for the Army contain the clause providing for a supply in case of deficiency by the commanding general, or person appointed by him at each post or place, the person appointed by the commanding general to take command at the post or place is the person authorized to supply the deficiency. Opinion of March 26, 1819, 1 Op. | 260. 3. Where the commandant at a post anticipates a failure in supplies contracted to be furnished, he may make provision for them before the failure absolutely occurs; yet the contractor is not liable for them until the failure takes place; then he is liable, whether they were purchased previously or subsequently, for it is the failure and time upon which the responsibility arises. Ibid. 4. If a general had a right to draw supplies, from a place out of his military department, through the enemy's country, he was bound to furnish an escort from that place through that country. If the case were one of real right to an escort; and if it were not furnished, he is exonerated from the consequences of the failure. Ibid. 5. Where, in a contract to furnish supplies, it was agreed in case of failure "that the commanding general, or person appointed by him, at each post or place, should have the power to supply," &c.: Held that the contractor was not liable to pay for rations in case of his failure, except such as were furnished by the commanding general, or person appointed by him, at the post or place where the rations were stipulated to be furnished. Opinion of May 3, 1819, 1 Op. 270.. 6. The general power given to the President to lease the saline on the Wabash carries with it all the incidental powers necessary to a settlement with the lessees to transfer the kettles to a subsequent lessee, or to a former one, for a debt growing out of a lease of the works. Opinion of April 22, 1820, 1 Op. 352. 7. Lessees are not entitled to compensation for pipes found by them on the premises and paid for to the preceding lessees, but only for permanent and useful improvements made by them, and which were previously authorized by the President. Ibid. 8. The contractor to build a light-house at the mouth of the Mississippi is not answerable for the failure of the foundation unless the choice of the same were left to himself. Opinion of June 6, 1820, 1 Op. 372. 9. Contracts for rations which provide that supplies for certain posts shall be furnished six months in advance, require a supply of six months' rations not in advance of a perpetually advancing point of time, but only in advance of the point of time at which the supply is required to be placed at the post. Opinion of Aug. 8, 1820, 1 Op. 389. 10. The distinction made in the Department between rations in deposit and rations for daily issues has no warrant in the Army contracts, nor can any military order create it in such a way as to affect the bearing of such contracts. A quantity of provisions only, called a supply of rations for a specified time, is required, and those are to be issued by the contractor; and in case the commandant of the post where they are to be furnished makes an order for more rations, or for a different disposition of them than the contract provides, it is imperative 17. A portion of the freight having been discharged at Valparaiso and the balance at Lima, a case has occurred which was not provided for nor contemplated in the contract, and which ought to be settled by the general rules of law and equity, aided by the analogous provisions contained in the special agreement. Ibid. upon the question of the contractor's legal ob-party contemplated only one port of delivery. ligations under the contract, but does not ex- Opinion of Jan. 7, 1835, 2 Op. 697. onerate the Government from payment. Ibid. 11. If the contractor for supplies for daily issues shall be required to place at a given post a specified number of rations for a specified time, the Government must either consume them or pay for them; for the requisition is an assurance on the part of the Government that the rations are necessary and will be consumed and paid for. Ibid. 12. Contractors with the Government, to whom advances have been made by the Department, are not the persons intended by "persons in arrears" in the act of May, 1822, chap. 89, who are to pay all arrears into the Treasury before they can proceed further with the fulfillment of their obligations. Opinion of June 6, 1822, 5 Op. 745. 13. Where the office of architect of the public buildings was offered to the acceptance of an individual at a specified salary, and the offer was accepted, such offer and acceptance became a contract with the individual during the continuance of the work. Opinion of Feb. 26, 1823, 5 Op. 754. 14. A purchaser of a tract of land as to part of which there was authority to sell, and as to the other part there was not, has the option to avoid the entire contract or to receive a patent for such part as could be sold. Opinion of Oct. 22, 1828, 2 Op. 186. 15. Where the Government agreed with W. & T., Army contractors, to furnish a proper storehouse in which the provisions were to be deposited from time to time and kept, and that they should suffer no loss for the want of it; and where provisions furnished under such a contract at Fort Saint Philip were in a temporary building outside the fort, on the margin of the river, and exposed to its overflowings, and were destroyed by flood: Held that the Government was liable for such loss. Opinion of Feb. 11, 1831, 2 Op. 408. 18. In the case under consideration the shipowner is entitled, at his option, to consider either Valparaiso or Lima the port of delivery, and to apply to the case, after making his selection, the special provisions of the charterparty. Ibid. 19. The risk of supplies purchased for the Army follows the title. The title to a quantity of pork contracted for by the proper officer, prepared and designated by the vendors, and an order given upon the packers for it, 'is in the United States; and if it be then destroyed, the loss must fall upon the Government. Opinion of May 12, 1836, 3 Op. 115. 20. Where a contractor for certain specified. rations for the Army, to be delivered at a particular place, including a certain ration of distilled liquor, was, after the execution of his written contract, directed by the War Department to furnish an additional ration of liquor to the troops on fatigue duty: Held that he had the right to elect, in respect to the price, to furnish such ration under his contract, or to demand the fair market value thereof at the time and place. Opinion of May 15, 1839, 3 Op. 463. 21. Where the district court has so found, and Congress has recognized and confirmed the principle, the accounting officers are required to do so likewise in their settlement of the account. Ibid. 22. Where a contractor for Army supplies agreed to furnish for the Army, upon the requisition of the commandant, a supply of provisions for six months in advance, at Detroit, 16. Where a vessel was chartered by the and for nine months at Mackinac, and was reNavy agent to convey certain supplies to the quired by the commanding officer to deposit Pacific, with stipulations to proceed first to more rations than were required for six months' Valparaiso to receive orders as to the discharge supply of the troops stationed at Detroit, and of her cargo, and then, in conformity to such 10 per cent. in addition for contingencies, orders as should be there received, either to and the question of the rate of compensation discharge the cargo there or to proceed to Lima for the excess having been passed upon by a and discharge there: Held that the charter-court, and the matter sent to the accounting officers to be adjusted on principles of justice and equity, by an act of Congress requiring them to recognize the judicial decision: Held that the contractor must be held to supply at his contract price the amount necessary for six months' supply at Detroit, and nine months' supply at Mackinac, and 10 per cent. besides for contingencies, and no more, and that for the excess he should be allowed the fair market value. Opinion of April 30, 1840, 3 Op. 525. 23. The proviso contained in the act of 3d March, 1843, chap. 83, as to how supplies are to be furnished for the Navy, does not affect contracts previously made. Opinion of March 16, 1843, 4 Op. 151. 24. A retroactive effect, especially where it would be a violation of contracts, is not to be given, by construction, to the words of a statutė, unless they are too express to admit of any other interpretation. Ibid. 25. The written proposal of the Secretary of the Navy, in reply to a letter of the owner of certain lots situate on Wallabout Bay, containing an offer of sale, and a statement that if the offer should be entertained the question of final purchase might be left open until the adjournment of Congress, to the effect that he would recommend to Congress to appropriate a certain sum for the purchase of said lands for the Government, with the understanding that the owner should make a perfect title, &c., and accepted by such owner, did not bind the Government so far as to subject it to the payment of assessments upon the land subsequently levied by the corporation of the city of Brooklyn. Opinion of Aug. 7, 1848, 5 Op. 15. 26. The Secretary had no right to contract for the land without authority from Congress, and now has no right to agree to pay for the same any sum, beyond the amount appropriated. Ibid. 27. It is incumbent on the owner to remove the incumbrance from the premises. Ibid. them to emigrate; and the said contractor, pursuant thereto, removed and subsisted 384 of the Indians, being all who were found willing to emigrate: Held, that said contractor has entitled himself to the whole sum stipulated for removing and subsisting the tribe. Opinion of Jan. 17, 1849, 5 Op. 64. 29. The contract for embankment in the navy-yard at Memphis is not within the true meaning of the proviso in the naval appropriation act of 3d March, 1843, chap. 83. Opinion of April 20, 1849, 5 Op. 89. 30. It is a well-settled rule of construction, that a specification of items, followed by general terms, restrains such terms to items of a like character with those specified. Ibid. 31. Contracts for building iron steamers at Pittsburgh, and furnishing engines therefor, are to be construed according to their obvious meaning, independently of any antecedent contract between the same parties, and of any orders, written or verbal, which any officer of the United States may have given concerning them before they were entered into. Opinion of Nov. 5, 1849, 5 Op. 171. 32. Congress having contemplated the construction of five steamships for the mail service, and for the ultimate augmentation of the naval armament, and having, by act of August 3, 1848, chap. 121, authorized advances to be made therefor only upon each of them after it should be launched, and the contractors having received the ratable proportion of the amount authorized upon the four of them now afloat, no further advances can be legally made until the fifth shall be launched. Opinion of Aug. 20, 1850, 5 Op. 245. 33. The advances of money authorized were intended to be so made as to insure and hasten the building of every one of the five ships contracted for. Ibid. 34. Opinion of August 20, 1850 (5 Op. 245) reconsidered; the Attorney-General adhering to the construction of the provisions of the act 28. Where the Government entered into a of August 3, 1848, chap. 121, there given, as contract with an individual for removing the being most conformable to the language of Miamies, estimated at 650 souls, from Indiana the statute. If, however, the Secretary of the to the country assigned them west of the Mis- Navy shall adopt, from equitable considerasissippi, and to subsist them, &c., for the sum tions arising from the fact that the four steamof $55,000, upon condition that should the ers already built are equal in power and tonnumber be greater or less, there should be nage to the five contracted for, and fully adeneither addition nor reduction of the amount, quate to the mail service, or for any other and that he should not use any force to compel | reason, a different construction, it may not be improper. Opinion of Sept. 17, 1850, 5 Op. law of the United States between purchase in 253. 35. The Government having stipulated that the granite to be furnished from the quarries in Quincy, Massachusetts, for the customhouse at New Orleans, should be inspected, approved, and the quantity thereof determined by an inspecting agent of the United States, to be designated or appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, at Boston or Quincy, cannot now legally insist upon transferring the inspection and admeasurement to New Orleans. Opinion of Jan. 29, 1851, 5 Op. 296. 36. Neither the workmanship nor the admeasurement of the granite was stipulated to be adjudged and determined at that place. Ibid. 37. The Government is bound and concluded by the admeasurement certified at Boston or Quincy, by the agent of the Government there; subject, however, to the abatement of damage sustained during the voyage, or breakage in landing on the levee, or defect in the quality of the stone when finally delivered. Ibid. 38. D. and M. entered into a contract with the Secretary of the Navy to construct a floating dry-dock, basin, and railway, at such place in the navy-yard at Philadelphia as the Department might select for shoring and securing certain vessels of the line; and, on the completion of the same, the experiment of docking a vessel failed because of insufficient depth of water: Held, that the contractors had fully performed the stipulations in their contract and were not responsible for insufficiency of water. Opinion of Oct. 27, 1851, 5 Op. 407. 39. The twenty per cent. retained by the United States on all payments made to the contractors should now be paid them. Ibid. 40. A provision of statute (joint resolution of May 9, 1848) empowered the Secretary of the Navy to make a contract on time for the supply of American water-rotted hemp, but the power was not executed. A subsequent provision (act of March 3, 1851, chap. 34) contained appropriation for the object, but required purchase in open market: Held, that the latter provision so far repealed the former, that a contract on time for this object, afterwards made by the Secretary of the Navy, was void for want of power. Opinion of June 3, 1853, 6 Op. 40. open market, and by contract, discussed and defined. Opinion of Sept. 5, 1853, 6 Op. 99. 42. Congress, by act of May 31, 1848, chap. 52, authorized the Secretary of State to purchase of Mrs. Madison "all the unpublished manuscript papers of James Madison, now belonging to and in her possession," for a certain sum of money. Mrs. Madison conveyed and delivered to the Secretary of State such papers as she understood to be intended by the act, but without schedule or inventory, and they were so accepted and paid for by the Secretary. Meanwhile, other manuscripts of Mr. Madison remained in her possession, and were disposed of by her son and executor: Held, that the contract, and delivery, and acceptance of manuscripts, with accompanying explanations between Mrs. Madison and the Secretary of State, disposed of the question of what manuscripts were intended by the act of Congress. Opinion of April 14, 1855, 7 Op. 105. 43. Semble that Congress cannot make a contract for the transportation of the mails or any other administrative matter, that being parcel of the Constitutional power of the Executive. But it may, by appropriation, provide for paying an additional sum to a contractor as compensation, in the nature of a bill of private relief. Opinion of May 10, 1855, 7 Op. 135. 44. In a contract for supplies entered into by the United States, it was expressly stipulated that the Government should not be held to recognize or to pay any assignee of the party, or any persons but him or his duly appointed attorney: Held that such a stipulation can be lawfully made, and that under it the Government are not bound to regard any pretended assignees of the contract. Opinion of May 12, 1856, 7 Op. 683. 45. Wherea contingent agreement was made for the purchase of property by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the same Secretary who made the agreement refused to take the property, on the ground that the contingency had not occurred, and notified the vendor that such was the determination of the Government, a succeeding Secretary is not authorized to treat the contract as still in existence. Opinion of Sept. 2, 1857, 9 Op. 76. 46. Where a building contraet provided that nine-tenths of the value of the work done, and 41. The distinction in the administrative materials furnished should be paid from time to time as the work progressed, it was held that by the terms of the contract the actual value of the work done and materials furnished should be estimated, and not a sum bearing to that value the ratio of the contract price for the whole work to the estimated actual cost of the same. Opinion of Sept. 30, 1858, 9 Op. 154. 47. Where in a contract for the furnishing of flour to the Army it was stipulated that the commanding officer of the post should reject all or any part of the flour tendered, when pronounced by the inspectors as not being in accordance with the contract, it was held that the decision of the officer commanding the post was subject to review by the War Department. Opinion of April 19, 1859, 9 Op. 389. 48. Where in the same contract, the agreement was to furnish "good, fresh, merchantable, superfine flour, the best that is manufactured in the Territory of Utah," it was held that the contract was complied with by a tender of "good, fresh, merchantable, superfine flour," as those terms are understood in Utah, though the flour was not of the best quality manufactured in the State. Ibid. 49. Where by the terms of a contract for the transportation of supplies to the Army a schedule of prices for the carriage of the goods was established varying according to the season of the year, but by the literal terms of the instrument the time of starting was indicated as the date to which reference must be made in ascertaining the rate of compensation for any single trip, it was held, that for trips in which the trains that started in the summer were detained by the Government's agents so long as to be forced to perform the greater part of the journey in the time of the year when the difficulties of transportation were at their worst, the contractors were entitled to such compensation as would have been payable if the trains had started at a time which, without delay, would have compelled them to travel in the inclement tractor with the Government, and had no right, as against the United States, to the profits of the contract. Opinion of Sept. 20, 1860, 9 Op. 480. 51. Where the Postmaster-General, under authority of an act of Congress, made a contract for the purchase of land for a post-office site in the city of New York, which stipulated for the payment of the agreed price when the Attorney-General approved the title and the conveyance was executed: Held that after the execution of the deed by the vendors, and the Attorney-General certified that a valid title to the land had been thereby vested in the United States, the Postmaster-General had no power, under the act, to make any new contract of purchase for the same or other property, and that the vendors were entitled to receive the purchase-money. Opinion of May 6, 1861, 10 Op. 35. 52. Where the Secretary of the Treasury made a contract to allow an individual a certain compensation for furnishing information by which the United States could recover certain property long lost sight of, which information was not matter of professional skill or learning, but knowledge of a fact which might have been in the breast of any man: Held that the contract was in violation of the act of May 1, 1820, chap. 52, and that payment could not be made of the stipulated compensation under the authority of the act of February 26, 1853, chap. 80. Opinion of May 13, 1861, 10 Op. 41. 53. Where the Navy Department entered into a contract with A. B., who agreed to furnish each year, for a certain length of time, and at a certain price, forty thousand pounds of Navy butter, and also to furnish at the same price any additional quantity of the article that the Department might require: Held that the Department was not bound to receive from the contractor, during the time mentioned, any additional quantity of butter, which the exigencies of the service might require, beyond the forty thousand pounds stipulated to be furnished during each year. Opinion of Aug. 2, 1861, 10 Op. 93. 54. The contract between the Secretary of the Treasury and Mather and others, relating to labor in the appraiser's stores in New York, expired on September 5, 1862. Opinion of Sept. 6, 1862, 10 Op. 338. 55. In the case of the Amoskeag Company |