Compensation of Marshals. of that district. The second section of the act authorized the President to make such regulations as he may deem expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal beyond the limits of the United States of all such negrocs, as may be so delivered, and brought within their jurisdiction. The eleventh section of the act of August 31, 1852, (10 Stats. at Large, 99,) authorizes the President to allow the payment out of the judiciary fund of extraordinary expenses incurred by ministerial officers in executing the laws of the United States, under a special taxation of the district or circuit court of the district where the services are rendered. As the act of Congress required the negroes to be delivered to the marshal, it was his duty to receive, take care of, and support them, and he was entitled to reimbursement. The claim now presented is not for extraordinary expenses incurred in the execution of the laws of the United States, nor is it made under a special taxation of the district or circuit judge, and hence payment cannot be allowed by the President out of the judiciary fund under the act of August 31, 1852. The first section of the act of February 26, 1853, regulating the fees of marshals, &c., provides that in lieu of the compensation now allowed by law to marshals, &c., therein specified, the compensation specified by this act, and no other compensation, shall be taxed or allowed. This act contains no provision for compensating the marshal for the duties required by the act to prohibit the slave trade, nor is any mode of taxation or allowance for such services prescribed. But power is expressly given to the President to make such regulations and arrangements as he may deem expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal of the negroes, and special appropriation has been made by Congress to carry this act into execution. Under this power a just allowance for the marshal's service may be made by a regulation of the President, such allowance to be fixed as the regulation shall direct, but there is no law or analogy for the rate of allowance claimed by the marshal. The services he performed are not similar Compensation of Marshals. to the services performed by the sheriffs of the State of South Carolina, for which, under the acts of that State, he receives twenty-five dollars for each negro. An act of the Legislature of South Carolina, passed December 19, 1835, more effectually to prevent free negroes and other persons of color from entering into the State, and for other purposes, prohibited free negroes and other persons of color from coming into the State on board of any vessel, and provided, among other things, that if any vessel should arrive in any port of the State from any other State or foreign port having on board any free negro or person of color as a cook, steward, mariner, or in any other employment, it should be the duty of the sheriff to apprehend such free negro or person of color, and confine him closely in jail until the vessel shall be hauled off and ready to proceed to sea, and that the captain of the vessel shall be bound to carry off such person and pay the expenses of his or her detention. In this act certain exceptions were made in favor of national vessels, and various regulations and penalties were provided for enforcing its provisions. But the sheriff's fees for the performance of his duties were not prescribed by this act, nor does there seem to have been any fees or compensation allowed by the laws of the State beyond the ordinary per diem allowance for the support and maintainance of persons imprisoned in gaol. This act was amended by another act passed 20th December, 1856. The amendatory act made some further exceptions in favor of vessels driven into the ports of South Carolina by stress of weather, mutiny, or other controling causes. It also exempted free negroes or persons of color on board of vessels voluntarily entering into the ports of that State, on condition that their arrival was duly reported by the master of the vessel, and bond given with five hundred dollars penalty that they should remain on board and obey the laws of the State; and it was made the duty of the master of the vessel to make report of such negroes or persons of color, and give bond as required by the act; on failure of these conditions the bond was to be forfeited and Compensation of Marshals. the vessel subjected to the provisions of the former act. It was made the duty of the sheriff on the arrival of a vessel to ascertain whether the provisions of the act were complied with, "and in case he should find that such regulations were not complied with, he shall be entitled to receive from the captain of the vessel a fee of twenty-five dollars for each free negro or person of color found therein." Now, it is plain that the fee of twenty-five dollars for each negro on board the vessel allowed to the sheriff of South Carolina by the act of 1856, was a penalty imposed upon the captain of a vessel for violating the laws of the State. Between that fee and the claim of the marshal for receiving, custody, and care of the Africans taken into Charleston by the brig Dolphin, there is no analogy. The fee which the sheriff is entitled to claim from a ship-captain by reason of his breach of the State laws, bears no similarity to the service rendered by the marshal in executing the laws of the United States in respect to the negroes taken into the port of Charleston by the brig Dolphin, and the sheriff's fee affords no analogy to regulate the marshal's compensation. In answer, therefore, to your interroga tories, I am of opinion 1. That the law authorizes the President to make such arrangements and regulations as he may deem expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal of negroes captured and delivered to the marshal under the provisions of the act to prohibit the slave trade, and under this authority a just compensation may be allowed to the marshal for the duties required of him, beyond his commissions for disbursements under the regulation of the President, if he deem it expedient; such compensation to be paid out of any appropriation to carry that act into effect. 2. Such accounts should be certified and taxed in accordance with such regulation as the President may "deem expedient" for their authentication. They are not required to be certified by a judge under the act of 16th August, 1856, nor to be taxed under the act of August 31, 1852, for neither of those acts apply to the subject. Compensation of Marshals. 3. The compensation is to be made in accordance with such arrangement or regulation as the President "may deem expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal of the negroes." It has no analogy to any fees prescribed by the act of February 26, 1853, for no similar service is therein specified, nor is there any analogous service by sheriffs of the State of South Carolina. 4. The judiciary fund is not applicable to such charges, and they can only be paid out of a specific appropriation by, Congress for the purpose of carrying into effect the act to prohibit the slave trade. In view of the public exigencies for the enforcement of the act to prohibit the slave trade, I would recommend that a regulation should be made by the President, analogous to the enactments of Congress for the allowance of fees not specifically provided for. By such regulation the expenses incurred by the marshal, and just compensation for his services, may be ascertained by a special taxation of the court of the district in which the services may be rendered, and upon the allowance of the President payment may be made out of the proper fund. That regulation might be in the following form: REGULATION. Whereas, by the second section of the act of Congress, passed March 3, 1819, entitled an act in addition to the acts prohibiting the slave trade, the President of the United States is authorized to make such regulations and arrangements as he may deem expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal beyond the limits of the United States of all such negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color as may be delivered and brought within their jurisdiction; And whereas no provision is made by law for the compensation of the marshal and payment of the expenses incurred by him in execution of the laws aforesaid; It is hereby ordered and directed, that the following regulation be, and the same is hereby, established: That whenever negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color Entry of Town Sites. shall be delivered to the marshal of any district of the United States, under the provisions of the act in addition to the acts prohibiting the slave trade, passed March 3, 1819, the necessary expenses incurred by the marshal in the performance of his duties under said act, and his reasonable fee or compensation for such services shall be specially taxed by the district or circuit court where the services have been or shall be rendered, and payment shall be made to the marshal of such sum or sums as may be allowed by the President upon such taxation, such payment to be made out of the appropriation by Congress for carrying into effect the laws prohibiting the slave trade. Such regulation by the President would provide for the now pending, and others that may hereafter arise under the act. case Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JACOB THOMPSON, Secretary of the Interior. J. S. BLACK. ENTRY.OF TOWN SITES. Under the act of May 23, 1844, the mayor of a town has authority to make an entry of the public lands occupied as the town site as the official organ of the corporate authorities. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, March 21, 1859. SIR: In compliance with the request contained in your letter of this date, relative to the suspended entry of the town site of Kearney city, Nebraska Territory, I have to say, that I can see nothing on the face of the entry which ought to prevent a patent from issuing. It was made by the mayor. The Commissioner of the Land Office thought at first that it should have been made by the city council. The act of 1844, which governs the subject, does not say that it must be done by either, but by the corporate authorities. (5 Stats. at Large, 657.) Now, the mayor is no |