Page:United States v. Samperyac.pdf/30

Rh  Rh   equity by which this court is governed, a power exists to entertain a bill of review in the present case.

B, J.—I dissent from the opinion of the Court, as delivered in this cause. I part with my associates on the threshold, on the point of jurisdiction; and, therefore, in the brief opinion which I shall give for the grounds of my disagreement, I shall not ﬁnd it necessary, or even proper, to touch the other points which have been raised and so ingeniously and elaborately argued. Obsta principiis, is a maxim dear to the lovers of sound government. I shall endeavor on this, as on all other occasions, to manifest my appreciation of its value.

By the treaty negotiated by the United States, in 1803, with the French republic, for the acquisition of Louisiana, our government became bound, in good faith, to perfect certain obligations which the previous governments, Spanish and French, had contracted with their citizens or subjects. But this treaty guarantee had no stipulation as to mode, and the government does not recognize in the citizen a right to sue without its consent.

This consent was given by the act of congress of May, 1824. Tribunals were created in the State of Missouri and Territory of Arkansas to adjudicate claims to land founded on French and Spanish grants, of which tribunals this is one; a special and extraordinary tribunal, created by the law referred to. Under this law, and before this tribunal, the claimant instituted his suit, which, at its maturity, ripened to a decree in his favor.

The bill of review has been instituted to annul and reverse the decrees on the ground that the grant is a forgery, the claimant a supposititious character. It is foreign to my purpose to inquire into the well-foundedness of these allegations, for, whatever the decision, in the view I take of the subject, it could lead to no practical result.

I assume it as a postulate not to be questioned, that the government going into the courts, is to be tried only by the same rules, and have the same measure of justice meted out to it, that the law secures to ordinary parties litigant.

The law of 1824 gave to the party against whom the final decree of this court should be given the right of appeal within one year from the time of its rendition. The appeal not