Opinion of the Court. this court said: "The general rule that limitation does not operate by its own force as a bar, but is a defence, and that the party making such a defence must plead the statute if he wishes the benefit of its provisions, has no application to suits in the Court of Claims against the United States. An individual may waive such a defence, either expressly or by failing to plead the statute; but the Government has not expressly or by implication conferred authority upon any of its officers to waive the limitation imposed by statute upon suits against the United States in the Court of Claims. Since the Government is not liable to be sued, as of right, by any claimant, and since it has assented to a judgment being rendered against it only in certain classes of cases, brought within a prescribed period after the cause of action accrued, a judgment in the Court of Claims for the amount of a claim which the record or evidence shows to be barred by the statute, would be erroneous." To the same effect was De Arnaud v. United States, 151 U. S. 483, 495. But, in United States v. Lippitt, 100 U. S. 663, 668, 669, where the question was whether a claim that accrued in 1864, and which was presented to the War Department in 1865, and in 1878 was transmitted to the Court of Claims as one involving controverted questions of law, the decision whereof would affect a class of cases, the court said: "Limitation is not pleadable in the Court of Claims, against a claim cognizable therein, and which has been referred by the head of an Executive Department for its judicial determination, provided such claim was presented for settlement at the proper department within six years after it first accrued, that is, within six years after suit could be commenced thereon against the Government. Where the claim is of such a character that it may be allowed and settled by an Executive Department, or may, in the discretion of the head of such department, be referred to the Court of Claims for final determination, the filing of the petition should relate back to the date when it was first presented at the department for allowance and settlement. In such cases, the statement of the facts, upon which the claim rests, in the form of a petition, is only another mode of assert Opinion of the Court. ing the same demand which had previously and in due time been presented at the proper department for settlement. These views find support in the fact that the act of 1868 describes claims presented at an Executive Department for settlement, and which belong to the classes specified in its seventh section, as cases which may be transmitted to the Court of Claims. And all the cases mentioned in this section, which shall be transmitted by the head of any Executive Department, or upon the certificate of any auditor or comptroller, shall be proceeded in as other cases pending in said court, and shall, in all respects, be subject to the same rules and regulations,' with right of appeal. The cases thus transmitted for judicial determination are, in the sense of the act, commenced against the Government when the claim is originally presented at the department for examination and settlement. Upon their transfer to the Court of Claims they are to be proceeded in as other cases in said court.'" The same principle was recognized in Finn v. United States, 123 U. S. 227, 232, in which case the court, referring to the act of 1863, limiting the time for bringing suits in the Court of Claims, also said: "The duty of the court, under such circumstances, whether limitation was pleaded or not, was to dismiss the petition; for the statute, in our opinion, makes it a condition or qualification of the right to a judgment against the United States that except where the claimant labors under some of the disabilities specified in the statutes -the claim must be put in suit by the voluntary action of the claimant, or be presented to the proper department for settlement, within six years after suit could be commenced thereon against the Government." Upon the authority of those cases we adjudge that as the claim of New York was presented to the Treasury Department before it was barred by limitation, its transmission by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Court of Claims for adjudication was only a continuation of the original proceeding commenced in that department in 1862. The delay by the department in disposing of the matter before the expiration of six years after the cause of action accrued, could not impair the Opinion of the Court. rights of the State. Of course, if the claim had not been presented to the Treasury Department before the expiration of that period the Court of Claims could not have entertained jurisdiction of it. For the reasons we have stated the motion of the United States to dismiss the appeal of the State is denied, and we proceed to the examination of the case upon its merits. The entire sum for which the State asked judgment was $131,188.02, of which $91,320.84 represented the amount paid as interest on moneys borrowed for the purpose of raising troops for the national defence, and for the repayment of which, with interest at seven per cent, the State executed its short-time bonds. The balance, $39,867.18, represented the amount paid as interest on moneys received by way of loan from the Canal Fund and applied by the State for the same purpose. On behalf of the Government it is contended that payment by the United States of the above sum of $91,320.84 is prohibited both by the statute, act of March 3, 1863, c. 92, 12 Stat. 765, Rev. Stat. § 1091, providing that interest shall not be allowed on any claim up to the time of the rendition of judgment thereon by the Court of Claims, unless upon a contract expressly stipulating for the payment of interest, and by the general rule based on grounds of public convenience, that interest "is not to be awarded against a sovereign government, unless its consent to pay interest has been manifested by an act of its legislature, or by a lawful contract of its executive officers." United States v. North Carolina, 136 U. S. 211, 216; Angarica v. Bayard, 127 U. S. 251, 260. The allowance of the $91,320.84 would not contravene either the statute or the general rule to which we have adverted. The duty of suppressing armed rebellion having for its object the overthrow of the National Government, was primarily upon that Government and not upon the several States composing the Union. New York came promptly to the assistance of the National Government by enrolling, subsisting, clothing, supplying, arming, equipping, paying, and transporting troops to be employed in putting down the re Opinion of the Court. bellion. Immediately after Fort Sumter was fired upon, its legislature passed an act appropriating $3,000,000, or so much thereof as was necessary, out of any moneys in its treasury not otherwise appropriated, to defray any expenses incurred for arms, supplies, or equipments for such forces as were raised in that State and mustered into the service of the United States. In order to meet the burdens imposed by this appropriation, the real and personal property of the people of New York were subjected to taxation. When New York had succeeded in raising thirty thousand soldiers to be employed in suppressing the rebellion, the United States, well knowing that the national existence was imperilled, and that the earnest coöperation and continued support of the States was required in order to maintain the Union, solemnly declared by the act of 1861, that "the costs, charges, and expenses properly incurred" by any State in raising troops to protect the authority of the nation, would be met by the General Government. And to remove any possible doubt as to what expenditures of a State would be so met, the act of 1862 declared that the act of 1861 should embrace expenses incurred before, as well as after, its approval. It would be a reflection upon the patriotic motives of Congress if we did not place a liberal interpretation upon those acts, and give effect to what, we are not permitted to doubt, was intended by their passage. Before the act of July 27, 1861, was passed the Secretary of State of the United States telegraphed to the governor of New York, acknowledging that that State had then furnished fifty. thousand troops for service in the war of the rebellion, and thanking the governor for his efforts in that direction. And on July 25, 1861, Secretary Seward telegraphed : "Buy arms and equipments as fast as you can. We pay all." And on July 27, 1861, that "Treasury notes for part advances will be furnished on your call for them." On August 16, 1861, the Secretary of War telegraphed to the governor of New York: "Adopt such measures as may be necessary to fill up your regiments as rapidly as possible. We need the men. Let me know the best the Empire State can do to aid the country in the present emergency." And on February 11, Opinion of the Court. 1862, he telegraphed: "The Government will refund the State for the advances for troops as speedily as the Treasurer can obtain funds for that purpose." Liberally interpreted, it is clear that the acts of July 27, 1861, and March 8, 1862, created, on the part of the United States, an obligation to indemnify the States for any costs, charges, and expenses properly incurred for the purposes expressed in the act of 1861, the title of which shows that its object was "to indemnify the States for expenses incurred by them in defence of the United States." So that the only inquiry is whether, within the fair meaning of the latter act, the words "costs, charges, and expenses properly incurred" included interest paid by the State of New York on moneys borrowed for the purpose of raising, subsisting, and supplying troops to be employed in suppressing the rebellion. We have no hesitation in answering this question in the affirmative. If that State was to give effective aid to the General Government in its struggle with the organized forces of rebellion, it could only do so by borrowing money sufficient to meet the emergency; for it had no money in its treasury that had not been specifically appropriated for the expenses of its own government. It could not have borrowed money any more than the General Government could have borrowed money, without stipulating to pay such interest as was customary in the commercial world. Congress did not expect that any State would decline to borrow and await the collection of money raised by taxation before it moved to the support of the nation. It expected that each loyal State would, as did New York, respond at once in furtherance of the avowed purpose of Congress, by whatever force necessary, to maintain the rightful authority and existence of the National Government. We cannot doubt that the interest paid by the State on its bonds, issued to raise money for the purposes expressed by Congress, constituted a part of the costs, charges, and expenses properly incurred by it for those objects. Such interest, when paid, became a principal sum, as between the State and the United States, that is, became a part of the aggregate sum properly paid by the State for the United States. The principal and |