Reid Claim-Jurisdiction of Probate Court-United States--Res Adjudicata.

of exchange or promissory note has been given for it, and without regard to the place where the bill or note is found or payable.

"Debts due from the United States are not local assets at the seat of government only."

Mr. Justice Story, in delivering the judgment of the court in Vaughan v. Northup (15 Pet., 1), is quoted as follows (p. 657):

"The debts due from the Government of the United States have no locality at the seat of government. The United States, in their sovereign capacity, have no particular place of domicile, but possess, in contemplation of law, an ubiquity throughout the Union; and the debts due by them are not to be treated like the debts of a private debtor, which constitute local assets in his own domicile. On the contrary, the administrator of a creditor of the Government, duly appointed in the State where he was domiciled at the time of his death, has full authority to receive payment and give a full discharge of the debt due to his intestate in any place where the Gov ernment may choose to pay it.

Again, the facts show that Mr. Reid has been fully paid. The only grounds upon which administration can be granted to him, even if this court has jurisdiction, is that he is a creditor.

His claim is also barred by the statute of limitations, and he is not entitled, by securing his own appointment as administrator, to make any acknowledgment of the debt due himself which will remove the bar of such statute.

He is also, in my opinion, precluded from recovery irrespective of the former reason suggested by reason of the decisions of your Department.

In view of the fact that the appointment can not be attacked collaterally, it seems advisable that the United States, acting by the Attorney-General, should intervene by way of suggestion to the court, asking that the letters heretofore granted be vacated and set aside. This can be done without submitting the rights of the Government to the jurisdiction of the court.

The Government has such an interest in the fund as to entitle it to be heard in its disposition. As a trustee, holding the fund for the true owner, it is its duty to defend and protect

Rock Creek Park-Purchase of Land-The President.

the trust estate, and if Coit died without heirs or real credit. ors, it is suggested that the United States is the ultima hæres At least no other power than the State of the citizenship of the decedent could dispute such a right. The legislation of Congress by which provision is made for the covering of unused appropriations into the Treasury of the United States at least warrants the claim that the Government is the ultimate beneficiary of this fund in the event that no person claiming through Coit can be found.

I therefore advise that you are not bound to make such payment, or to recognize the claim of the administrator, but that it is your duty to refuse so to do. Appropriate action will be taken by this Department.

ROCK CREEK PARK-PURCHASE OF LAND-THE PRESIDENT. The President having declined to certify that the prices assessed by commissioners of appraisal for lands proposed to be taken for the Rock Creek Park were reasonable because the cost was limited by the act of September 27, 1890, chapter 1001, creating the park to $1,200,000 and the assessed price would bring the entire cost over that sum, and the commission, without filing any new map, having asked the President to certify to the reasonableness of the values assessed by the appraisers as to certain of the parcels, proposing by reducing the area of the park to bring the cost down within the $1,200,000: Held, that it is competent for the President to certify whether the prices named are reasonable or unreasonable, the question of the validity of the proceeding not being one for the Executive to determine, but a purely judicial question for the court, as to which no opinion is expressed.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

April 5, 1892.

SIR: By your communication of March 23, I am advised of the following facts: Under the act of September 27, 1890, authorizing the establishing of a public park in the District of Columbia, the Rock Creek Park Commission caused to be made and recorded a map of said Rock Creek Park, as pro

Rock Creek Park-Purchase of Land-The President.

vided in section 3 of the act; that the commission determined as to each tract what would be a just compensation therefor, which determination was approved by you.

I am further advised that, with some of the owners of the ground embraced within the map of said park, the commission agreed as to prices and purchased said tracts; that as to most of said lands they were unable to make such agreements; that thereupon proceedings were taken, pursuant to said act, in the supreme court of the District of Columbia for the appraisement of the lands not purchased as provided by the act, and the appraisements so made having been submitted to you, and the same, together with the cost of the lands purchased, being in the aggregate in excess of the appropriation, you declined to decide the same to be reasonable, upon the ground that the limitation of cost to $1,200,000 being a condition precedent, you had no power to approve selections and valuations for said park in excess of that amount.

You now state, "That the commission, under date of March 11, have filed with me, and request that I will approve, the action of the court in assessing values as to parcels of lands within the lines originally proposed by them for the park, with a view to bringing the cost of the park within the amount named in the statute providing for its establishment." In other words, I am advised that the commission proposes to so reduce the area of the contemplated park as to aggregate only 1,390.27 acres, and in cost less than $1,200,000; this reduction to be accomplished by abandoning a large number of tracts embraced within the map and in the proceedings heretofore had.

I do not understand that any new map has been filed, or that the commission has taken any other action in the premises except upon the original map, by new lines, to indicate the boundaries of the reduced park. It is further my understanding that, in making this reduction, no tract originally included and appraised has been divided; but that the reduced map varies from the original only in that it includes a less number of the tracts originally selected and appraised. Upon this state of facts you inquire whether, in my opinion, it is competent for you to comply with the request of the commission, by deciding that the valuations of the tracts

Immigrant Fund-Secretary of the Treasury-Ellis Island. within the amended or reduced lines of the proposed park are reasonable or unreasonable; these valuations being the same fixed by the appraisers appointed by the court, hereinbefore referred to.

The answer to this question is to my mind by no means clear. It must, however, have been the intention of Congress that your approval or disapproval of the valuations of these lands should relate to the parcels severally, and it was not the purpose that in so doing you should review or pass upon the regularity of the proceedings. The validity and regularity of the preceedings are properly judicial questions; questions for the court, and not for the Executive. But it is entirely clear that, unless and until you approve or disapprove of these appraisements, no further proceeding, within or out of court, can be had. Until you act, the enterprise stops. Under these circumstances, and without expressing any views as to other legal questions involved, I am of the opinion that you may proceed to determine, parcel by parcel, whether the valuations of these lands are reasonable or unreasonable.

Very respectfully,

The PRESIDENT.

W. H. H. MILLER.

P. S.-I return herewith all papers in the case.

IMMIGRANT FUND-SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY-ELLIS

ISLAND.

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to expend from the immigrant fund such money as may be necessary for finishing certain contracts and making final payments thereon in connection with putting Ellis Island in condition for use as a receiving station for immigrants.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

April 8, 1892.

SIR: Your letter, which bears date the 30th ultimo and relates to expenditures made on Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, in connection with putting the same in condition for use as a receiving station for immigrants, has received due consideration.

It is stated that the improvements are approaching completion, and that "certain contracts are yet unfinished and

Immigrant Fund-Secretary of the Treasury-Ellis Island. final payments thereon yet remain to be made,” and I am asked whether you are authorized to expend from the immigrant fund such moneys as are required to properly complete the necessary improvements.

The capitation tax collected from the ship-owners for each and every alien passenger brought from foreign ports constitutes the immigrant fund, which is paid into the Treasury. The statute directs that this fund "shall be used, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, to defray the expense of regulating immigration under this act, and for the care of immigrants arriving in the United States, for the relief of such as are in distress, and for the general purposes and expenses of carrying this act into effect." (22 Stat., 214.)

The Secretary of the Treasury is charged by law with the duty of executing the provisions of the immigration act quoted from, "and with supervision over the business of immigration to the United States," and is vested with the general direction and management of all of the immigration affairs of this Government, and with the general control and application of the funds pertaining to those affairs.

The scope of the duties of the head of the Treasury Department in connection with immigration is shown also in the "contract-labor" laws.

The act of February 26, 1885 (23 Stat., 332), provides for the exclusion of hired aliens, but omits to name an officer to enforce its provisions; but the amendatory act of February 23, 1887 (24 Stat., 414), enacts: "That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby charged with the duty of executing the provisions of this act," and elaboration is made of the methods which he is authorized to employ; and this authority is still further recognized by Congress (25 Stat., 566, 567; id., 957). The act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1084), which amends and connects with each other the various immigration acts, extends still further the responsibility of the Secretary of the Treasury.

It must be held that legislation has clothed the Secretary with full general authority over the management of immigration affairs and over the proper use and application of all moneys to be used in such affairs, and especially over all moneys of the immigrant fund.