Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-13
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. THE DOLPHIN UNFIT And All Claims of Roach
 Debarred. 4 SERMON ON THE MOUNT. The Mexican Editors In
 New York. GOULD'S HAND SEEN IN MEXICO. A Missile Hurled at Elm
 perOr William.
GOULD'S HAND SEEN IN MEXICO.
GARLAND ON THE DOLPHIN.

GARLAND ON THE DOLPHIN.
 The Contract Between Roach And
 The Government Is AbrogaGed By
 Hts Faulty Construction And a Suit
 Should Follow For All Moneys Paid
 the Contractor.
 WASHINGTON, July 12.-Attorney- General Garland's opinion upon the question sub mitted to him by the Secretary of the Navy in regard to the dispatch boat Dolphin was given to the press tonight. The Attorney General holds that while the contract be- tween MT. Roach and Secretary Chandler contains no express covenant as to the speed of the vessel, still the covenant requiring the contractor to construct vessel in con- formity with the plans of the advisory board, which called for vessel "to have @ sea speed of fifteen knots,' bound the contractor as effectively to make ship of the speed of fifteen knots as though he had agreed to do so in express words. The question of speed, in which the Dolphin is reported deficient, the Attorney-Generalc considers an important one. It was for the quality of speed more than anything that Congress was looking. With a full knowledge of the statute authorizing the construction of despatch boat of a designated speed and no other, and
 
 the work was to be done laid before him that he might bid with intelligence and safety, the contractor, if he had misgivings whether a vessel planned like the Dolphin would make the required speed, should have abstained from sending in proposals, knowing as he did, or ought to have known, that ship defective in point of speed could not be accepted un- der the statute, whatever her merits might be in other respects. 'Under another view" :" the Attorney-General says, "the most i'm perative requirements of Congress would be liable at all times to be evaded upon one pretext or another. I cannot conceive how it could be seriously urged that the United States is bound under the law in question to accept from the contractor any other sort of vessel than the one ordered by Congress to be built ,namely:"A despatch boat, or clipper, of a sea speed Of fifteen knots, and the Dolphin having been found not to be vessel of that description as I must assume, it would seem to follow that nothing short of an act of Congress could authorize her acceptance"
 To the objection that the Dolphin is want ing in the necessary strength and stiffness, the Attorney General says this defect is fla tal whether due to the plans upon which the vessel was built or not, because in the con tract it was stipulated that the Dolphin should be sufficiently strong to carry the arm apent equipment, machinery, etc., prescribed by the advisory board. In word, the con- tractor makes the plans of the advisory board his own and agrees to construct sel of sufficient strength according to those plans.
 The third objection to the general charac- ter of the workmanship of the vessel the Attorney General dismisses as unimportant, merely remarking that it can be readily dealt with; the contractor being ready and willing to make the Dolphin satisfactory. The At torney General holds that the government stands unaffected by any acts of acquies- cence. approval, or acceptance of wors on the Dolphin by the advisory board or others. The provisions of the contract bind ing the United States to accept the vessel on the approval of the naval advisory board are, in the opinion of the Attorney General, void and imperative shifting a high trust and duty from the Secretary of the Navy, upon whom the full and ultimate responsi- bility of carrying out the law and building the Dolphin rested, by the naval advisory board.
 The Attorney General closes his opinion with the consideration of an important question, not submitted to him by the Sec retary of the Navy, which is, in short, whether there was any valid contract at all between MT. Roach and the United States and reaches the conclusion that none exists. His discussion of this As we have seen, the Secretary of the Navy had no power to contract for a dispatch boat that would not make fifteen knots at sea, or to accept any boat not built in strict conformity with the contract he was author ized to eneer into. But the ninth clause of the contract provides that should the engines of the vessel contracted for fail to maintain successfully on the trial trip for six consecu- tive hours 8 power of two thousand three hundred horses the vessel shall not be ac- cepted; nevertheless, if it appear satisfac- torily that the shortcoming was not owing either to defective workmanship or materials, in other words, it was to make no difference how much the engines should be found wanting in power and consequently how far short they should fall of propelling the ship at the speed required by the law, it being impossible to dissociate power from speed, if there was no defect in the work or materials. The obvious intention of this was to relieve rhsib.1 the Hontra0t0r of all the duty snead snd and power of the ship and make it feasible to force upon the United States ship want ing in the prime quality of speed and fun damentally different rom what Congress au- thorized and was desirous to secure. It needs no further discussion to show that what was thus attempted was wholly out of the question. But the contract is en- tirety and does not admit of being broken into fragments so as that what is good may be enforced and what is bad rejected. The stipulation which was in tended to relieve the contractor of responsi- bility for the power of the engines and as necessary consequence for the speed of the ship, forms large and most important part of the consideration moving to him from the government. It is impossible to say what was it's bearing on the whole contract nor is it material to do so as it and the other covenants of the government constitute one entire and indiyisible consideration, the in validity or illegality of any element of which must necessarily vitiate the whole and abro gate the contract. II follows, then, that no contract exists between MT. Roach and the United States and the large sums of money which have been paid MT. Roach have passed into hands without authority of law, ,are held by him as so much money held and received to the use of the United States, and may be recovered from him and not only so, but the money thus paid him by officers holding judiciary relation to the government having gone into the ship Dolphin, court of equity will follow it there and for that purpose en- certain proceeding against the ship itself
 A Horse Jumps over a Bridge.