Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/160/668/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 18:38:53+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 160 › United States v. Gettysburg Elec. Ry. Co.
An appropriation by Congress for continuing the work of surveying, locating, and preserving the lines of battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and for purchasing, opening, constructing, and improving avenues along the portions occupied by the various commands of the Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia on that field, and for fencing the same, and for the purchase at private sale or by condemnation, of such parcels of land as the Secretary of War may deem necessary for the sites of tablets, and for the construction of the said avenues; for determining the leading tactical positions and properly marking the same with tablets of batteries, regiments, brigades, divisions, corps, and other organizations, with reference to the study and correct understanding of the battle, each tablet bearing a brief historical legend, compiled without praise and without censure, is an appropriation for a public use, for which the United States may, in the exercise of its right of eminent domain, condemn and take the necessary lands of individuals and corporations situated within that state, including lands occupied by a railroad company.
Any act of Congress which plainly and directly tends to enhance the respect and love of the citizen for the institutions of his country and to quicken and strengthen his motives to defend them, and which is germane to and intimately connected with and appropriate to the exercise of some one or all of the powers granted by Congress, must be valid, and the proposed use in this case comes within such description.
The mere fact that Congress limits the amount to be appropriated for such purpose does not render invalid the law providing for the taking of the land.
The quantity of land which should be taken for such a purpose is a legislative, and not a judicial, question.
When land of a railroad company is taken for such purpose, if the part taken by the government is essential to enable the railroad corporation to perform its functions, or if the value of the remaining property is impaired, such facts may enter into the question of the amount of the compensation to be awarded.
The court below can, before a new trial, authorize the allegation as to the decision by the Secretary of War upon the necessity of taking the land to be amended, if necessary.
These are two writs of error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. They involve the same questions.
"that in every case in which the Secretary of the Treasury or any other officer of the government has been or hereafter shall be authorized to procure real estate for the erection of a public building or for any other public uses, he shall be and hereby is authorized to acquire the same for the United States by condemnation, under judicial process, whenever in his opinion it is necessary or advantageous to the government to do so."
with suitable tablets, each bearing a brief historical legend, compiled without praise and without censure, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War."
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled that the Secretary of War is authorized to acquire by purchase (or by condemnation) pursuant to the Act of August 1, 1888, such lands, or interest in lands, upon or in the vicinity of said battlefield, as in the judgment of the Secretary of War may be necessary for the complete execution of the Act of March 3, 1893. provided that no obligation or liability upon the part of the government shall be incurred under this resolution, nor any expenditure made except out of the appropriations already made and to be made during the present session of this Congress."
A further appropriation of $50,000 was made for this purpose by the Act of August 18, 1894, the same session of Congress.
General, filed a petition in the name of the United States for the purpose of condemning certain lands therein described for the objects mentioned in the acts of Congress.
purpose of paying any judgment which might be recovered by the company in these condemnation proceedings.
"1. The act of Congress approved August 1, 1888, provides for the acquisition of real estate by the United States by condemnation only for the erection of public buildings or for other public uses. It does not appear in the petition of Ellery P. Ingham, Esq., United States Attorney, that the Secretary of War has been authorized to procure the tract of land mentioned in the fifth paragraph thereof, belonging to the Gettysburg Electric Railway Company, for the erection of a public building or for other public uses. The purposes named for the expenditure of the appropriation in the Act of Congress of March 3, 1893, are not such public uses as authorize the condemnation by the United States of the real estate of private persons."
"2. The purpose specified in the sixth paragraph of the said petition, namely, 'of preserving the lines of battle,' 'properly marking with tablets the positions occupied,' and"
"determining the leading tactical positions of batteries, regiments, brigades, divisions, corps, and other organizations, with reference to the study and correct understanding of the battle, and to mark the same with suitable tablets"
"are none of them public uses or purposes authorizing the condemnation by the United States of private property."
case was dismissed, under the motion made by the defendant to quash the proceedings, upon the same grounds stated in the main case.
It has authority to do so whenever it is necessary or appropriate to use the land in the execution of any of the powers granted to it by the Constitution. Kohl v. United States, 91 U. S. 367; Cherokee Nation v. Kansas Railway, 135 U. S. 641, 135 U. S. 656; Chappell v. United States, 160 U. S. 499.
of War may deem necessary for the sites of tablets, and for the construction of the said avenues; for determining the leading tactical positions and properly marking the same with tablets of batteries, regiments, brigades, divisions, corps, and other organizations with reference to the study and correct understanding of the battle, each tablet bearing a brief historical legend, compiled without praise and without censure; fifty thousand dollars, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War."
In these acts of Congress and in the joint resolution the intended use of this land is plainly set forth. It is stated in the second volume of Judge Dillon's work on Municipal Corporations (4th ed. § 600) that when the legislature has declared the use or purpose to be a public one, its judgment will be respected by the courts unless the use be palpably without reasonable foundation. Many authorities are cited in the note, and indeed the rule commends itself as a rational and proper one.
As just compensation, which is the full value of the property taken, is to be paid, and the amount must be raised by taxation, where the land is taken by the government itself, there is not much ground to fear any abuse of the power. The responsibility of Congress to the people will generally, if not always, result in a most conservative exercise of the right. It is quite a different view of the question which courts will take when this power is delegated to a private corporation. In that case, the presumption that the intended use for which the corporation proposes to take the land is public is not so strong as where the government intends to use the land itself.
Upon the question whether the proposed use of this land is public one, we think there can be no well founded doubt.
"Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adequate to that end, which are not prohibited but consistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution are constitutional."
at the public expense. The right to take land for cemeteries for the burial of the deceased soldiers of the country rests on the same footing, and is connected with and springs from the same powers of the Constitution. It seems very clear that the government has the right to bury its own soldiers, and to see to it that their graves shall not remain unknown or unhonored.
No narrow view of the character of this proposed use should be taken. Its national character and importance, we think, are plain. The power to condemn for this purpose need not be plainly and unmistakably deduced from anyone of the particularly specified powers. Any number of those powers may be grouped together, and an inference from them all may be drawn that the power claimed has been conferred.
"The validity of the law is further challenged because the aggregate amount to be expended in the purchase of land for the park is limited to the amount of $1,200,000. It is said that this is equivalent to condemning the lands and fixing their value by arbitrary enactment. But a glance at the act shows that the property holders are not affected by the limitation. The value of the land is to be agreed upon, or, in the absence of agreement, is to be found by appraisers to be appointed by the court. The intention expressed by Congress not to go beyond a certain expenditure cannot be deemed a direction to the appraisers to keep within any given limit in valuing any particular piece of property. It is not unusual for Congress, in making appropriations for the erection of public buildings, including the purchase of sites, to name a sum beyond which expenditure shall not be made, but nobody ever thought that such a limitation had anything to do with what the owners of property should have a right to receive in case proceedings to condemn had to be resorted to."
If it appeared by proof that the appropriation for the purpose indicated had been exhausted before the proceedings had been commenced to take the land in controversy, or during the hearing, then the provision in the joint resolution directing that no obligation or liability upon the part of the government should be incurred, or any expenditure made, except out of the appropriations already made and to be made during the then session of Congress, would give rise to a very serious question. It is not now presented. Congress has the power, even now, to appropriate moneys for this purpose in addition to that which it appropriated in the two acts of 1893 and 1894. This Court cannot, therefore, upon the record as it stands, give judgment for the landowner on the ground that the appropriation for the land has been exhausted in other ways, and that Congress prohibited the incurring of any obligation to a greater extent than the moneys then appropriated.
"[t]here is imminent danger that portions of said battlefield may be irreparably defaced by the construction of a railway over the same, thereby making impracticable the execution of the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1893,"
we think it is plainly apparent that Congress did intend to take this very land occupied and used by this company for its railroad.
Fourth. It is also objected that the exception below is valid wherein it was stated that all the land of the railroad company ought to be taken if any were to be taken. The use for which the land is to be taken having been determined to be a public use, the quantity which should be taken is a legislative, and not a judicial, question. Shoemaker v. United States, 147 U. S. 282, 147 U. S. 298. As to the effect of the taking upon the land remaining, that is more a question of the amount of compensation. If the part taken by the government is essential to enable the railroad corporation to perform its functions, or if the value of the remaining property is impaired, such facts might enter into the question of the amount of the compensation to be awarded. Monongahela Nav. Co. v. United States, 148 U. S. 312, 148 U. S. 333-334.
allegation therein contained upon this subject is not very clear. It might possibly be regarded as sufficiently alleged in an argumentative kind of way, but it certainly is not as plainly alleged as it ought to be. The petition, however, can be easily amended on application to the court below before further proceedings are taken.
The judgment of the circuit court in each case must be reversed, and the record remitted to that court with directions to grant a new trial in each.

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