Case Name: John Frank Pargoud, Appellant, v. The United States, Appellees
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1871-12
Citations: 7 Ct. Cl. 289
Docket Number: 
Parties: John Frank Pargoud, Appellant, v. The United States, Appellees.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Volume: 7
Pages: 289–290

Head Matter:
(4 Court of Claims R., p. 337; 13 Wallace R.)
John Frank Pargoud, Appellant, v. The United States, Appellees.
On the claimant1 s Appeal.
A disloyal citizen of Louisiana "brings his action under the Abandoned or captured property act. He pleads a special pardon from the President in the ■stead of the statutory allegation that “ he has never given any aid or com'■forfc to the present rebellion.” The Court of Claims construes the statute as ■one passed midway in the rebellion Jn the nature of a compact, and holds ■that the icords “aid or comfort to the rebellion ” relate to the fact and not to the crime, and that pardon and amnesty which obliterate crime do not create a jurisdictional fact. Judgment for-the defendants. The claimant appeals.
'The decision of the Supreme Court in Mrs. Armstrong's Case {ante) covers the case of one who pleads in a suit under the Abandoned or captured property act, a special pardon, instead of the requirement of the statute that “he has never given aid or comfort to the present rebellion."
Mr. T. J. Durant and Mr. P. Phillips for the appellant.
Mr. Attorney-General Akerman and Mr. Solicitor-General Bris■toio for the United States.

Opinion:
Mr. Chief Justice Chase
delivered tlie opinion of the court:
The decision of the Court of Claims in this case was against .the claimant on the ground that, the petition did not aver that he had given no aid or comfort to the rebellion, nor sufficiently aver a pardon by the President. But we have recently decided, in the case of Hibernia Armstrong v. The United Statesf (13 Wall., p. 154,) that the President's proclamation of Deeemben 25, 1868, granting pardon and amnesty unconditionally and without reservation to all who participated, directly or indirectly, in the late rebellion, relieves claimants of captured and abandoned property from proof of adhesion to the United States during the late civil war. It was unnecessary, therefore, to prove such adhesion or personal pardon for taking-part in the rebellion against the United States.
The judgment of the Court of Claims dismissing the petition, is reversed.