Case Name: UNITED STATES v. CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND IN CUMBERLAND TOWNSHIP, ADAMS COUNTY, PA. (two cases)
Court: United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1895-04-22
Citations: 67 F. 869
Docket Number: Nos. 34 and 64
Parties: UNITED STATES v. CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND IN CUMBERLAND TOWNSHIP, ADAMS COUNTY, PA. (two cases).
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 67
Pages: 869–874

Head Matter:
UNITED STATES v. CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND IN CUMBERLAND TOWNSHIP, ADAMS COUNTY, PA. (two cases).
(Circuit Court, E. D. Pennsylvania.
April 22, 1895.)
Nos. 34 and 64.
Eminent Domain—Right op, in United States Government—Public Use— What Is--Nation Cemetery at Gettysburg.
The act of congress approved March 3. 3893, appropriating money for the' purchase of land at Gettysburg, Pa., for the purpose of preserving the lines of battle there, and of marking the loading tactical positions of the battlefield with tablets, and for opening avenues, etc., does not indicate such a public use under the constitution as to justify condemnation proceedings under the subsequent act of June 5, 1894. Butler, District Judge, dissenting.
These cases arose from the filing c® two separate petitions of Ellery P. Ingham, Esq., United States district attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, praying the court to appoint two juries to estimate and determine the value of the estates and interests of all parties concerned in two certain tracts of land situate in Cumberland township, Adams county, Pa., more particularly described by metes and bounds in the said petitions, which tracts were said to be owned by the “Gettysburg Electric Railroad Company.”
The petitions, after reciting the act of congress conferring jurisdiction upon the department of justice in land condemnation proceedings, and the act of assembly of Pennsylvania of .Tune 8, 1874, providing a method of vesting the title to lands in that state in the United States when no agreement of purchase could be made with the owners thereof, recited that by an act of congress approved on the 3d day of March, A. E>. 1893, entitled “An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the government for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1894, and for other purposes,” it is provided, inter alia, as follows: “Monuments and tablets at Gettysburg. Por the purpose of preserving the lines of battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and for properly marking with tablets the positions occupied by the various commands of the armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia on that field, and for opening and improving avenues along the positions occupied by troops upon those lines, and for fencing the same, and for 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, 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.” (4) That by a joint resolution of congress, approved June 5, 1894, entitled “Joint resolution, authorizing the purchase or condemnation of land in the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,” it is provided as follows: “Whereas, congress appropriated by tho act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars to acquire certain lands for 'the purpose of i>reserving the lines of battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and for properly marking the positions occupied by the various commands of the armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia, on that field, and for opening and. improving avenues along the positions occupied by the troops, and for determining the leading tactical positions of both armies; and whereas, an appropriation for the further sum of fifty thousand dollars is now under consideration by congress for like purposes which has passed the house of representatives during the present session and is now pending in the senate; and whereas, it has been recently decided by the United States court, sitting in Pennsylvania, that authority has not yet been distinctly given for the acquisition of such lands as may be necessary to enable the war department to execute the purposes declared in the act aforesaid; and whereas, there 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 third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three: Therefore, be it 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 first, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, such lands or interest in lands, fipon 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 third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three: 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.” (5) That in order to carry out the purposes of the aforesaid act of March 3,1893, it is necessary that the United States acquire title in fee simple to the said tracts of land. That the said tracts include many important tactical positions occupied by many different commands and bodies of troops while engaged in the battle of Gettysburg, at some of its most critical periods. That if title to the said tract be not vested in the United States it will be impossible to carry out effectually upon this part of the battlefield the purposes expressed in the said act of congress, “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.” That no agreement can he made with the owners of the said tracts for the purchase thereof.
The jury of view in the first case subsequently filed a report assessing damages for the taking of the property; and on March 26, 1895, the Gettysburg Electric Railroad Company filed exceptions thereto, alleging, in substance. that the purposes specified in the petition were not public uses or purposes, authorizing the condemnation by the United States of private property. In the second case a motion to quash the petition was filed upon substantially the same reasons. The two matters were argued at the same time.
Ellery P. Ingham, for plaintiff.
Thomas Hart, Jr., and Chas. Heebner, for defendant.

Opinion:
DALLAS, Circuit Judge.
The right of the United States to take private properly for public use, upon making just compensation, though questioned in Pollard's Lessee v. Hagan, 3 How. 212, is now' fully recognized; but that this right cannot be exercised, within the limits of the several slates, for any purpose which is not incident to some power delegated to the general government, and necessary, or at least adapted, to its execution, is equally well set tied. 1 Hare, Const. Law, p. 346; Kohl v. U. S., 91 U. S. 367; U. S. v. Fox, 94 U. S. 315; Van Brocklin v. Tennessee, 117 U. S. 151, 6 Sup. Ct. 670; Cherokee Nation v. Southern Kan. Ry. Co., 135 U. S. 641, 656, 10 Sup. Ct. 965.
The end sought to be promoted in the present instance highly commends itself to patriotic sentiment' and strongly appeals to the generous impulses of all who justly esteem the services of those by whom the great battle of Gettysburg was fought and won; but such feelings may not be indulged in a place where justice is judicially administered without respect to persons, and where the constituí ion of the United ¡átales must be regarded as imperatively prescribing the paramount rule of civil conduct as well for the government as for the people. Therefore, the only question is whether the object to the furtherance of which these petitions' are directed is germane to the execution of any power vested in the general government; and upon this question I have reached a conclusion which to me seems irresistible. The powers of congress are distinctly enumerated in the constitution, and in that enumeration none is included to which the uses for which it is proposed to condemn this land can he related, without, in my opinion, enlarging the constitutional grant by grafting upon its express terms a construe iion so lax and comprehensive as to be subversive of its limited character. The learned district attorney has referred to but a single clause (article 1, § 8, cl. 1) as conferring the authority now claimed, and that clause is wholly irrelevant. The "power to lay and collect taxes to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States" is quite distinct from the right to take private property for public use; and it is not the power of taxation, but the right of eminent domain, which is here asserted. Government may, in time of war, appropriate or destroy private property. This is justified by "the necessities of war." U. S. v. Pacific R. R., 120 U. S. 234, 7 Sup. Ct. 490. But no deduction from this doctrine of the public law can be made and applied in time of peace, be the incentive what it may, without violation of "the supreme law of the land."
Entertaining these views, with which no judicial decision that has been brought to my notice conflicts, it is impossible for me to sustain these proceedings. In the first case the exceptions to which this opinion is applicable are sustained. In the second case the motion to quash is granted.