Opinion of the court. stances, from a sense of duty to government. We cannot, therefore, appreciate the force of the argument that has been urged on behalf of these claimants, that the facility thus furnished by the board to hear and pass upon their claims, in some way operated compulsorily, to submit them for investigation; not legally, but morally; and that their necessities compelled them to seek this early opportunity to have them heard and adjusted. This, we think, a misapprehension. It was not so much the presence of this board that compelled the submission, if any compulsion existed, but the certainty, if the opportunity was not accepted, they would be obliged to encounter the delay and expense of an application to Congress or the Court of Claims. The constitution of the board presented simply a choice of tribunals to hear these claims. It was their preference for the tribunal sitting in their midst, and the high character of its members, that controlled the choice. This tribunal also afforded an additional advantage over the others, namely, that if after the hearing and adjustment of the claims the claimants were not satisfied, they were free to dissent, and look for redress to the only legal tribunals provided in such cases. It has been strongly argued, that the receipt in full of all demands, which the board exacted from the claimant before the delivery of the voucher, or finding, was unauthorized; or, if authorized, that it is no bar to that portion of the original claim rejected by the board, as it is an instrument subject to explanation; that a receipt for payment in full, when only part of the debt is paid, is no defence to an action for the balance; and, further, that it was signed under protest. In the view we have taken of the case, the giving of this receipt is of no legal importance. The bar to any further legal demand against the government does not rest upon this acquittance, but upon the voluntary submission of the claims to the board; the hearing, and final decision thereon; the receipt of the vouchers containing the sum or amount found due to the claimant; and the acceptance of the payment of that amount, under the act of Congress providing therefor. From the time the secretary issued his Opinion of the court. order, suspending the payment, and which we have held was well justified, under the circumstances, they must be regarded as claims disputed by the government; and unless this board had been constituted, could have been adjusted only by Congress or the Court of Claims. They fell within. that mass of claims which the heads of the several departments had refused to adjust according to the views of the claimants, and this was the character that attached to them when presented before the board. We do not doubt but that there have been, and may be hereafter, cases where payments have been mistakenly or wrongfully withheld, and the claimant compelled either to give up his claim or seek redress before the appropriate tribunals, existing at the time, to hear and determine them. But this is no argument against the power or right of the heads of the departments to refuse the payment. What other remedy has the government to arrest the execution of fraudulent contracts, made by its subordinates, or the unfaithful execution of them? In such cases the courts are open to protect the rights of private individuals, but this remedy is unavailable to the government. The multitude of agents, official and otherwise, which it is obliged to employ in conducting its affairs, render this remedy utterly impracticable., Unless, therefore, some power exists in the government, summarily, to interfere, and arrest the frauds and irregularities committed against it, they must be allowed to go on to consummation. No one, we think, on reflection, will deny, this power. A good deal of the argument on the part of the claimant in support of the right to recover the contract price of these boats, is placed upon the ground of the absence of any authority in the board of commissioners to pass, in invitum, upon the claims. We have conceded this want of authority. They possessed no judicial power; nor did they claim to exercise any. The government having suspended all payment upon the contracts upon allegations of frauds and irregularities, until an inquiry could be had in respect to them, appointed this board as a favor to its creditors, to enable those who might desire it to have an immediate in Opinion of the court. vestigation. It was an act of kindness to them. They were left free, however, to present or withhold their claims. But we find nothing in the constitution of the board, or in its proceedings, or in the proceedings on the part of the government, indicating expressly, or by implication, that when the investigation was thus voluntarily submitted to, the amount adjusted, and the acceptance of payment by the claimant, the proceeding was not to be final. It could hardly have been supposed or believed by the claimants themselves, that the government would have gone to the expense of furnishing them a tribunal in their midst for this investigation, and subject itself also to the expense of carrying it on in the cases submitted to its cognizance as a matter of mere preliminary inquiry to adjust parts or portions of a contract, and make advances thereon, leaving the residue for further litigation before Congress, or the Court of Claims. This is not the course of litigation between private parties; they are not allowed to split up an entire contract or demand into several parts; and we are not aware of any reason for an exception to the rule in a proceeding against the government. We cannot think that a further hearing before any other tribunal of the same matters was within the contemplation of either party. The hearing before this board was had more than a year before the present Court of Claims was established, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1863, which authorizes suits and judgments against the government. Previously, the only remedy of the creditor was by an application to Congress, or to the Court of Claims, which was established in 1855, but possessed no authority to render judgment against it. It was but a commission appointed by the government to hear and pass upon claims, but whose determination had no force till confirmed by Congress. It differed from the commission in the present case, as it was established by law, and had general authority to hear all claims; but, so far as respects the cases of voluntary submission before the board, we regard the finding, followed by acceptance of payment, as conclusive upon the claim as if it had been before this Syllabus. first Court of Claims, and heard and decided there, and the amount found due paid by the government. Now, we sup pose that it would be an error in the Court of Claims, as at present constituted, with power to render judgment against the government, to hear and revise the allowance of a claim already heard and decided upon by Congress, or by the former Court of Claims, and payment made, even if the claimant was not satisfied. And, we think, it is equally error, in the present case, upon the same principle and for the same reasons. Indeed, unless the claimant is barred, under the circumstances stated, it would be difficult for the government to determine when there would be an end to claims put forth against it, as there is no statute of limitations, of which we are aware, applicable to them before this court. The judgment of the court is, that the decree must be REVERSED, the cause remanded, with directions to enter a decree DISMISSING THE PETITION. UNITED STATES v. KIRBY. 1. The temporary detention of the mail, caused by the arrest of its carrier upon a bench warrant, issued by à State court, of competent jurisdiction, upon an indictment found therein for murder, is not an obstruction or retarding of the passage of the mail, or of its carrier, within the meaning of the ninth section of the act of Congress of March 3, 1825, which provides "that, if any person shall knowingly and wilfully obstruct or retard the passage of the mail, or of any driver or carrier, or of any horse or carriage carrying the same, he shall, upon conviction, for every such offence pay a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars.” 2. That section applies only to those who know that the acts performed by them, obstructing or retarding the passage of the mail, or of its carrier, will have that effect, and perform them with the intention that such shall be their operation. 3. When the acts which create the obstruction are in themselves unlawful, the intention to obstruct will be imputed to their author, although to attain cther ends may have been his primary object. The statute has Statement of the case. no reference to acts lawful in themselves, from the execution of which a temporary delay to the mails unavoidably follows. 4. Though all persons in the public service are exempt, as a matter of public policy, from arrest upon civil process while thus engaged; the rule is different when the process is issued upon a charge of felony. Every officer of the United States is responsible to the legal tribunals of the country, and to the ordinary processes for his arrest and detention when accused of felony, in the forms prescribed by the Constitution and laws. 5. All laws should receive a sensible construction. General terms should be so limited in their application as not to lead to injustice, oppression, or an absurd consequence, and it will always be presumed that the legislature intended exceptions to its language, which would avoid results of this character. THE defendants were indicted for knowingly and wilfully obstructing and retarding the passage of the mail and of a mail carrier, in the District Court for the District of Kentucky. The case was certified to the Circuit Court for that district. The indictment was founded upon the ninth section of the act of Congress, of March 3, 1825, "to reduce into one the several acts establishing and regulating the post office department," which provides" that, if any person shall knowingly and wilfully obstruct or retard the passage of the mail, or of any driver or carrier, or of any horse or carriage carrying the same, he shall, upon conviction, for every such offence, pay a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars; and if any ferryman shall, by wilful negligence, or refusal to transport the mail across the ferry, delay the same, he shall forfeit and pay, for every ten minutes that the same shall be so delayed, a sum not exceeding ten dollars."* The indictment contained four counts, and charged the defendants with knowingly and wilfully obstructing the passage of the mail of the United States, in the district of Kentucky, on the first of February, 1867, contrary to the act of Congress; and with knowingly and wilfully obstructing and retarding at the same time in that district, the passage of one Farris, a carrier of the mail, while engaged in the performance of his duty; and with knowingly and wilfully re * 4 Stat. at Large, 104. |