Even if the claimant did not understand these conditions, he certainly
knew that his contract was based upon a statute; that the agent with
whom he was contracting was a creature of statute, and that such statute
and certain regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury made thereunder
regulated the right and limited the action of all the parties to said
contract. These things sufficiently appear from the very terms of the
contract and the permit signed by the President. The privileges and
liberties contained in this permit are expressly granted "with strict
compliance with regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury."
If before or after entering into this contract the claimant had
examined these regulations, he would have found that they provided that
"commercial intercourse with localities beyond the lines of actual
military occupation by the United States forces is absolutely
prohibited."
He would have also found that such regulations expressly provided that
the power of the agent of the Government to make contracts should be
founded upon the statement that the contractor then owned or controlled
the products for which he contracted. And yet the permit of the
President, which so completely put the claimant upon inquiry as to what
he might or might not do, seems now to be relied upon as the source of
equities in his favor, and is pressed into his service under the guise
of a sanction of his unlawful proceedings.
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