On this power Mr. Justice Story thus remarks: "The power of remission of fines, penalties, and forfeitures is also included in it, and may, in the last resort, be exercised by the Executive, although it is in many cases by our laws confided to the Treasury Department. No law can abridge the constitutional powers of the Executive Department, or interrupt its right to interpose by pardon in such cases.--Instances of the exercise of this power by the President, in remitting fines and penalties, in cases not within the scope of the laws giving authority to the Treasury Department, have repeatedly occurred, and their obligatory force has never been questioned." (Story, Com. on Constitution, Vol. II. § 1504.) It has been decided by the Supreme Court, after elaborate argument, that "the Secretary of the Treasury has authority, under the Remission Act of the 3d of March, 1797, chap. 361, to remit a forfeiture or penalty accruing under the revenue laws, at any time, before or after a final sentence of condemnation or judgment for the penalty, until the money is actually paid over to the Collector for distribution"; and that "such remission extends to the shares of the forfeiture or penalty to which the officers of the customs are entitled, as well as to the interest of the United States." In giving his opinion on this occasion, Mr. Justice Johnson, of South Carolina, made use of language much in point. "Mercy and justice," he said, "could only have been administered by halves, if collectors could have hurried causes to judgment, and then clung to the one half of the forfeiture, in contempt of the cries of distress or the mandates of the Secretary." (_United States_ v. _Morris_, 10 Wheaton, 303.)