By the time the suit was filed both Lloyd and President Lincoln , the only two parties to the original oral contract , had died . There was thus little substantive evidence of the original contract upon which decide the case . Nevertheless , the United States Court of Claims found as a factual matter that Lloyd had proceeded to the Confederate States under contract to spy on President Lincoln 's behalf . But the court was equally divided on whether the President of the United States had the authority to unilaterally bind the government to such a contract and opted to dismiss the claim
died
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Totten v. United States