The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-03-30
Important Decision.
IHpUItUHt D~NH0NV"a
The following important decision has
lust been rendered

The following important decision has
Just been rendered
TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
SECOND CoMPTRoLLER's OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, March %, 1866.
SIR It appears from your statement
that certain persons residing in the So
called Confederate States during the
rebellion, and who had q domicile in
said States before the civil wal and du-
ring its continuance, nov come and de.
msnd Of the Government balances
which they sllege were due and payable
to them before said civil war begun.
Are they lawfully entitled to the pay
ment of these balances 2
1 am of opinion that the claimants
are not 30 entitled. The laws of ma
tions, the laws of Congress, and the de-
cisions of the Supreme Court justify
that opinion.
While the war continued claimants,
in the y Of the law, were regarded as
hostile characters, and their property as
enemy's property, liable to seizure and
con6scation; and the hostile quality at
taches TO both persons and things until,
by the action of Congress or of the Ex-
e~cutive, it is wholly removed.
The rule of law 10 be observed in the
present case is that applicable alike to
civil and international wars for the
general usages ofnstions regards such a
war [ciVil war a emitting both the
contending parties to all the rights of
war as against each other, and % as
~ar~No14r r,,r,A~r1 ,o&-n,, IUtan Whna
ton on international Law. p. 522 also,
Vsttel, book III, CD. xviii, p. 426 ; Rose
VS.. Himely, Branch R, 272; The Ven
ice, 2 Wallace R, 258.)
"We must be governed" says the
Chief Justice, 'by the principle of pub
lie law, so often announced from the
bench as applicable alike to civil and
international wars, that all the people
of each State or district, in instruction
against the United States, and must be
regarded as enemies until by the &C
ton of the Legislature and the Execu-
tive, or otherwise, that relation is thor
oughly and permanently changed"
Cease of Mrs. Alexsnder's cotton, 2
Wallace R, 4l9.)
And Hfrom the moment our State is
at war with another it has, on general
principles, a right to seize on all the
enemy's property thus taken TO its own
use or TO that of the captors." (Whea-
ton, supra, p 500; also, Vattel, supra,
sec. l6l, P. 364)
Debts stand upon the same ground in
this regard as other property, wide
Phillimore on International Law, vol.
iii, p. l32, sec. 81, Brown vs. United
States, s Cranch R, ..140.)
The authorities above cited establish
the right of the United States to the
debts due a rebel enemv at the time
the war commenced. They also prove
that, in a legal point of view, claimants
were enemies of the Government of the
United States.
These debts, therefore, never having
been reduced to possession, but always
having remained as balances in the
treasury, cannot now be withdrawn by
claimants, in violation of law. For the
title of these balances, jUre bSli, must
be regarded as Invested from the origi-
nal owners and transferred to the
United States wide Wheaton, supra, p.
629.) Very respectfully,
Your obdient servant,
J. NJ. BRoDHEAD, Comptroller.
Gen. A B. EATON, COMFY General.