Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/92/130/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:26:26+00:00

Document:
Since 1847, pursuant to the act of Congress of the preceding year, the State of Virginia has been in de facto possession of the County of Alexandria, which, prior thereto, formed a part of the District of Columbia. The political department of her government has, since that date, uniformly asserted, and the head of her judicial department expressly affirmed, her title thereto. Congress has, by more than one act, recognized the transfer as a settled fact. A resident of that county, in a suit to recover the amount by him paid under protest for taxes upon his property there situate is therefore estopped from raising the question as to the validity of the retrocession.
Alexandria was not within the jurisdiction of the state of Virginia, but that it was within the District of Columbia. He avers that the act of Congress of 1846, before mentioned, everything done under it, and the law of Virginia reannexing the county to the state and extending her jurisdiction over it are contrary to the Constitution of the United States and illegal and void.
The defendant demurred. The court below sustained the demurrer and gave judgment for the defendant.
The question presented for our determination is whether there was error in this ruling.
The law of prescription applies to nations with the same effect as between individuals. Lawrence's Wheat. 303, 304; Vattel, b. 2, c. 11, secs. 141, 146, 147, 149.
In cases involving the action of the political departments of the government, the judiciary is bound by such action. Williams v. Suffolk Ins. Co., 13 Pet. 420; Garcia v. Lee, 12 Pet. 511; Kennet v. Chamberlain, 14 How. 38; Foster v. Nelson, 2 Pet. 209; Nabob of the Carnatic v. East Ind. Co., 2 Ves.Jr. 60; Luther v. Borden, 7 How. 1; Rhode Island v. Massachusetts, 12 Pet. 714.
Under certain circumstances, a constitutional provision may, like a forfeiture, be waived by a party entitled to insist upon it. 6 Hill 48; 24 Wend. 337; 3 Comst. 199, 511; 18 Barb. 585.
The acts of an officer de facto, within the sphere of the powers and duties of the office he assumes to hold, are as valid and binding with respect to the public and third persons as if they had been done by an officer de jure. Elwood v. Monk, 6 East, 235; King v. Corp. Bedford, 6 East 368; Tucker v. Aiken, 7 N.H. 134; Fowler v. Babe, 9 Mass. 231; Com. v.
Fowler, 10 id. 291; People v. Collins, 7 J.R. 549. These propositions were referred to in the discussion at the bar, and we have not overlooked them.
The State of Virginia is de facto in possession of the territory in question. She has been in possession, and her title and possession have been undisputed, since she resumed possession in 1847 pursuant to the act of Congress of the preceding year. More than a quarter of a century has since elapsed. During all that time, she has exercised jurisdiction over the territory in all respects as before she ceded it to the United States. She does not complain of the retrocession. The political departments of her government, by their conduct, have uniformly asserted her title, and the head of her judicial department has expressly affirmed it. McLaughlin v. Bank of Potomac, 7 Gratt. 68. The United States have not objected. No murmur of discontent has been heard from them; on the contrary, Congress, by more than one act, has recognized the transfer as a settled and valid fact. Act of July 5, 1848, c. 92, 9 Stat. 244; Act of Feb. 2, 1871, c. 33, 16 Stat. 402; Rev.Stat.U.S., sec. 1795. Both parties to the transaction have been and still are entirely satisfied. If the objection taken by the plaintiff in error were maintained in the length and breadth insisted upon, serious consequences would follow. In that view, a part of them would be that all laws of the state passed since the retrocession, as regards the County of Alexandria, were void; taxes have been illegally assessed and collected; the election of public officers, and the payment of their salaries, were without warrant of law; public accounts have been improperly settled; all sentences, judgments, and decrees of the courts were nullities, and those who carried them into execution are liable civilly, and perhaps criminally, according to the nature of what they have severally done.
send ambassadors and make treaties. Such treaties bind the nation and descend in full force upon any succeeding government that may be established. The assailants of a king de facto in England are liable to be punished for treason. Such was the rule of the common law, and the celebrated statute of Henry VII only reaffirmed it. The legislative and judicial authorities called into existence may proceed as if the prior government had not been displaced. All municipal functions may be performed without regard to the origin of the new polity. Cromwell's ambassadors were received everywhere. Hale accepted from him the place of a judge of the common pleas. After the Restoration, Charles II made him Chief Baron of the Exchequer and subsequently Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The Code Napoleon was the work of a ruler whose government rose amid the ruins of a revolution and was subsequently overthrown. The governments of both these rulers were doubtless regarded by the other governments of Europe as only de facto. Whether they were or were not de jure also is a question which in this case it is unnecessary to consider.
In all cases where the United States have been called upon to recognize the existence of the government or the independence of any other country, they have looked only to the fact, and not to the right. Such has been the uniform course of our government. 1 Kent's Com. (Comst. ed.), 170; Vattel, b. 2, c. 12, secs. 196, 197; id., b. 4, c. 2, secs. 14, 18; 1 Hale's P.C. 101; Foster's Crown Law, pp. 397, 399; Camp. Lives of Ch.Justices, 526; Lawrence's Wheat. 49, note; id. 471, note.
The plaintiff in error is estopped from raising the point which he seeks to have decided. He cannot, under the circumstances, vicariously raise a question nor force upon the parties to the compact an issue which neither of them desires to make.

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