Nathan Clifford

“ Pleadings, in informations for seizures upon land, or for confiscation of property, as well as in causes of admiralty or maritime jurisdiction, or in actions at law, or suits in equity, are governed by certain well-established rules of practice, which require that the allegations shall correspond with the facts as proved, and that the information, as in the case of a libel, declaration, or bill of complaint, if filed in a Federal court, shall show that the court has jurisdiction of the cause of action. ”

“ Lyon, still on his own showing he and his co-purchasers (who are, in fact, complainants against Huckabee and his co-corporators) have a perfectly good title. They allege a valid sale to the Confederate government, the capture of the property by the United States, the extinction of the Confederate government, and a sale to them by the United States confirmed by Congress. They do not allege any claim by anybody, or any cloud on their title. They seek to confiscate a title which, according to their own showing, has no existence whatever. ”

“ Congress has never admitted that the government o the United States acquired title to lands from or through the Confederate States, either by capture, succession, or treaty. Such an admission necessarily implies that the Confederate States had enough of legal corporate capacity to hold a title to lands; and this fact conceded, it must have had sovereignty, for it did not pretend to hold lands otherwise than as a sovereign power.
2. The deed was made by duress. It was made under such constraint as left the grantors without that freedom of choice and will that is essential in every contract. ”

“ Decided cases may be found which deny that contracts procured by menace of a mere battery to the person, or of trespass to lands, or loss of goods, can be avoided on that account, as such threats it is said are not of a nature to overcome the will of a firm and prudent man; but many other decisions of high authority adopt a more liberal rule, and hold that contracts procured by threats of battery to the person, or of destruction of property, may be avoided by proof of such facts, because, in such a case, there is nothing but the form of a contract without the substance. ”

“ Usually where a court has no jurisdiction of a case, the correct practice is to dismiss the suit, but a different rule necessarily prevails in an appellate court in cases where the subordinate court was without jurisdiction and has given judgment or decree for the plaintiff or improperly decreed affirmative relief to a claimant. ”

“ Responsive to that, the present defendants filed an amended answer excepting to the amended information; because it appears that the United States have no longer any interest in the prosecution, as they have released their right in the property to the other claimants, and because the jurisdiction of the court is ousted as relates to the property sought to be condemned. ”

“ Unlawful duress is a good defence to a contract if it includes such degree of constraint or danger, either actually inflicted or threatened and impending, as is sufficient in severity or apprehension to overcome the mind and will of a person of ordinary firmness. ”

“ The deed recited that at a meeting of all the stockholders, held on September 9th, 1863, it was resolved unanimously that the president be authorized, for the sum of $600,000, to sell to the Confederate States all lands, negroes, mules, &c., and to execute deeds of warranty; and that the party of the second part agreed to pay the said sum for the said property, provided the said stockholders united in the conveyance. The deed contained full covenants of warranty. ”

“ Much discussion of the topic, however, is unnecessary, as the record does not exhibit any sufficient evidence, in either point of view, to support such a defence or to warrant the court in finding for the defendants upon any such ground, which is all that need be said upon the subject, as it is obvious that that objection cannot be sustained. ”

“ All captures in war vest primarily in the sovereign, but in respect to real property, Chancellor Kent says, the ac uisition by the conqueror is not fully consummated until confirmed by a treaty of peace, or by the entire submission or destruction of the state to which it belonged, which latter rule controls the question in the case before the court, as the confederation having been utterly destroyed no treaty of peace was or could be made, as a treaty requires at least two contracting parties. ”