Noah Haynes Swayne

“ Whether Congress could have conferred the power to do such an act is a question we are not called upon to consider. It is an unbending rule of law, that the exercise of military power, where the rights of the citizen are concerned, shall never be pushed beyond what the exigency requires. ”

“ On the 25th of August, 1863, Mary Raymond bought from Thomas, the defendant in error, a small house and lot situated in Greenville, S.C., for which she gave him her note for $7,000, payable six months after the ratification of peace between the Confederates and the United States, or before, at her option, with annual interest from the first day of September, 1863. The premises were conveyed at the time of the sale, and the grantee gave back a mortgage to secure the payment of the note. ”

“ This decree, upon the appeal of Thomas, was affirmed by the Court of Errors of the State at its December Term, 1867. On the 25th of January, 1868, Chancellor Carrol, sitting in the Common Pleas, decreed that the amount due in conformity to the master's report was $3,265.62; that, unless that sum was paid as directed, the commissioner should sell the premises; and that, if the proceeds were insufficient to pay the debt and costs, the complainant might issue execution for the balance. ”