Stephen Johnson Field

“ The existence of war, does, indeed, close the courts of each belligerent to the citizens of the other, but it does not prevent the citizens of one belligerent from taking proceedings for the protection of their own property in their own courts, against the citizens of the other, whenever the latter can be reached by process. ”

“ The original bill alleges, in substance, that the complainant is in possession and seized in fee of the tract, deraigning his title from a grant issued by the government of Spain, in 1766, to Indians of the mission of San Jos e, in Texas; that the defendants have made locations and surveys of large parcels of the tract under certificates or warrants issued by the Republic of Texas, by virtue of which they assert a right to the parcels thus located and surveyed, and have thereby created a cloud upon the title of the complainant, and disturbed his possession. ”

“ But the counsel of the appellant Maverick, looking outside of the record to the condition of the country at the time the decree was rendered, takes the position that the decree is null and void because rendered by the court before the proclamation of the President of August 20th, 1866, announcing the close of the war in Texas, contending that, as the complainants were citizens of California and Illinois, and the defendants citizens of Texas, it was a decree in a suit between public enemies, and, therefore, void. ”