Stephen Johnson Field

“ Such being the case, the transaction is one which is fatally tainted. The sale of the cotton was to the Confederate States; the money paid and goods delivered for its redemption were for the benefit of those States, to assist them in their war against the government and authority of the United States. The money paid and the goods delivered constituted, therefore, nothing less than a direct contribution to the support of the insurgents: they gave aid and comfort to the enemy. No demand arising out of such a transaction can have any standing in the courts of the Union. ”

“ To constitute the coercion or duress which will be regarded as sufficient to make a payment involuntary,-treating now the redemption of the cotton as made in money, goods being taken as equivalent for a part of the amount,-there must be some actual or threatened exercise of power possessed, or believed to be possessed, by the party exacting or receiving the payment over the person or property of another, from which the latter has no other means of immediate relief than by making the payment. ”

“ As a foreigner domiciled in the country, he was bound to obey all the laws of the United States not immediately relating to citizenship, and was equally amenable with citizens to the penalties prescribed for their infraction. ”