Stephen Johnson Field

“ In the consideration of transactions between citizens of the insurrectionary districts, no disposition has been manifested by this court, and none exists, to interfere with the regular administration of the law, or with the ordinary proceedings of society in their varied forms, civil or political, except when they tended to impair the just authority of the general government or the rights of loyal citizens. Transactions which thus affect the government or the individual can never be upheld in any tribunal which recognizes the constitution of the United States as the supreme law of the land. ”

“ If they succeed, rebellion becomes revolution, and the new government will justify its founders. If they fail, all their hostile acts to the rightful government are violations of law, and originate no rights which can be recognized by the courts of the nation whose authority and existence have been alike assailed.' Shortridge v. ”

“ In the course of the two years following, the effects and property of the estate were converted into money, its debts settled, and the portions pain to which the legatees in Tennessee were entitled. The executor was desirous of paying the balance to the legatees in Illinois and California, but, owing to the civil war, he could not communicate with them nor remit the money. In 1863, while this balance was still in his possession, he was notified, under proceedings of a court at Knoxville, Tennessee, established by the confederate government, to pay the amount to a confederate agent. ”