Court : US Supreme Court
..... if any particular instructions had been given on this subject, if any act of ownership had been exerted by stark himself, such conduct might be construed into a relinquishment of an abandonment which had not been accepted; but as nothing of the kind exists, the act of the supercargo is to be considered as the act of the persons interested, whoever they may be. ..... his act is no longer the act of stark, and is not to be considered as an interference on his part which may affect the abandonment. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... lawfully and peaceably pursuing her voyage, she was on 30 december, 1810, violently and forcibly taken by certain persons, acting under the decrees and orders of napoleon, emperor of the french, out of the custody of the libellants, and of their captain and agent, and was disposed of by those persons, or some of them, in violation of the rights of the libellants and of the law of nations ..... a practice would break down some of the most decisive distinctions between peace and war, and would reduce a nation to the necessity of resisting by war an act not absolutely hostile in its character, or of exposing itself to the stratagems and frauds of a power whose integrity might be doubted, and who might enter the ..... opinion on this question, it may safely be affirmed that there is a manifest distinction between the private property of the person who happens to be a prince and that military force which supports the sovereign power and maintains the dignity and the independence ..... a sovereign committing the interests of his nation with a foreign power to the care of a person whom he has selected for that purpose cannot intend to subject his minister in any degree to that power, and therefore a consent to receive him implies a consent that he shall ..... conceive, whatever may be the construction as to private ships, that a prince who stipulates a passage for his troops or an asylum for his ships of war in distress should mean to subject his army or his navy to the jurisdiction of a foreign sovereign. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... i am also of opinion that whenever a case is brought up to this court under that section, the title of the parties litigant must necessarily be inquired into, and that such an inquiry must, in the nature of things, precede the consideration how far the law, treaty, and so forth, is applicable to it; otherwise an appeal to ..... ;, repeals so much of the former act as was supposed to have suspended the operation of the laws of escheat and forfeiture, and then declares that all the property, real and personal within the commonwealth, belonging, at the time of passing the act, to any british subject, "shall be deemed to be vested in the commonwealth; the lands, slaves and other real estate by way of escheat, and the personal estate by forfeiture. ..... but we give no opinion on this point, because the patent of the original plaintiff manifestly issued under the succeeding section -- and upon a construction, which we give to this section, it issued improvidently and passed no title whatever. ..... the case made out in the pleadings does not in law sanction the judgment which has been given upon it, the error sufficiently appears upon the record to bring the case within the xxv section of the judiciary act. ..... section 3 declares who shall be deemed british subjects within the meaning of the act, page 11 u. s. ..... admitting that this section, as to the quit-rents, was equivalent to an inquest of office; it cannot be extended, by construction, to include the waste lands of the proprietor. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... 435 the court did not act on this motion, and of course the points do not appear so as to enable this court to take notice of them. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... done against an enemy is lawful; that he may be destroyed, though unarmed and defenseless; that fraud or even poison may be employed against him; that a most unlimited right is acquired to his person and property; admits that war does not transfer to the sovereign a debt due to his enemy, and therefore, if payment of such debt be not exacted, peace revives the former right of the creditor ..... that he contends for is that though, by the declaration, all the subjects in general are ordered to attack the enemy, yet that by custom this is usually restrained to persons acting under commission, and that the general order does not invite the subjects to undertake any offensive expedition without a commission or particular order ( 227), and that if they do, ..... the law of nations does not, the common law does afford such immunity from confiscation to property situated like the present; 3d, because if the right to confiscate exist, it can be exercised only by a positive act of congress, who have not yet legislated to this extent; 4th, because, if the last position be not fully accurate, yet at all events this process, being a high prerogative power, ought not to ..... it might be as well contended that the power "to provide and maintain a navy" did not include the power to regulate and govern it, because there is ..... war belongs -- a question also examined by vattel in the 229th section of the book and chapter above referred to. ..... the preceding and succeeding sections are taken in connection. ..... section .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... ) 421 appeal from the decree of the circuit court for the district of georgia syllabus under the eighth section of the prize act of june 26, 1812, the president had full authority to issue the instruction of 28 august, 1812. ..... the authority of the president, we do not think it necessary to consider how far he would be entitled, in his character of commander in chief of the army and navy of the united states, independent of any statute provision, to issue instructions for the government and direction of privateers. ..... or authority; that some of them were shipped under general orders (transmitted in time of peace) to ship goods; others under particular orders given during the operation of the orders in council and the nonintercourse act, such as to ship "when the trade opened," "at a proper season," "as soon as it was legal to ship to the united states," &c. ..... considerations of this weight and importance are not lightly to be disregarded, and when the language of the act is so broad and comprehensive, we should not feel at liberty to narrow or weaken its force by a construction not pressed by the letter, or the spirit, or the policy of ..... it has been argued that privateers acquire by their commissions a general right of capture under the prize acts which it is not in the president's power to remove or restrain while the commission is in force, that therefore his right to issue instructions must be construed as subordinate to the general authority derived from the commission, and that .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... if the right to capture property thus offending grows out of the state of war, it is enough to support the condemnation in this case that the act of congress should produce a state of war and that the commission of the privateer should authorize the capture of any property that shall assume the belligerent character. ..... a claim was also interposed by the united states on the ground of a violation by the rapid of the nonintercourse act. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... in the language of sir william scott, i would ask" "who can be insensible to the consequences that might follow if every person, in time of war, had a right to carry on a commercial intercourse with the enemy, and, under color of that, had the means of carrying on any other species of intercourse he ..... i feel myself bound to make very unfavorable inferences against him, and if, in odium spoliatoris, i impute the subtraction to some person on board connected with the voyage, and in the confidence of the master, it is measuring out no injustice to one who appears to deem misstatements and concealments no violent breach ..... we all know that there are many acts which inflict upon neutrals the penalty of confiscation, from the subserviency which they are supposed to indicate to enemy interests; the carrying of enemy dispatches; the transportation of military persons; and the adopting of the coasting trade of ..... there is all the difference between the cases that there is between an active personal cooperation in the measures of the enemy and the merely accidental aid afforded by the pursuit of a fair ..... " "it has been further argued that if the conduct be illegal, it is but a personal misdemeanor in no degree affecting the vessel and cargo, and at all events that the illegality was extinguished by the termination of ..... master took exact copies of these documents for the purpose of sending them to the secretary of the navy, which copies have been produced in court and verified by his affidavit. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... call him home; that he has become the enemy of the country in which he resides; that his continuance in it exposes him to many and serious inconveniences; that his person and property are in danger; it is not, i think, going too far to say that this change in his situation may be considered as changing his intention on the subject of residence, and ..... to remove can change a national character acquired by domicile, and if, at the time of the inception of the voyage as well as at the time of capture, the property belonged to such domiciled person in his character of a subject, what is there that does or ought to exempt it from capture by the privateers of his native country if, at the time of capture, he continues to reside in the ..... time, maitland was domiciled in great britain, and it is contended that the statement that maitland was of new york was untrue, and subjected the vessel to forfeiture, under the act of congress of 31 december, 1792, and that although no claim is interposed for the united states, still the forfeiture produced by the misconduct of lenox, is sufficient to turn ..... ground it is that the courts of england have decided that a person who removes to a foreign country, settles himself there, and engages in the trade of the country furnishes by these acts such evidence of an intention permanently to reside there, as to ..... in a great maritime country, depending on its navy for its glory and its safety, the national bias is perhaps so entirely in this .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... but it may be committed against a person who is owner for the voyage, although he may not be the general owner of the ship. ..... a person may be owner for the voyage who, by a contract with the general owner, hires the ship for the voyage and has the exclusive possession, command, and navigation of the ship. ..... barratry is an act committed by the master or mariners of a ship for some unlawful or fraudulent purpose, contrary to their duty to their owners, whereby the latter sustain an injury. ..... barratry is an act committed by the master or mariners of a ship for some unlawful or fraudulent purpose contrary to their duty to their owner whereby the latter sustains an injury. .....
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