Grinnan v. Edwards

21 W. Va. 347, 1883 W. Va. LEXIS 112
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 7, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 21 W. Va. 347 (Grinnan v. Edwards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grinnan v. Edwards, 21 W. Va. 347, 1883 W. Va. LEXIS 112 (W. Va. 1883).

Opinion

Woods, Judge,

announced the opinion of the Court:

This cause was heard and determined in the court below, upon the demurrers to the plaintiffs’ original and amended bills and therefore every allegation thereof upon consi deration of said demurrers is taken to be true. It is therefore admitted, that the plaintiff, Andrew G. Grinnan, on the 15th of October, 1860, who at that time, and for many years prior thereto, resided in Madison county, Virginia, where he continued to reside during the continuance of the civil war, entered into a contract .with the defendant, William II. Edwards, whereby he sold, and agreed to convey to the said Grinnan a tract of land in Fayette county, Virginia, containing five thousand acres, at the price of nine thousand three hundred and ninety-eight dollars and thirty-one cents, of which three thousand were in hand paid and the residue, veas to be paid in two equal installments which respectively became payable on the 15th of October, 1861, and the 15th of January, 1862, bearing interest from the-date of said purchase, at the rate of seven per centum per annum; that at the date of said purchase, the said Edwards and his wife, made and delivered to the said Grinnan, a title-bond, in the penalty of twelve thousand dollars with condition, upon the payment of said purchase-money to convey the said land to said Grinnan in trust, as follows: one half thereof as trustee for said William II. Smith, to he held upon the same terms as are [355]*355specified in said agreement dated the 10th of February, 1859, and the residue to his own use, in the same manner, and to the same extent as he held the same on the 27th ot April, 1860, under said deeds from said Smith and wile, to said Grinnan dated respectively October 1, 1857, and October 29, 1857, and the whole of said tract to be held by said Grinnan upon trust to said Abigail H. Smith for one tenth of the net proceeds of the sale of the said land. It is further admitted, the said interest of said ¥m. K. Smith, in the hands of said Grinnan was with other lands charged wTitli the payment of twenty-five thousand dollars to said Abigail II. Smith, and ten thousand dollars to said plaintiff B. E. Chewning; and that before either of said installments became due the said war began, and that payment thereof was, for that cause not made, and could not lawfully be made.

The first questions arising on this state of facts are, what was the relation existing between said contracting parties, after the commencement, and during the continuance of the war; and what effect did the war have while it continued, upon, the rights of the said parties under the said contract V

It is a well settled doctrine, among civilized nations in modern times that the law of nations is a part of the municipal law, and that the government of the United States, and of the several States composing the same, are bound by it, until the United States shall by act of Congress otherwise determine for itself.

By the proclamations of the President of the United States dated the 19th and the 27th of April, 1861, respectively, a blockade of the ports ot South Carolina,. North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia was declared to exist, and the proclamation of Commodore Pendergast, dated the 30th day of April, 1861, announced to the world, that the blockade so declared was established. These proclamations, were the solemn, authorized declarations of the government of the United States in the exercise of its sovereign power, that a state of war existed between the said States, and the government of the United States, to continue until otherwise determined by Congress, or until resisten ce to the government of the United States within the said States shall cease.

[356]*356A blockade, is the exercise of a belligerent right; before a blockade can be declared, a war must exist; and a blockade lawfully declared, is conclusive evidence that a state of war exists between the nation declaring such blockade, and the nation whose ports are blockaded.

That such a state oi war existed between the government of the United States, and the several States named in the President’s proclamations before referred to, and that said blockade was lawfully declared, and had become efficient, were questions fully considered and settled by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the “Prize Cases,” reported in 2d Black’s Repts. p. 635.

If any doubts had existed as to the actual existence of a state of war, at the date of said blockade, they were dispelled by the act of Congress passed on the 13th of July, 1861, and by the proclamation of the President of the United States, issued in pursuance thereof, on the 16th of August, 1861. By the 5th section of the said act of Congress it is, among other things enacted, that where such a state of facts, as is therein mentioned exists, “it may, and shall be lawful for the President, by proclamation to declare, that the inhabitants of such State, or any part or section thereof, where such insurrection exists are in a state of insurrection against the United States; and thereupon all commercial intercourse, by and between the same, and the citizens thereof, and the citizens of the rest of the United States, shall cease and be unlawful, so long as such condition of hostility shall continue; and all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from said State or section into the other parts of the United States, and all proceeding to such State or section, shall be forfeited to the United States.” Acting under the authority of said 5th section of said act, the President of the United States issued his proclamation dated the 16th day of August, 1861, and thereby declared “ that the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, except the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia tying west of the Allegheny mountains, and of certain other sections not necessary to be named, were in a state of insurrection against the Uninied States, and [357]*357that all commercial intercourse between the same, and the inhabitants thereof (with the exceptions aforesaid) and the citizens of other States, and other parts of the United States, is unlawful, and will remain unlawful, until such insurrection shall cease, or has been repressed; and that all goods and chattels, wares, and merchandise, &c., coming from an j of said States with the exceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, without special license, &c., will be forfeited to the United States.”

By said act of Congress, and said proclamation of the 16th of August, 1861, the legal status of the said plaintiffs and the defendant ¥m. H. Edwards, from that date, until the termination of the civil war was .determined. What was this legal status then existing between them? A war having been declared, or recognized to exist between two belligerents, whether it be a foreign or a civil war, what is its effect upon their citizens, or subjects? They thereby become enemies of each other.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
21 W. Va. 347, 1883 W. Va. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grinnan-v-edwards-wva-1883.