Foster v. United States

Decided December 15, 1869

United States Court of Claims · decided 1869-12-15

The claimant, as the administrator of his deceased father, Erastus Foster, seeks to recover in this action the net proceeds of seventy-one bales of upland cotton of which the intestate was the owner, and which were seized in Mobile by the Union authorities after the .capture of that city in 1865. The record shows that the claimant is a citizen of the State of New York, and that his father, during- the late rebellion, and up to the time of his decease, was a citizen of Kansas.

Decided 1869-12-15

Nott, J.,

¶1dissenting:

¶2The claimant’s intestate, on whose loyalty the case depends, went into a country threatening to rebel, and voluntarily remained after civil Avar had broken out. He made no attempt to return to his residence in the loyal States until July, 1861. The purpose for which he remained Avas merely to procure better prices for his horses. It does not excuse the act. The case comes within the decision in the case of The William Bagaley, (5 Wallace R., pp. 377, 408,) where Mr. Justice Clifford well defines the duty of a citizen when war breaks out: “ If it be a foreign war, and he is abroad, he is to return without delay; and if it be a civil Avar, and he is a resident in the rebellious section, he should leave it as soon as practicable, and adhere to the established government.”