Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/510

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503 FEDERA.! EEPOF.ÏEB. �to that treaty, or any other made under the authority of the United States, null and void. National or federal jiulges are bound hy duty and oath to the same conduct." Id. 237. And again : "It is asked, did the fourth article intend to annul a law of the state, and destroy rights under it? I answer,that the fourth article did intend to destroy ail lawful impedi- ments, past and future ; and that the law of Virginia, and the payment under it, is a lawful impediment, and would bar a recovery if not destroyed by this article of the treaty. * *

  • I have already proved that a treaty can totally annihi-

late any part of the constitution of any of the individual states that is contrary to a treaty." Id. 242-3. �The case of Hauenstein v. Lynham, being an action by cit- izensand residents of Switzerland, heirs of an alien who died in Virginia, leaving property which had been adjudged to have escheated to the state, to recover the proceeds of said prop- erty, was decided at the present term of the United States supreme court on writ of error to the court of appeals of the state of Virginia. The courts of Virginia had held that, under the laws of Virginia, the proceeds of the property sought to be recovered belonged to the state; but the judgment was reversed by the supreme court of the United States, on the ground that the laws of Virginia were in conflict with a treaty of the United States with the Swiss Confederation. After construing the treaty, the court says : "It remains to con- sider the eiïect of the treaty thus construed upon the right» of the parties. That the laws of the state, irrespective of the treaty, would put the fund into her coffers, is no objection to the right or the remedy claimed by the plaintiiïs in error. The efficacy of the treaty is declared and guaranteed by the constitution of the United States." �The court cites and comments upon Ware v. Hylton, supra, and then proceeds : "In Chirac v. Chirac, 2 Wheat. 259, it was held by this court that a treaty with France ga-ve to the citizens of that country the right to purohase and hold laud in the United States, and that it removed the incapacity of alienage, and plaaed the parties in precisely the same situa- tinn aa if they had been citizens of this country. The state ��� �