The judgment of this court in Mitchell v. United States, 21 Wall. 350, is decisive of this case. It is unnecessary to repeat what was there said. The subject of domicile in some of its aspects was carefully considered. We shall avail ourselves of its rulings without again specially referring to it. The findings of the Court of Claims furnish the facts we are to consider, and we cannot look beyond them. For the purposes of this case they import absolute verity and conclude both parties.
Before the breaking out of the late civil war, the appellant was domiciled in the city of New Orleans. He was a member of a commercial partnership there. There is no proof of any change of domicile subsequently. A domicile once existing continues until another is acquired. A person cannot be without a legal domicile somewhere. Where a change of domicile is alleged, the burden of proof rests upon the party making the allegation.
The cotton covered by the claim in the present case was all purchased by the appellant in the parish of St. Landry, in the State of Louisiana, between the 1st of October, 1862, and the 1st of April, 1863. That territory was then within the rebel lines. The appellant was there acting as the agent of the rebel government in exchanging its bonds for Confederate notes. His office, as such agent, was at Opelousas, in that parish.
On the 6th of April, 1862, Admiral Farragut reached New Orleans with his fleet. On the following day he demanded of the mayor the surrender of the city. No resistance was offered. On the 1st of May transports conveying the troops of General Butler arrived. On the following day their landing was completed. The military occupation of the city by the United States than began, and it continued without interruption down to the close of the war. On the 6th of May the commanding general issued a proclamation (prepared and dated on the 1st), whereby it was declared that 'all rights of property of whatever kind will be held inviolate, subject only to the laws of the United States.' The non-intercourse act of July 13, 1861 (12 Stat. 257), and the President's proclamations of the 16th of August, 1861 (12 Stat. 1262), of the 12th of May, 1862 (12 Stat. 1262), and of the 2d of April, 1863 (13 Stat. 731), need not be particularly adverted to. They have been so often considered by this court in previous cases, that the public and the profession are familiar with them. The parish of St. Landry was also subjugated by the arms of the United States in April, 1863. The cotton in question was thereupon seized, and subsequently sold, and the proceeds paid into the treasury of the United States, where they remain. Those proceeds are the subject of this litigation.