These authorities, as well as others to which we have had reference, very clearly establish two propositions:
| 1. | That if Arkansas was conquered territory, the laws and government in force at the time of the conquest, remained in force until altered by the conqueror. |
| 2. | That if the government of Arkansas was entirely revolutionized, and all of its departments usurped by force, without law or protection, and, consequently, owing no allegiance to any power, the people of the state, as of necessity, had a right to establish, de facto, a government for themselves. |
And thus, we are brought to consider the character and object of the war.
The positions assumed by the defendant's counsel, are based upon the assumption, that the State of Arkansas, at the time the judgment was rendered, was acting with, and part of a foreign government—of this, we will presently consider.
That the late war between the United States government, and that attempted to be established as the Confederate States government, was a civil war, we entertain no doubt. It was, in view of the distinct and well defined limits of the territory, over which there was, at the time, assumed to be a distinct and separate government; of the large and well appointed armies, and well contested conflicts in arms, beyond all question such. It was recognized as a civil war, by foreign nations; so treated by the substantive acts of the United States; so held by writers on international law, and so expressly decided by the supreme court of the United States. Vattel's Law of Nations, page 424; 2 Blackstone's Com. page 669; Lawrence's Wheaton's International Law, page 612; Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheaton's Rep., 337; Proclamation of Queen Victoria, 13th May, 1861; Proclamation of President Lincoln, 16th August, 1861; The Army Warwick prize case, 2 Black, United States Sup. Court Reports, page 635.
"When a party is formed in a state, who no longer obey the sovereign, and are possessed of sufficient strength to oppose him—or when, in a republic, the nation is divided into two opposite
