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122 HEPBURN'S CASE.
of that final determination, Maryland, by sundry resolutions,
authorized the debtors to withdraw the amounts paid by them, re-
spectively, (y) But all that relates to this view of the subject of
this enactment is entirely foreign to the matter now under conside-
ration.
This eleventh section of the act of October, 1780, ch. 5, ap-
plied to nothing but the debts due to the Mollisons from the citizens
of Maryland; under which it appears, that some of their debtors
actually made payments into the treasury during the year 1781, to
the amount of about $9,000; and the acts of April, 1782, ch. 46,
and November, 1782, ch. 18, which, as it would seem, have been
erroneously treated as private acts, after reciting that Thomas Contee
had been the factor and agent of the Mollisons, clothes him with
full power to collect all debts due to them, for the benefit of their
creditors, and to pay into the public treasury the balance by him
collected. These special acts were, soon after the peace of 1783,
repealed, (z)
But the general law of 1780, as well as these special acts of
1782, without at all affecting any remedy which Hepburn had
against the Mollisons' personalty, or any other portions of their
property, did in the most explicit terms preserve, and even im-
prove all his remedies against their debts which were the subject
of those enactments. For, it is expressly declared by the general
law, that all sums of money so paid into the treasury should be
'liable to the attachment of creditors;' and it is positively provided
by the special acts, that nothing therein contained should affect the
creditor's right to proceed by attachment. Hepburn, as a creditor
of the Mollisons, could have reached their debts, for the purpose
of obtaining satisfaction of his own claim, in no other mode than
by an attachment, making their debtors garnishees; and here it is
distinctly declared, that the state may, in effect, be made a gar-
nishee under certain circumstances, in place of the debtors. So far
then the direction of the remedy was changed; but it was, in fact,
thereby much improved; because, it was more easy to ascertain
whether the state held any thing, and how much, than any indivi-
dual who might be summoned as garnishee, (a)
It was declared, that no book, papers, or evidences of debts due
to British subjects, such as the Mollisons then were, should be
(y) Resol. 1797, No. 14 and 15; Resol. 1798, No. 30; 4 Secret Jour. Cong. 200 -
(z) 1784, ch. 74.—(a) Ware v. Hylton, 3 Dall, 268,
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