delivered the opinion of the court.
This case is brought here by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois. The plaintiff in error, Frederick M. Iier, was indicted, tried, and convicted in the Criminal Court of Cook County, in that State, for larceny. The indict- ■ ment also included charges of. embezzlement. - During' the proceedings connected with’the trial the defendant presented..a plea in abatement, which, on demurrer, was overruled, and the defendant refusing to plead further, a plea of not guilty was entered for him, according to the statute of that State, by
’ Th'e substance of the plea in abatement, which is a very long one, is, that the defendant, being in the city of Lima, in Perú, after the offences were charged to have been committed, was •in fact kidnapped and brought to this country against his will. His statement is, that, application having been made by the parties who were injured, Governor Hamilton, of Illinois, made his requisition, in. writing, to .the Secretary' of State of the Hnited States, for a warrant requesting the extradition of the defendant, by the Executive of the Republic of Peru, from that country to Cook County; that, on the first day of March, ,1883, the President of the United States issued his warrant, in due form, directed to Henry G. Julian, as messenger, to receive the defendant from the authorities of Peru, upon a charge of larceny, in compliance with the treaty between the United States and OPeru on that
subject;
that the said Julian, having the necessary papers with him, arrived in Lima, but, without presenting them tó any officer of the Peruvian government, or making any demand on that government for the surrender1 of Ker, forcibly and with violence arrested him, placed him on board the United States vessel Essex, in the harbor of Callao, kept him a close prisoner until the arrival of that vessel at Honolulu, where, after some detention, he was transferred in the same forcible manner on board another vessel, to wit, the City of Sydney, in which he was carried a prisoner to San Francisco, in the State of California. ' The plea then states, that, before his arrival in that city, Governor Hamilton had made a requisition on the Governor of California, under the lawis and Constitution of the United States, for the delivery ‘ up of the defendant, as a fugitive from justice, who- had escaped to that State on account of the same offences charged in the requisition on Peru and in the indictment in this case.The requisition arrived, as the plea states, and was presented to the Governor of California, who made his order for the sur-, render of the defendant to the person appointed by the Governor-of Illinois, namely, one Prank Warner, on the 25th day ■ of June, 1883. The defendant arrived in the city of San
The plea is very full of averments that the defendant protested, .and was refused any opportunity whatever, from the time of jais arrest in Lima until he was delivered over to the authorities of Cook County, of conimunicating with any person or seeking any advice? or assistance in regard to procuring his release by legal process or otherwise; and he alleges that this proceeding is a violation of' the provisions of the treaty be- ■ tween the United States and'Peru, negotiated in 1870, which was finally ratified by the two governments and proclaimed • by the President of the United States, July 27,1874. 18 Stat. 719.
' The judgment of' the Criminal Court of Cook County, Illinois, was carried by writ of error to the Supreme Court of that State, and there affirmed, to which judgment the present writ of error is directed. The assignments of error made here are as follows:
“ First. That said Supreme Court of Illinois erred in affirming the judgment of said Criminal Court of Cook County, sustaining the. demurrer to plaintiff in error’s plea to the jurisdiction of said Criminal Court. . .
“ Second. That said Supreme Court of Illinois erred in its judgment aforesaid, in failing to enforce the full faith and credit of the Federal treaty with the Eepublic of Peru, invoked' by plaintiff' in error in his said plea to • the jurisdiction of said Crimihal Court.”
The grounds upon which the jurisdiction of this court is invoked may be said to be three, though from the briefs and , arguments of counsel it is doubtful whether, in point of fact, more than one is relied upon. It is contended in several places in the brief that the proceedings in the arrest in Peru, and the extradition and delivery to the authorities of Cook County, were not “ due process of law,” and we may suppose, although
So, also, the objection is made that the proceedings between the authorities of the State of Illinois and those of the State of California were not in accordance with the act of Congress on that subject, and especially that, at the time the papers and warrants were issued from the governors of California and Illinois, the defendant was not within the State of California and was not there a fugitive from justice. This argument is not much pressed by counsel, and was scarcely noticed in the Su
But the main proposition insisted on by counsel for plaintiff in error in this court is, that by virtue of the treaty of extradition with Peru the defendant acquired by his residence.in that, country a right of asylum, a right ’ to be free from molestation for the crime committed in Illinois, a positive right in him that he should only he forcibly removed from Peru to the State of' Illinois in accordance with the provisions of the treaty, anci that this right is one which he. can assert in the courts of the ITnited States'in all cases, whether the removal took place under proceedings sanctioned by the treaty, or under proceedings which -were in total disregard of that treaty, amounting to an unlawful and unauthorized lddnapping.
This view of the subject is presented in various forms and repeated in various shapes, in the argument of counsel. The fact that this, question was raised in the Supreme Court of Illinois may be said to confer jurisdiction onthis court, because, in 'making- this claim, the defendant asserted a right under a treaty of the United States, and, whether the assertion was
'' There is no language in this treaty, or in any other treaty made by this country on the subject of extradition, of which we áre aware, which says in terms that a party fleeing from the United States to escape punishment for crime .becomes thereby entitled to an asylum in the country to which he has fled; indeed, the absurdity of such a proposition would at once prevent the making of a treaty of that kind. It will not be for a moment contended that the government of Peru could not have ordered Her out of the country on his arrival, or . at any period of his residence there. If this could bé done, what becomes of his right of asylum ?
’■Nor can it be doubted that the government of Peru: could of its own accord, without any demand from the United Staf is, have surrendered Her to an agent of the State of Illinois, and that such surrender would have been valid within the dominions of Peru. It is idle, therefore, to claim that, either by express terms or by implication, there is given to a fugitive from justice in one of these countries any right to remain and reside in the other; and if the right of asylum means anything, it must mean this. The right of the government of Peru voluntarily to give a party in Kbr’s condition an asylum-in that country, is quite a different thing from the right in him to demand and insist upon security in such an asylum. The treaty, so far as it regulates the right of asylum at all, is intended to limit this right in the case of one who is proved to ' be a criminal fleeing from justice, so- that, on proper demand' and proceedings had therein, the government of the country of the asylum shall deliver him up to the country where the crime Avas committed. And to this extent, and to this alone, the treaty does regulate or impose a restriction upon the right of the government of the country of the asylum to protect the criminal from removal therefrom.
' In the case before us, the plea shows, that, although Julian "Vent to Peru Avith the necessary papers-to procure the extradition of Iver under the treaty, those papers remained in his ’ pocket and were never brought to light in Peru; that no steps
In the case of United States v. Rauscher, just decided, ante, 407, and considered with this, the effect of extradition proceedings under a treaty was very fully considered, and it was there held, that, when a party was duly surrendered, by proper proceedings, under the treaty of 1842 with Great Britain, he came to this country clothed with the protection which the nature of such proceedings and the true construction oí the treaty gave him. One of the rights with which he was thus, clothed, both in regard to himself and in good faith to the country' which had sent him here, w.as, that he should be tried for no other offence than the • one for which he was delivered under the extradition proceedings., If Ker had been brotight to this' country by proceedings under the treaty of 1870-74 with Peru, it 'seems probable, from the statement of the casé in the record, that he might have successfully pleaded that he was extradited for larceny, and convicted by the verdict of a jury of embezzlement ; for the statement in the plea is, that the demand made by the President of the United States, if it had been, put in operation, was for an extradition for larceny, although some forms of embezzlement are mentioned in the treaty as subjects of extradition. But it is quité a different case when the'plain-' tiff in error comes to this country in the manner in which he was brought here, clothed with no rights which a proceeding - under the treaty could have given him, and no duty which this country awes to Peru or to him under the treaty'. ■
Wé think it very clear, therefore, that, in invoking the jurisdiction of this court upon the ground that the prisoner was', denied a right conferred upon him by a treaty of the United States, he has faded to establish the existence of any such right.
However this may be, the decision of that question,is as' .much within the province of the State court, as a question of eommqn law, or of the law of nations, of which that court is bound, to take notice,, as it is of the courts of the United States. And though we. might or might not differ with the Illinois court on that subject, it is one in which we have no right to 'review their decision.
It must be remembered that this view of the subject does hot leave the prisoner or the government of Peru without remedy for his unauthorized seizure within its territory. Even this treaty with that country provides for the extradition of persons charged with kidnapping, and on demand from Peru, Julian, the party who is guilty of it, could be surrendered and tried in its courts for this violation of its laws. The party himself would probably not. be without redress, for he could ■ sue Julian in an action of trespass and false imprisonment, and the facts set out in the plea would without doubt sustain the action.' "Whether he could recover a sum sufficient to justify the action would probably depend upon moral aspects of the case, whict we cannot here consider.
Affirmed.