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A Supreme Court case of importance. In 1796 Ware, a citizen of Great Britain, brought suit against Hylton, of Virginia, for the recovery of a debt. Hylton refused payment on the plea that the act of the Virginia Legislature of 1777 enabled debtors of British subjects to pay such debts to the State loan office. Hylton claimed to have done this. The U. S. Circuit Court in Virginia decreed for the defendant, but the Supreme Court of the United States reversed this decision on the ground that the legislature had not the power to extinguish the debt, when payment of such debts had been stipulated in the Treaty of 1783.