In Boswell's Lessee v. Otis (1849) 50 U.S. 336, the title of the plaintiff in ejectment was acquired on a sheriff's sale, under a money decree rendered upon publication of notice against non-residents. In Boswell's Lessee v. Otis , was presented a case of a bill for a specific performance and an accounting, and in which was a decree for specific performance and accounting; and an adjudication that the amount due on such accounting should operate as a judgment at law. Service was had by publication, the defendants being non-residents. The validity of a sale under such judgment was in question; the court held that portion of the decree, and the sale made under it, void; but with reference to jurisdiction in a case for specific performance alone, made these observations: "Jurisdiction is acquired in one of two modes: first, as against the person of the defendant, by the service of process; or, secondly, by a procedure against the property of the defendant within the jurisdiction of the court. In the latter case the defendant is not personally bound by the judgment, beyond the property in question. And it is immaterial whether the proceeding against the property be by an attachment or bill in chancery. It must be substantially a proceeding in rem. A bill for the specific execution of a contract to convey real estate is not strictly a proceeding in rem, in ordinary cases; but where such a procedure is authorized by statute, on publication, without personal service or process, it is substantially of that character." The Supreme Court of the United States, in an opinion by Mr. Justice McLean said: "The property of an individual is subject, in a certain sense, to the law of the state in which it is situated. It is liable for taxes and to such special proceedings against it as the law shall authorize. An attachment may be laid upon it, and it may be sold in satisfaction of an established claim. And the legislature may, perhaps, subject other lands to the payment of the judgment on the attachment after the sale of the lands first attached. But no such proceeding is authorized by the act under which this procedure was had. It is limited to the cases enumerated in the statute."