CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 119 



ussnming rights that do not belonc; to her, merely because she means 

 to apply them to a laii(lal)le purpose; uor in setting out upon amoral 

 crusade of converting otlier nations by acts of unlawful force. Nor is 

 it to be argueil that because other nations approve the ultimate pur- 

 pose, they must, therefore submit to every measure which any one 

 State or its subjects may inconsiderately adopt for its attainment. 



In accordance witli this view of the law, the Jiuljiment 

 of the Vice- Admiralty Court of Sierra Leone, condemning- 

 the French ship for being enii)loyed in the Slave Trade and 

 for forcibly resisting the search of the King of England's 

 cruizers, was reversed. 



CASE OF TIIK "aXTELOPE'" — UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT TO 

 SAME EFFECT. 



The decision of the Supreme Court of the Ignited States wheaton. Re- 

 in the case of the "Antelope" is to the same effect. There Sr ' ^" ' ' ^' 

 Chief Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court, 

 holding that the Slave Trade, though contrary to the law 

 of nature, was not in conflict with the law of nations: 



156 No principle of general law is more universally acknowledged Wheaton, Ke- 



than the perfect equality of nations. Russia and (ieueva have f'!,'.^'^' ^'"'- ^^' P- 

 equal riglits. It results from this equality, that no one can right- 

 fully impose a rule on another. Each legislates for itself, but its leg- 

 islation can operate on itself alone. A right, tlien, which is vested in 

 all by the consent of all, can hr devested only by consent; and this 

 trade, in which all have participated, must remain lawful to those 

 who can not be induced to relinquish it. As no nation can prescribe 

 a rule for others, none <'au make a law of nations; .and this tratlfic re- 

 nuiins lawful to those Avhoso governments have not forbidden it. 



If it is ccmsistent with the law of nations, it can not in itself be 

 piracy. It can be made so only by statute; and the obligation of the 

 statute can not transcend the legislative power of the state which may 

 enact it. 



If it be neither rcpugimut to tlie law of nations, nor piracy, it is 

 almost superfluous to say in this Court, that the rigiit of bringing in 

 for adjudication in time of ])eacc, even where the vessel belongs to a 

 luition wliich has prohibited the trade, can not exist. The Courts of 

 no country execute the penal laws of another, and the course of the 

 American government on the subject of visitation and search, would 

 decide any case in wiiicli that right had been exercised by an American 

 cruizer, on the vessel of a foreign nation, not violating our municipal 

 laws, iigainst the captors. 



It follows, tliat a foreign vessel engaged in the African slave trade, 

 cai)tured on the high seas in time of peace, by an American cruizer, 

 and brought in for adjudication, would be restored. 



MR. DANA. 



The subject is fully discussed in Mr. Dana's note No. 108 jp^atlomaiLaw"' 

 to Wheaton's International Law (p. 258), where it is said of stu idition, I'.y 

 Chief Justice AFarshall, in Church versus Hubbart, 2 f ^gjg^'^"''' ^^''"• 

 Cranch, 187 : 



It is true, that Chief Justice ^Marshall admitted the right of a nation 

 to secure itself against intended violations of its laws, by seizures 

 made within rcasonalilo limits, as to which, he said, nations must 

 exercise comity and concession, and the exact extent of which was 

 not settled; and. in the case before the court, the 4 leagues were not 

 treated as rendering tiio seizure illegal. This remark must now be 

 treated as an unwarranted admission. ... It may he said that the 

 principle is settled, that ninnicipal seizures can not be made, for any ll)i<l., r- 260. 

 purpose, beyond territorial waters. It is also settled that the limit 

 of these waters is, in the absence of treaty, the marine league or the 

 cannon shot. It can not now be successfully maintained, either that 

 municipal visits and search may be made beyond the territorial waters 



