201 



its i)ower to secure itself from injury may certainly be exercised beyond 

 the limits of its territory. Upon this principle the riglit of a belligerent 

 to searcli a neutral vessel on the hia'h seas for contrabrand of war is 

 universally admitted, because the belligerent has aright to prevent the 

 injury done to himself by the assistance intended for his enemy; so too 

 a nation has a right to prohibit any commerce with its colonies. Any 

 attempt to violate the laws made to protect this right is an injury 

 to itself which it may prevent, and it has a right to use the means 

 necessary for its prevention. These means do not appear to be limited 

 witiiiu any certain marked boundaries, which remain the same at all 

 times and in all situations. If they are such as unnecessarily to vex 

 and harass foreign lawful commerce, foreign nations will resist their 

 exercise. If they are such as are reasonable and necessary to secure 

 their laws from violation, they will be submitted to. 



"In different seas, and on different coasts, a wider or more contracted 

 range, in which to exercise the vigilance of the government, will be 

 assented co. Thus in the channel, where a very great part of the com- 

 merce to and from all the north of Europe passes through a very narrow 

 sea, the seizure of vessels on suspicio4i of attempting an illicit trade must 

 necessarily be restricted to very narrow limits; but on the coast ot 

 South America, seldom frequented by vessels but for the purpose of 

 illicit trade, the vigilance of the government may be extended some- 

 what further; and foreign nations submit to such regulations as are 

 reasonable in themselves, and are really necessary to secure that 

 monopoly of colonial commerce which is claimed by all nations holding- 

 distant posessions. 



"If this right be extended too far, the exercise of it will be resisted. 

 It has occasioned long and frequent contests, which h?.ve sometimes 

 ended in open war. The English, it will be recollected, complained of 

 the right claimed by Spain to search their vessels on the high seas 

 which was carried so far that the guarda castas of that nation seized 

 vessels not in the neighborhood of their coasts. This practice was the 

 subject of long and fruitless negotiations, and at length of open war. 

 The right of the Spaniards was supposed to be exercised unreasonably 

 and vexatiously, but it never was contended that it could only be 

 exercised within tlie range of the cannon from their batteries. Indeed, 

 the right given to our own revenue cutters, to visit vessels four leagues 

 from our coast, is a declaration that in the opinion of the American 

 Government no such principle as that contended for has a real exist- 

 ence." Church vs. Huhhart, 2 Cranch, 187, 231, 235. 



