8 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Tribunal is to bo guided is the law of nations; and the sources to which 

 we are to look for that law upon any question which may arise are these: 



First. The actual practice and usages of nations. These are to be 

 learned from history in the modes in which their relations and inter- 

 course with one another are conducted; in the acts commonly done by 

 them without objection from other nations; in the treaties which they 

 make with each other, although these are to be viewed with circum- 

 spection as being based often upon temporary and shifting considera- 

 tions, and sometimes exacted by the more powerful from the weaker 

 states; and in their diplomatic correspondence with each other, in which 

 supposed principles of the law of nations are invoked and acceded to. 



Second. The judgments of the courts which profess to declare and 

 administer the law ol nations, such as prize courts and, in some in- 

 stances, courts of admiralty, furnish another means of instruction. 



Third. Where the above mentioned sources fail to furnish any rule 

 resort is to be had to the great source from which all law flows, the 

 dictates of right reason, natural justice; in other words, the law of 

 nature. 



Fourth. And in ascertaining what the law of nature is upon any 

 particular question, the municipal law of States, so far as it speaks with 

 a concurring voice, is a prime fountain of knowledge. This is for the 

 reason that that law involves the law of nature in nearly every con- 

 ceivable way in which it speaks, and has been so assiduously cultivated 

 by the study of ages that few questions concerning right and justice 

 among men or nations can be found for which it does not furnish a 

 solution. 



Fifth. And, finally, in all cases, the concurring authority of jurists of 

 established reputation who have made the law of nature and nations 

 a study is entitled to respect. 



Mr. Chief Justice Marshall has expressed from the bench of the 

 Supreme Court of the United States what we conceive to be the true 

 rule. He says: 



The law of nations is the great source from which we derive those 

 rules respecting belligerent and neutral rights which are recognized 

 by all civilized and commercial states throughout Europe and America. 

 This law is in part unwritten, and in part conventional. To ascertain 

 that which is unwritten we recur to the great principles of reason and 

 justice; but as these principles will be differently understood by dif- 

 ferent nations under different circumstances, we consider them as 

 being, in some degree, rendered fixed and stable by a series of judicial 

 decisions. The decisions of the courts of every country, so far as they 

 are founded upon a law common to every country, will be received 



