14 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



posed principles of conduct which man in society obeys simply because 

 he is man. Thus the law of nature is simply the law of nations semi 

 in the light of a peculiar theory. A passage in the Roman institutes 

 shows that the expressions were practically convertible. The greatest 

 function of the law of nature was discharged in giving birth to modern 

 international law. * * * 



The impression that the Roman law sustained a system of what 

 would now be called international law, and that this system was iden- 

 tical with the law of nature had undoubtedly much influence in causing 

 the rules of what the Romans called natural law to be engrafted on, and 

 identified with, the modern law of nations (page 28). 



It is only necessary to look at the earliest authorities on international 

 law, in the '• I >e Jure Belli et Pacis" of Grotius for example, to see 

 that the law of nations is essentially a moral and, to some extent, a 

 religious system. The appeal of Grotius is almost as frequent to morals 

 and religion as to precedent, and no doubt it is these portions of the 

 book which gained for it much of the authority which it 



ultimately obtained. (Page 47.) 



[From Wheaton, International Law, part I, ch. i, sees. 4, 14.] 



The principles and details of international morality, as distinguished 

 from international law, are to be obtained not by applying to nations 

 the rides which ought to govern the conduct of individuals, but by as- 

 certaining what are the rules of international conduct which, on the 

 whole, best promote the general happiness of mankind. 



International law, as understood among civilized nations, may be de- 

 fined as consisting of those rules of conduct which reason deduces, as 

 consonant to justice, from the nature of the society existing among 

 independent nations; with such definitions and modifications as may 

 be established by general consent. 



[Kent's ( lomnientaries, Part i, lect. 1, pages 2-4.] 



* * * The most useful and practical part of the law of nations is, 

 no doubt, instituted or positive law, founded on usage, consent, and 

 agreement. But it would be improper to separate this law entirely 

 from natural jurisprudence and not to consider it as deriving much of 

 its force and dignity from the same principles of right reason, the same 

 views of the nature and constitution of man, and the same sanction of 

 divine revelation, as those from which the science of morality is deduced. 

 There is a natural and a positive law of nations. By the former every 

 state, in its relations with other states, is bound to conduct itself 

 with justice, good faith, and benevolence; and this application of the 

 law of nature has been called by Vattel the necessary law of nations, 

 because nations are bound by the law of nature to observe it; and it is 

 termed by others the internal law of nations, because it is obligatory 

 upon them in point of conscience. 



We ought not, therefore, to separate the science of public law from 

 that of ethics, nor encourage the dangerous suggestion that govern- 

 ments are not so strictly bound by the obligations of truth, justice, and 

 humanity, in relation toother powers, as they are in the management of 

 their own local concerns. States or bodies politic are to be considered 

 as moral persons, having a public will, capable and free to do right and 

 wrong, inasmuch as they are collections of individuals, each of whom 

 carries with him into the service of the community the same binding 

 law of morality and religion which ought to control his conduct in \ni- 



