50 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



observable between these various species of animals must be dismissed 

 as wholly unimportant and the conclusion be unhesitatingly received 

 that the fur-seals are the subjects of ownership. 



The attention of the tribunal is, there tore, invited to a somewhat 

 careful inquiry into the original causes of the institution of property 

 and the principles upon which it stands; and the counsel for the United 

 States will be greatly disappointed if the result of the investigation 

 should fail to satisfy the Tribunal that there is a fundamental principle 

 underlying that institution which is decisive of the main question uow 

 under discussion. That principle they conceive to be this, that when- 

 ever any useful wild animals so far submit themselves to the control of 

 particular men as to enable them exclusively to cultivate such animals and 

 obtain the annual increase for the supply of human wants, and at the same 

 time to preserve the stock, they have a property in them, or, in other words, 

 whatever may be justly regarded as the product of human art, industry, 

 and self-denial must be assigned to those who make these exertions as 

 their merited reward. 



The inquiry thus challenged is in no sense one of abstract specula- 

 tion, nor is it a novel one. It proceeds upon the firm basis of the facts 

 of man's nature, the environment in which he is placed, and the social 

 necessities which determine his action; and the pathway is illumined 

 by the lights thrown upon it by a long line of recognized authorities. 

 The writers upon the law of Nature and Nations, beginning with Gro- 

 tius, 1 have justly conceived that no system of practical ethics would be 

 complete which did not fully treat of the institution of property, not 

 only in respect to nations, but also in respect to private persons. Rec- 

 ognizing the fact that a nation could not defend its possessions against 

 other nations by an appeal to any municipal law, they have sought to 

 find grounds for the defense of those possessions in the law of nature 

 which must be everywhere acknowledged. It is upon the broad, general 

 principles agreed to by these authorities that we shall endeavor to 

 establish the proposition above stated. 



It is easier to feel than it is to precisely define the meaning of the 

 word property ; but as the feeling is substantially the same in all minds 

 there is the less need of any attempt at exact definition. It is com- 



1 Grotius, de Jure Belli ac Pacis, Book II, chap, n; Puffendorf, Law of Nature 

 and Nations, Book iv, chap. v. See also Blaekstone's elegant chapter on "Prop- 

 erty in General," (Commentaries, Book 2, pp. 1, et seq.) ; and Locke on Civil Govern- 

 ment, Chap. v. . 



