62 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



A sure guaranty for the observance of this trust obligation is found 

 in the imperious and universal motive of self-interest. The desire of 

 civilized man to gratify his numerous wants and to better his condi- 

 tion so strongly impels him to commerce with other nations that no 

 other inducement is in general needed. The instances in history are 

 rare in which nations have exhibited unwillingness to engage in com- 

 mercial intercourse; but they are possible under peculiar conditions, 

 and have sometimes actually occurred. Such a refusal is generally 

 believed to have been the real, though it was not the avowed, cause of 

 the war waged by Great Britain against China in 1840. 



For the purposes of further illustration, a case may be imagined 

 stronger than any of the actual instances referred to. Let it be sup- 

 posed that some particular region from which alone a commodity deemed 



of the universe; it has served as a vehicle, so to speak, for the performance of the 

 duties of humanity. Commerce is really, therefore, an institution of primitive 

 law; it has its source and its origin in the divine law itself." 



From Vattel (7th Amer. Ed., 1819, Ck. n, ch. n, sec. 21, p. 143) : 



"Sec. 21. All men ought to find on earth the things they stand in need of. In the 

 primitive state of communion they took them wherever they happened to meet with 

 them if another had not before appropriated them to his own use. The introduction of 

 dominion and property could not deprive men of so essential a right, and, conse- 

 quently, it can not take place without leaving them, in general, some means of pro- 

 curing what is useful or necessary to (hem. This means commerce; by it every man 

 may still supply his wants. Things being now become property, there is no obtain- 

 in"- them without the owner's consent, nor are they usually to be had for nothing, 

 but they may be bought or exchanged for other things of equal value. Men are, 

 therefore, under an obligation to carry on that commerce with each other if they wish 

 not to deviate from the views of nature, and this obligation extends also to whole nations 

 or states. It is seldom that nature is seen in one place to produce everything neces- 

 sary for the use of man ; ono country abounds in corn, another in pastures and cattle, 

 a third in timber and metals, etc. If all those countries trade together, as is agree- 

 able to human nature, no one of them will be without such things as are useful and 

 necessary, and the views of nature, our common mother, will be fulfilled. Further, 

 ono country is fitter for some kind of products than for another, as, for iustauce, 

 titter for the vine than for tillage. If trade and barter take place, every nation, on 

 the certainty of procuring what it wants, will employ its lands and its industry in 

 the most advantageous manner, and mankind in general prove gainers by it. Such 

 are the foundations of the general obligations incuinb. nt on nations reciprocally to 

 cultiv ate commerce." 



From "Logons de Droit de la Nature et des Gens," par M. le Professcur Felice, 

 Vol. II. (Droit des Gens). Paris, 1830. Lecon xvil, page 293: 



"The need of this exchange is based upon the laws of nature and upon the wise 

 arrangement which the Supreme Being has established in the world, each region and 

 each portion of which furnishes, indeed, a great variety of productions, but also 

 lacks certain things required for the comforl or needs of man; this obliges men to 

 exchange their commodities with each other and to form bonds of friendship, 



