ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 165 



nations; but it is at all times accompanied with a trust for the benefit 

 of mankind for whom it was originally designed and for whom Nature 

 still designs it. Well now, how is that trust worked out? How shall 

 men all over the earth be enabled to enjoy this beneficial interest wbich 

 nature originally intended them to have in all the productions of the 

 earth ? It is through the instrumentality of commerce, which is another 

 result of civilization. It is by means of the exchange of products 

 between different regions of the earth, and between different peoples, 

 that all are enabled to enjoy this beneficial interest in the things of the 

 earth which was originally designed by Providence. They could not 

 indeed have these products except through the agency of individual 

 property, or national jiroperty and the instrumentality of commerce. 

 Take these seals for instance. They were intended and created for the 

 benefit of mankind — for mankind in Europe, as well as for the people 

 living in the vicinity of the islands where they have their home. Buthow 

 were they used before commerce existed 1 They were turned to account 

 only by the few hundreds, or thousands, of Indians who lived along that 

 coast, and no other people were benefited, or could be benefited by them, 

 for there were no means of getting them. But when commerce is intro- 

 duced, the sealskins, through the instrumentality of commerce, make 

 their way all over the world, and eventually come into the possession 

 of the very persons who want them, wherever those persons dwell. In 

 that way the general benefit of all mankind is fully and efi'ectively 

 worked out, although the custody and possession of the thing is given 

 to some particular nation, or to some particular men. 



And how perfectly this operates will be seen when we consider that, 

 originally, the seals, even to the people capable of gathering them and 

 taking their skins — T mean the tribes of Indians — were of no utility 

 except for supplying their immediate wants; and a few hundreds or a 

 few thousands were sufficient for this purpose. The rest were not util- 

 ized, because there were no means by which the benefits to be derived 

 from these animals could be carried to the other parts of the world to 

 be enjoyed by distant peoples. But when commerce was instituted, 

 then the inhabitant of Europe who wished to possess a sealskin could 

 furnish some of his own products to those who gathered the seals and 

 thereby obtain some of the skins. In other words, the giving of these 

 seals to commerce, or the product of them to commerce, is tantamount 

 to putting them up at auction, and the man who lives in Europe can 

 thus have them on the same terms as the man in the United States. 

 And therefore there is a supply to all mankind, that is, to all who want 

 them. And this truth will be further illustrated when we inquire who 

 would be the losers if this commerce did not exist. For instance, if 

 the seals were destroyed, who would lose? You may say that the loss 

 would fall upon those who gathered them; but that would be a tempo- 

 rary loss, for the persons so engaged could direct their energies to 

 other forms of industry. So also of the persons engaged in the manu- 

 facture of sealskins in Great Britain. A temporary loss might fall 

 upon them; but there are plenty of other kinds of employment, and 

 the loss would be only a temporary one. But when you come to the 

 person who wants the sealskin for his own use, his loss is irreparable 

 and cannot be supplied. 



Now I have said that the title, whether of nations or of men, to par- 

 ticular things is not absolute, but coupled with a trust for the benefit 

 of mankind. So far as any man or any nation hns more of a particular 

 thing than is necessary for his, or its, own purposes, there is an obliga- 

 tion to let others share in the enjoyment of it: the thing is held upon 



