242 ^ AVES ISLAND. 



surety from the party demanding sucli letters to respond in damages 

 to any person illegally damnified by the abuse thereof, and also to all 

 persons injured thereby in any manner whatsoever; or, if it should be 

 subsequently made to appear that said party has fraudulently made a 

 false or exaggerated statement of his claim, and misled the authorities 

 of the State into the granting of such letters. And the State granting 

 such special letters of reprisal may, at its option, direct that they be 

 executed by the citizens who are the claimants, and by officers, also 

 citizens, appointed by the claimants, and by the private armed vessels 

 of such citizens ; or it may direct that the same be executed under the 

 supervision of officers of its regular navy, or such letters may be issued 

 immediately to such officers^ and the execution thereof may be directed 

 to be made by them, and in a public ship-of-war. 



12. Special letters of reprisal can only be granted by order of the 

 sovereign of the State, or that branch of the public authority to which 

 the power of directing the intercourse of such State with other States 

 is entrusted. 



13. Until diplomatic action has been had,' and has failed to cause 

 justice to be done, such letters ought not to be granted, except in 

 extraordinary cases, marked by circumstances of great atrocity. 



14. The right to make private property the subject of special repri- 

 sals is founded ujDon the principle that each member of a State is bound 

 for the liabilities of his State, and that it is not unjust to collect such 

 liability from him, insomuch as, in such case, he has full resort to his 

 State for indemnity, and to his fellow-citizens or subjects to make 

 contribution. 



15. To deny justice is injustice, and unnecessary delay is equivalent 

 to a denial. Justice is every man's right by the jus gentium, which 

 is therein agreeable to the natural law, as well as to the civil law and 

 the common law; and such unreasonable delay of justice by a State to 

 a citizen or subject of another State will, after diplomatic request and 

 expostulation, if the case be manifest and undoubted, justify the issu- 

 ance of special letters of reprisal, equally in the case of debt as if the 

 wrong complained of was a tort. 



16. It is the duty of the authorities of a State, when one of its citi- 

 zens or subjects is wronged by another State, to espouse his cause and, 

 if need be, to constrain the aggressor to make a just reparation ; for 

 'Otherwise individual security, the great object of every political asso- 

 ciation, would not be obtained. 



Mr. Sanford to Mr. Cass. 



Derby, Connecticut, 



August 16, 1857. 

 Sir : The inclosed brief on special reprisals as a rightful and peace- 

 ful remedy in the case of Philo S. Shelton and Sampson & Tappan for 

 the outrage 2)erpetrated by Venezuela at Shelton' s Isle in 1854, is 

 submitted for the consideration of the department. 



I trust the department will recollect that in this case, at this time, 

 for the issuance of letters of reprisal on the demand heretofore made 

 of the Venezuelan government by the United States under the treaty, 



