CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF DIPLOMACY 377 



responsible agent in all its intercourse with other bodies politic. To 

 say that the state exists solely for itself, and is subject to no law 

 or principle which it chooses to deny or disregard, is to destroy at its 

 root all civil authority whatever. The individual does not volun- 

 tarily enter the state; he is placed in it by an act of nature. By 

 another act of nature, nations of men exist side by side, forming 

 separate political communities. Whatever principle of natural right 

 subordinates the subject or citizen to the legal jurisdiction of his 

 birth, coordinates coexisting sovereign states and creates between 

 them reciprocal rights and obligations. 



Before the time of Gentilis and Grotius, the states of Europe had 

 as little regard for each other's rights as rival bands of brigands; 

 but these great jurists and their successors, appealing to the intelli- 

 gence of all nations, by disclosing the existence of universal prin- 

 ciples inherent in human nature, convinced mankind that even in 

 a state of war, laws are not wholly silent. 



In his great work on The Laws of War and Peace, Grotius, appeal- 

 ing to the universal rights of humanity, pointed out that the state, 

 existing for the realization of justice, must apply just principles 

 even in its use of force. A body politic, refusing to be governed by 

 rules of justice, thereby forfeits its claim to sovereignty; for, in 

 declining to perform its obligations, it destroys the only logical 

 foundation of its rights. 



It is for the recognition of this universal juridical bond between 

 all nations that international jurists have labored during the last 

 three centuries. Natural law, the Christian religion, the juris- 

 prudence of Rome, general custom, common consent, and conven- 

 tional agreement have all been advanced as furnishing proper ele- 

 ments 'for the construction of that international code which all jurists 

 have agreed does, or should, exist; and all these elements have 

 afforded contributions to that great body of principles and usages 

 which constitute the present system of international law. 



Vague and undetermined as this body of jurisprudence is, no 

 civilized nation denies its existence and its general authority. On 

 the contrary, most nations not only recognize it, apply it, and appeal 

 to it, but in some manner formally adopt it as a part of their own 

 municipal law. The United States of America has not only done 

 this, but has by constitutional provision declared that treaties with 

 foreign powers constitute " the supreme law of the land; " and has 

 attempted, in a digest prepared at public expense and by official 

 direction, to define with minute exactness the whole body of inter- 

 national law. Such a course, if followed by all nations, would 

 furnish the materials for the ultimate formation of that formal 

 international code which jurists like Bluntschli and David Dudley 

 Field have endeavored to construct. 



