ALABAMA CLAIMS. 179 



itfsufficiently discouraged by any Government, are in 

 deed fettered by the three Rules, as they were al 

 ready, so far as morality or law could do it, being 

 classed by statute with piracy, perjury, arson, murder, 

 and other kindred &quot; Pleas of the Crown.&quot; True, there 

 is tendency of opinion in the United States, as there 

 is in Great Britain, to think that all rebellion is pre 

 sumptively wrong at home, and that all rebellion is 

 presumptively right every where else; but that is a 

 theory which has its inconveniences. In a word, there 

 is no possible view of the subject in which filibuster- 

 ism is not a crime and a shame, without even the 

 mean excuse of possible but dishonorable benefits to 

 the United States. At all times, under all adminis 

 trations, private equipments in our ports, for the pur 

 pose of hostilities against any country with which we 

 were at peace, have been treated as what they are, 

 criminal violations of the law of the land and of the 

 law of nations. Statesmen, jurists, and tribunals are 

 all of accord on this point. Contracts for such equip 

 ments are &quot; so fraught with illegality and turpitude 

 as to be utterly null and void.&quot; ...&quot; There can be no 

 question of the guilt and responsibility of a Govern 

 ment which encourages or permits its private citizens 

 to organize and engage in such predatory and unlaw 

 ful expeditions against a State with which that Gov 

 ernment is at peace.&quot; ...&quot; This principle is univers 

 ally acknowledged by the law of nations. It lies at 

 the foundation of all Government. It is, however, 

 more emphatically true in relation to citizens of the 

 United States.&quot; Such was the doctrine of the United 



