CHAPTER XV..

Piracies, Felonies, and Offences against the Law of Nations.

§ 377. CONGRESS shall have power, "To define and "punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, "and offences against the law of nations.”—Art. 1, sec. 8. cl. 10.

§ 378. Our citizens are recognized, by foreign nations, as citizens of the United States, and not as citizens of the states, and consequently, as the general government, and not a state, is responsible to foreign nations for injuries committed on the high seas, by any citizen of the United States, this power is granted to congress. Besides, no single state is able to protect its commerce.

§ 379. The power to define felonies is especially requisite in the national government. The term felony was not exactly defined by the common and statute laws of England; and its meaning was various in the different states. It was sometimes applied to capital offences; at others to such as were by the common law punished by forfeiture of goods and lands. For the sake of uniformity, therefore, the power to define as well as punish offences on the seas, was given to congress.

§ 380. Piracy is the crime of robbery and depredation committed upon the high seas. As it is an offence against the law of nations, every nation has a right to attack and exterminate pirates, without any declaration of war. High seas, under the statute, comprehends an open roadstead, though vessels lie in it under the shelter of the land, at a season when the course of the wind is invariable; and also any waters on the sea coast, without the boundaries of low water mark, though such waters are in a roadstead or bay, within the jurisdictional limits of a foreign government.

§ 381. By the laws of the United States, if a person

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§ 377, 378. Why ought congress to have the power to punish these offences? § 379. Why is the power to define felony necessary What is felony? § 380. What is piracy? What is meant by high seas? 381. What offences on the sea are piracy? § 382, 383.

commit, upon the high seas, out of the jurisdiction of a state, murder or robbery, or any other offence which, if committed in the body of a county, would, by the laws of the United States, be punishable with death, he shall be adjudged a pirate and felon, and punished with death. And if a captain or mariner of any vessel feloniously run away with the vessel, or any goods or merchandize to the value of fifty dollars, or shall yield up a vessel voluntarily to pirates; or if a seaman lay violent hands upon his commander, to prevent him from defending the ship or goods committed to his trust, or make a revolt in the ship; every such offender shall be adjudged a pirate and felon, and suffer death.

§ 382. The African slave trade, which was tolerated for many years after the constitution was adopted, was, in 1820, declared piracy. The transportation of slaves from the United States, by citizens thereof, to any foreign country, was prohibited by acts of 1794 and 1800. But as the importation of slaves was allowed by the constitution until 1808, no law against their importation could be passed to take effect before that time.

§ 383. A law was enacted in 1807, making it unlawful, under severe penalties, to import slaves into the United States. And laws were from time to time enacted, for the effectual suppression of the trade. By the law of 1820, it was provided, that, if any person whatever, being of the crew of any vessel armed or navigated for or on behalf of a citizen of the United States, or owned in whole or in part by a citizen of the United States, shall land on a foreign shore, and seize a negro or mulatto, with intent to make him a slave, or shall decoy or forcibly bring such negro on board such vessel, he shall be adjudged a pirate, and suffer death.

§ 384. If a person upon the high seas shall murder, or otherwise so injure any other person that he shall afterwards die upon the land, the offender shall be punishable with death. If a person shall wilfully destroy, or aid in destroying, a vessel of war of the United States on the high seas;

What are the laws respecting the slave trade? § 384. What crimes

or if, being the owner of a vessel, he shall corruptly cast away, or aid in destroying the same, with a design to prejudice any person that has underwritten a policy of insurance, he shall suffer death. For maliciously attacking a vessel with intent to plunder the same, the offender shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding ten years. Numerous other crimes on the high seas are punishable by fine and imprisonment, in proportion to the aggravation of the offence.

§ 385. If a person, within a fort, arsenal, navy yard, or magazine, shall burn a dwelling house, store, barn, or other building, he shall be punishable with death. Sundry other crimes, if committed within any territory under jurisdiction of the general government, are punishable with fine and im prisonment.

ters.

§ 386. Offences against the law of nations are, besides piracy, violations of safe conducts or passports, and infringements of the rights of ambassadors and other foreign minisA safe conduct contains a pledge of the public faith, that it shall be duly respected; and the observance of this duty is essential to the character of the government that grants it. An ambassador cannot be made answerable in a court of justice. If he commit an offence, he must be sent home to be punished by the laws of his own country.

§ 387. The statute law of the United States provides, in furthering the general sanction of the public law, that persons who violate passports shall be imprisoned, not exceed. ing three years, and fined at the discretion of the court. The like punishment is inflicted upon persons who infringe the law of nations, by offering violence to public ministers, by being concerned in prosecuting or arresting them. This is an offence highly injurious to the free and liberal intercourse between different governments, and may prove mischievous in its consequences to a nation, as it tends to provoke the sovereign whom the minister represents, and to bring upon the country the calamity of war.

on the high seas are punished by fine and imprisonment? § 385. What crimes on land are punishable by death? § 386. What are offences against the law of nations? What is a safe conduct? How are ambassadors punished? § 387. What is the penalty for violating passports, and offering violence to public ministers?

CHAPTER XVI.

Declaration of War-Marque and Reprisal-CapturesArmy and Navy.

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§388. CONGRESS shall have power,

"To declare war,

grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.”—Art. 1, sec. 8, cl. 11.

§389. That self-preservation, or the right of self-defence, is the first law of nature, is a principle that has received the general assent of mankind. It is upon this principle that nations justify themselves in resisting the aggressions of other nations. Accordingly the power has been given to congress to declare war. A just defence, or making use of force against any power that attacks a nation or its privileges, is defensive war. To obtain justice by force, if it cannot be otherwise obtained, or to pursue our right by force of arms, is offensive war.

§ 390. But there are cases which, by the law of nations, constitute justifiable causes of war, when neither good policy nor the honor of a nation requires such a measure. War is at all times productive of great evils; and both wisdom and humanity forbid a recourse to war to redress wrongs in ordinary cases. The true honor and dignity of a nation are not most effectually sustained by a resort to arms upon every occasion of even real injury.

§ 391. The power to declare war is, in some countries, exercised by the supreme ruler. But this is too vast a power to be safely intrusted to a single individual, who, from a mistaken sense of national honor, or from selfish motives, may expose the lives and liberties of a whole people. In the United States this power is committed to the represent. atives of those who have to bear the burthens of war.

§ 392. The power of issuing letters of marque and re

§ 388, 389. On what principle is the war power founded? What is offensive war? § 390. Should war always be resorted to on OCCLLIONS of injury? § 391. Why is the power to declare war given to congress? § 392. What means marque and reprisal? § 393, 394. What

prisal also is given to congress. Marque signifies passing the frontier; reprisal, the taking in return. Letters of

marque and reprisal are a license given to the subjects of one nation who have been injured by those of another nation, to seize the bodies or goods of the citizens of such offending nation wheresoever they may be found, until satisfaction be made. This measure is sometimes taken to prevent the necessity of a resort to war to obtain satisfaction for injuries; but its natural tendency is to provoke open hostilities between nations, rather than to prevent them. Were each

individual permitted to act as judge in his own case, in redressing his private wrongs, the dangers of war would be increased: the power, therefore, is properly vested in con gress.

§ 393. Connected with the power of declaring war, is the power to make rules concerning captures. By the law of nations, no individual has any interest in a prize, whether made by a public or private armed vessel, but what he receives under the grant of the government. The general practice is to distribute the proceeds of the captured property, when duly passed upon and condemned as a prize, among the captors as a reward for bravery and a stimulus to exertion. But the courts have no power of condemnation till the legislative will be expressly declared.

§ 394. The district courts of the United States have cog. nizance of complaints in cases of capture made within the United States, or within a marine league of the coast or shore thereof. They have exclusive cognizance of all seizures on land, and on waters other than those navigable by vessels of ten or more tons burthen, within their respective districts, or on the high seas. War gives a nation the right to take the persons, and confiscate the property of the enemy, wheresoever they may be found.

$395. Congress shall have power, "To raise and support "armies; but no appropriation of money for that use shall "be for a longer term than two years."-Art. 1, sec. 8, cl. 12.

§ 396. The want of power in congress to raise troops

are captures? How is captured property disposed of? § 395. How is the power of congress to support armies limited? § 396. Why is the