University of Virginia Library

1770. CONTRACTS, Liberation from.—

There are circumstances which sometimes excuse
the non-performance of contracts between
man and man; so are there also between
nation and nation. When performance, for
instance, becomes impossible, non-performance
is not immoral; so if performance becomes
self-destructive to the party, the law
of self-preservation overrules the laws of obligation
in others.—
French Treaties Opinion. Washington ed. vii, 613. Ford ed., vi, 220.
(1793)