6996. PRIVATEERS, Fitting out foreign.—
By our treaties with several of the
belligerent powers, which are a part of the laws
of our land, we have established a state of peace
with them. But, without appealing to treaties,
we are at peace with them all by the law of
nature. For by nature's law, man is at peace
with man, till some aggression is committed,
which, by the same law, authorizes one to
destroy another as his enemy. For our citizens,
then, to commit murders and depredations on
the members of nations at peace with us, or
combine to do it, appeared to the Executive,
and to those with whom they consulted, as
much against the laws of the land, as to murder
or rob, or combine to murder or rob its
own citizens; and as much to require punishment,
if done within their limits, where they
have a territorial jurisdiction, or on the high
seas, where they have a personal jurisdiction,
that is to say, one which reaches their own citizens
only, this being an appropriate part of
each nation, on an element where all have a
common jurisdiction. So say our laws, as we
understand them ourselves. To them the appeal
is made; and whether we have construed
them well or ill, the constitutional judges will
decide. Till that decision shall be obtained, the
government of the United States must pursue
what they think right with firmness, as is their
duty.—
To E. C. Genet. Washington ed. iii, 589.
Ford ed., vi, 310.
(Pa.,
June. 1793)
