8538. TREATIES, Nations and.—
I consider
the people who constitute a society or
nation as the source of all authority in that
nation; as free to transact their common concerns
by any agents they think proper; to
change these agents individually, or the organization
of them in form or function whenever
they please; that all the acts done by
those agents under the authority of the nation,
are the acts of the nation, are obligatory on
them and enure to their use, and can in no
wise be annulled or affected by any change
in the form of the government, or of the
persons administering it.—
Opinion on French Treaties. Washington ed. vii, 612.
Ford ed., vi, 220.
(April. 1793)
