8696. UNITED STATES, Disputed territory.—[further continued].
It is an established principle,
that conquest gives only an inchoate
right, which does not become perfect till confirmed
by the treaty of peace, and by a renunciation
or abandonment by the former
proprietor. Had Great Britain been that
former proprietor, she was so far from confirming
to Spain the right to the territory of
Georgia, invaded by Spain, that she expressly
relinquished to the United States any right
that might remain in her; and afterwards
completed that relinquishment by procuring
and consolidating with it the agreement of
Spain herself to restore such territory without
compensation. It is still more palpable that
a war existing between two nations, as Spain
and Great Britain, could give to neither the
right to seize and appropriate the territory
of a third, which is even neutral, much less
which is an associate in the war, as the
United States were with Spain. See, on this
subject, Grotius, L. 3, c. 6 § 26. Puffendorf,
L. 8, c. 6. § 17, 23. Vattel, L. 3 § 197,
198.—
Mississippi River Instructions. Washington ed. vii, 572.
Ford ed., v, 463.
(1792)
