1. The facts of the case are all inconsistent with war. There was no declaration of war on either side; and, still further, throughout the whole duration of the troubles the tribunals of each country were open to citizens of the other, as in times of peace; so that a citizen of the United States was not an “alien enemy” in the courts of France, nor a Frenchman an “alien enemy” in the courts of the United States. This fact, which was presented by Mr. Clayton in his masterly discussion of the question, is most suggestive, if not conclusive. It is true that diplomatic and commercial intercourse was suspended, that the two powers armed, and that on both sides force was employed. But this painful condition of things, though naturally causing great anxiety, did not constitute war. One power may, in its own discretion, suspend diplomatic and commercial intercourse with another; it may assume all the harness of war, and even use force in retaliation, retortion, or reprisal; but all this falls short of war, _especially when public acts and declarations show that war was not intended_. Such conduct tends to war, and, if continued, naturally ends in war. But it is not of itself that terrible transformation by which one nation, with all its people, is converted into the enemy of another nation, with all its people, so that every citizen of the one becomes the enemy of every citizen of the other, and all pending rights and contracts between them disappear, at least for a time. If war be the extinguisher of claims, it is because, in theory, the claimant is supposed to have opportunity for reparation by seizing the property of the enemy, wherever he can find it on the high seas. But no reprisals against France were authorized by the United States; no war on private property was permitted; so that the only principle on which war is the extinguisher of claims fails to apply. But not even an act of war constitutes war. The two parties determine if war exists. To their public acts and mutual declarations we repair for interpretation of their conduct.