Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 17 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 17 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
It only remains now to show that this rule of International Law is
applicable to the present case. Of course, our late war was not between
two nations; therefore it was not strictly international. But it was
between the National Government, on one side, and a Rebellion which had
become “territorial” in character, with such form and body as to have
belligerent rights on land. Mark the distinction, if you please; for I
have always insisted, and still insist, that complete belligerency on
land does not imply belligerency on the ocean. As there is a dominion
of the land, so there is a dominion of the ocean; and as there is a
belligerency of the land, so there is also a belligerency of the ocean.
Therefore, while denying to our Rebels belligerent rights on the ocean,
I have no hesitation with regard to them on the land. But just in
proportion as these are admitted, is the rule of International Law made
applicable to the present case.
Against our Rebels the Nation had two sources of power and two
arsenals of rights,--one of these being the powers and rights of
sovereignty, and the other the powers and rights of war,--the former
being determined by the Constitution, the latter by International Law.
The Nation might pursue a Rebel as traitor or as belligerent; but
whether traitor or belligerent, he was always an enemy. Pursuing him
in the courts as traitor, he was justly entitled to all the delays
and safeguards of the Constitution; but it was otherwise, if he was
treated as belligerent. Pursuing him in battle, driving him from
point to point, dislodging him from fortresses, expelling him from
towns, pushing him back from our advancing line, and then building
fortifications against him,--all this was war; and it was none the
less war because the enemy was unhappily our own countryman. A new
law supplied the rule for our conduct,--not the Constitution, with
its manifold provisions dear to the lover of Liberty, including the
solemn requirement that nobody shall “be deprived of life, liberty,
or property without due process of law,” and then again that other
requirement, that “private property shall not be taken for public use
without just compensation.” All these were silent while International
Law prevailed. The Rebellion had grown until it became a war; and as
this war was among countrymen, it was a civil war. But the rule of
conduct in a civil war is to be found in the Law of Nations.
I do not stop to quote the familiar views of publicists, especially of
Vattel, to the effect that in a civil war the two parties are to be
treated as “two different nations.”[11] Suffice it to say, that such is
the judgment of all the authorities on International Law. But I come
directly to the decisions of our Supreme Court, which recognize the
rule of International Law as applicable to our civil war.
In the famous cases known as the _Prize Cases_, the Court expressly
says:--
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