Twiss follows Phillimore, but gives to the rule a fresh statement:-- “The independence of a nation is absolute, and not subject to qualification; so that nations, in respect of their intercourse under the Common Law, are peers or equals.… Power and weakness do not in this respect give rise to any distinction.… It results from this equality, that whatever is lawful for one nation is equally lawful for another, and whatever is unjustifiable in the one is equally unjustifiable in the other.”[71] In our own country, Chancellor Kent, a great authority, gives the rule with perfect clearness and simplicity:-- “Nations are equal in respect to each other, and entitled to claim equal consideration for their rights, whatever may be their relative dimensions or strength, or however greatly they may differ in government, religion, or manners. This perfect equality and entire independence of all distinct states is a fundamental principle of Public Law.”[72] General Halleck, whose work is not surpassed by any other in practical value, while quoting especially Vattel and Sir William Scott, says with much sententiousness:-- “All sovereign states, without respect to their relative power, are, in the eye of International Law, equal, being endowed with the same natural rights, bound by the same duties, and subject to the same obligations.”[73] Thus does each authority reflect the others, while the whole together present the Equality of Nations as a guiding principle not to be neglected or dishonored. The record already considered shows how this principle has been openly defied by our Government in the treatment of the Black Republic,--first, in the menace of war by Rear-Admiral Poor, and, secondly, in the manner of the menace,--being in substance and in form. In both respects the Admiral did what he would not have done to a powerful nation, what he would not have done to any white nation, and what we should never allow any nation to do to us.