"Was the General Arismendi a piratical cruiser? The Court thinks not. Among the exhibits is a copy of a commission, which is all that in such a case can be expected, which appears to have been issued under the authority of the Government of Venezuela. This Republic is composed of the inhabitants of a portion of the dominions of Spain, in South America, which have been for some time, and still are, maintaining a contest for independence with the mother country. Although not acknowledged by our Government as an independent nation, it is well known that open war exists between them and His Catholic Majesty, in which the United States maintain strict neutrality. In this state of things, this Court cannot but respect the belligerent rights of both parties, and does not treat as pirates the cruisers of either so long as they act under and within the scope of their respective commissions." In the _United States_ vs. _The Brig Malek Adhel_ (2 Howard's U.S. Rep. 211), as to the Act of 1819, Judge Story (page 232) says: "Where the Act uses the word piratical, it does so in a general sense,--importing that the aggression is unauthorized by the law of nations, hostile in its character, wanton and cruel in its commission, and _utterly without any sanction from any public authority or sovereign power. In short, it means that the act belongs to the class of offences which pirates are in the habit of perpetrating, whether they do it for purposes of plunder, or purposes of hatred, revenge, or wanton abuse of power. A pirate is deemed--and properly deemed_--HOSTIS HUMANI GENERIS. But why is he so deemed? _Because he commits hostilities upon the subjects and property of any or all nations, without any regard to right or duty, or any pretence of public authority._ If he willfully sinks or destroys an innocent merchant ship, without any other object than to gratify his lawless appetite for mischief, it is just as much piratical aggression, in the sense of the law of nations, and of the Act of Congress, as if he did it solely and exclusively for the sake of plunder, _lucri causâ_. The law looks to it as an act of hostility; and, being committed by a vessel not commissioned and engaged in lawful warfare, it treats it as the act of a pirate, and one who is emphatically _hostis humani generis_."