Note II.

proceeded against before a competent tribunal; and after condemnation Chap. IV and forfeiture thereof shall belong to the owners, officers, and crew of the vessel capturing the same, and be distributed as before provided; and in the case of all captured vessels, goods, and effects which shall be brought within the jurisdiction of the Confederate States, the district courts of the Confederate States shall have exclusive original cognizance thereof, as the civil causes of Admiralty and Maritime jurisdiction; and the said courts, or the courts, being courts of the Confederate States, into which such cases shall be removed, and in which they shall be finally decided, shall and may decree restitution in whole or in part, when the capture shall have been made without just cause. And if made without probable cause, may order and decree damages and costs to the party injured, for which the owners and commanders of the vessels making such captures, and also the vessels, shall be liable.

"8. That all persons found on board any captured vessel, or on board any re-captured vessel, shall be reported to the collector of the port in the Confederate States in which they shall first arrive, and shall be delivered into the custody of the marshal of the district, or some court or military officer of the Confederate States, or of any State in or near such port, who shall take charge of their safe keeping and support, at the expense of the Confederate States.

"9. That the President of the Confederate States is hereby authorized to establish and order suitable instructions for the better governing and directing the conduct of the vessels so commissioned, their officers and crews, copies of which shall be delivered by the collector of the customs to the commanders, when they shall give bond as provided.

"10. That a bounty shall be paid by the Confederate States of 20 dollars for each person on board any armed vessel belonging to the United States at the commencement of an engagement, which shall be burnt, sunk, or destroyed by any vessel commissioned as aforesaid, which shall be of equal or inferior force, the same to be divided as in other cases of prize money; and a bounty of 25 dollars shall be paid to the owners, officers, and crews of the private armed vessels commissioned as aforesaid, for each and every prisoner by them captured and brought into port, and delivered to an agent authorized to receive them, in any port of the Confederate States; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to pay or cause to be paid to the owners, officers, and crews of such private armed vessels commissioned as aforesaid, or their agent, the bounties herein provided.

"11. That the commanding officer of every vessel having a commission or letters of marque and reprisal during the present hostilities between the Confederate States and the United States shall keep a regular journal, containing a true and exact account of his daily proceedings and transactions with such vessel and the crew thereof; the ports and places he shall put into or cast anchor in; the time of his stay there and the cause thereof; the prizes he shall take, and the nature and probable

Note II.

Chap. IV. value thereof; the times and places when and where taken, and in what manner he shall dispose of the same; the ships or vessels he shall fall in with; the times and places when and where he shall meet with them, and his observations and remarks thereon; also of whatever else shall occur to him, or any of his officers or marines, or be discovered by examination or conference with any marines or passengers of or in any other ships or vessels, or by any other means, touching the fleets, vessels and forces of the United States, their posts and places of station and destination, strength, numbers, intents and designs; and such commanding officer shall, immediately on his arrival in any port of the Confederate States, from or during the continuance of any voyage or cruise, produce his commission for such vessel, and deliver up such journal so kept as aforesaid, signed with his proper name and handwriting, to the collector or other chief officer of the customs at or nearest to such port; the truth of which journal shall be verified by the oath of the commanding officer for the time being. And such collector or other chief officer of the customs shall, immediately on the arrival of such vessel, order the proper officer of the customs to go on board and take an account of the officers and men, and number and nature of the guns, and whatever else shall occur to him on examination material to be known; and no such vessel shall be permitted to sail out of port again until such journal shall have been delivered up, and a certificate obtained under the hand of such collector or other chief officer of the customs that she is manned and armed according to her commission, and, upon delivery of such certificate, any former certificate of a like nature which shall have been obtained by the commander of such vessel shall be delivered up.

12. That the commanders of vessels having letters of marque and reprisal as aforesaid, neglecting to keep a journal as aforesaid, or wilfully making fraudulent entries therein or obliterating the record of any material transaction contained therein, where the interest of the Confederate States is concerned, or refusing to produce and deliver such journal, commission, or certificate, pursuant to the preceding section of this Act, then and in such cases the commissions or letters of marque and reprisal of such vessels shall be liable to be revoked; and such commanders respectively shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of 1,000 dollars, one moiety thereof to the use of the Confederate States, and the other to the informer.

"13. That the owners or commanders of vessels having letters of marque and reprisal as aforesaid, who shall violate any of the Acts of Congress for the collection of the revenue of the Confederate States, and for the prevention of smuggling, shall forfeit the commission or letters of marque and reprisal, and they and the vessels owned or commanded by them shall be liable to all the penalties and forfeitures attaching to merchant-vessels in like cases.

"14. That on all goods, wares, and merchandize captured and made good and lawful prizes of war by any private armed ship having commission or letters of marque and reprisal under this Act, and brought

mto the Confederate States, there shall be allowed a deduction of 33 Chap. IV. per cent on the amount of duties imposed by law.

"15. That five per centum on the net amount (after deducting all charges and expenditures) of the prize money arising from captured vessels and cargoes, and on the net amount of the salvage of vessels and cargoes re-captured by private armed vessels of the Confederate States, shall be secured and paid over to the collector or other chief officer of the customs, at the port or place in the Confederate States at which such captured or re-captured vessels may arrive, or to the Consul or other public agent of the Confederate States residing at the port or place, not within the Confederate States, at which such captured or re-captured vessel may arrive. And the moneys arising therefrom shall be held and are hereby pledged by the Government of the Confederate States as a fund for the support and maintenance of the widows and orphans of such persons as may be slain, and for the support and maintenance of such persons as may be wounded and disabled, on board of the private armed vessels commissioned as aforesaid, in any engagement with the enemy, to be assigned and distributed in such manner as shall hereafter be provided by law."

Note II.

CHAPTER V.

General Remarks on the effect of a Civil War on International Relations. -Sovereignty, what it is, and how affected by a Revolt.-Sovereignty de jure and de facto.-Effect of a Revolt, while it lasts, in displacing assumptions common to Municipal and International Law. Difficulties thus created, and how they are met.-Neutrality of Foreign States during a Civil War.-Belligerent Rights, what they are, when they arise and expire, and on what ground the recognition of them proceeds.-A Rebel not a Pirate.

WE have reached a point at which the revolt and its consequences began to affect the international relations of the United States with other Powers. We are on the confines, therefore, of the domain of International Law; and it may be convenient that, before going further, I should attempt to state, as clearly and concisely as I am able, some simple propositions which meet us at the

outset.

The collection of rules called International Law assigns to all Sovereign States certain rights and obligations. These rules are, in fact, opinions which have acquired a force analogous to that of laws from their general acceptance, from having been often acted upon, and from the sense that the recognition of some fixed standards for the regulation of conduct and the adjustment of disputes is a matter of great and universal convenience. When we speak of an international obligation, we mean that there is a rule which, as between nations, enjoins or forbids a given act, and that this rule is the accepted measure, so far as it goes, of what is just or unjust in a given case. The force of the rule, whatever it be and from whatever source derived, constitutes

the obligation, and every nation against which the rule may be invoked is said to be bound or obliged by it. By an international right we mean a claim to the performance of an international obligation.

By a Sovereign State we mean a community or number of persons permanently organized under a Sovereign Government of their own; and by a Sovereign Government we mean a Government, however constituted, which exercises the power of making and enforcing law within a community, and is not itself subject to any superior Government. These two factors, one positive, the other negative-the exercise of power, and the absence of superior control-compose the notion of sovereignty, and are essential to it. The question whether a given community is a Sovereign State, and the question who is or are sovereign in a given community, are thus, properly speaking, pure questions of fact.

The rebellion of part of a community against the Sovereign Government has the effect, while it lasts, of paralyzing or suspending the actual sovereignty of the Government as to the rebellious part. If successful, it has the further effect of substituting a new Government without impairing the integrity of the State, or else of dividing the community itself into more States than one. A new State thus created has the same general rights and obligations as others, and is entitled to have them acknowledged, since the reasons on which those rights and obligations depend are good for all States indiscriminately, without reference to their origin; and it is, as we have seen, only a question of fact whether a community which lays claim to the character of a State be such or no. An acknowledgment by other States that this character has actually been acquired by a revolted community, is usually spoken of as a recognition of its independence.

Isolated acts of resistance to the law, local risings

Chap. V.