Southern pioneer, and Carroll, Choctaw and Tallahatchie Counties advertiser. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1840-1842, 1841-08-28
cARRoLLToN, MISSISSIPPI SATURDAY % ls4l

of the sovereign only, but to the contracts of
the citizens or subjects of different States, all
of which we will proceed to prove by quota
tons from Vattel and Grotius:
ssThe conventions and contract made by the
sovereign with PRIVATE PERSONS WHO ARE FOR
EIeNERs, in his quality of sovereign, and in the
name of the State, follow the rules we have
given in respect to public treaties. If the
private person who has treated with the sove-
reign, is his subject, the right is also much the
same, but there is a difference in the manner
of deciding the controversy, which may arise
from the contract. THE PRIVATE PERSON BE-
ING SUBJECT OF THE STARE, is obliged to sub
NIT his pretentions to the established courts Of
ljustice."-Law of Nations, B. II, ch. xiv, $50.
Vide Grotius, B. III, ch ii, p. 44e:-"What-
soever debts any civil society shall contract,
either primarily by themselves, or be engaged
for, by not rendering 10 others that which is
their right, all the goods, both corporal and
incorporeal, of those that are subject to that
society, shall be liable and stand bound to dis
CHARGE" Vide also id; p. 448, as to the man.
ner Of coercing payment:-"This rights en-
forced by reprisals or violent seizure and de-
tention of each others goods, and extends e.
ven to debts due from the citizens or subjects
one country to those of another"
Now, sir, do you not feel that your statute
operates just as much on our rights as your
denunciation of 1888 does on our consciencesl
You urge that the bonds were delivered by
you as escrows, that is, as incomplete or inn
perfect instruments, "a queer idea this, Of de-
livering EsCRows to commissioners, to be car
ried out of the State and sold,) and that they
were not to become complete until after their
sale and the receipt of their par value. Then
if they ever were completed, it was in Phila'
delphia, and that must be the place of the con
tract But that is not all: if you will look q
little further into the LEX LOCI, you will find
that "a contract made in one place, to be ex
ecuted in another, is governed by the law o
the latter" We repeat, that we do not con
ceive that the LEX LOCI or FoRI has any thing
to do with our rights, which would be precise
4 ly the same, whether the contract were made
in Jackson or Amsterdam. But we are using
your own weapons, and you cannot object
that they are poisoned. The place at which
these bonds were to be executed-that is, paid
lis London.
| But, sir, if you are sustained in every posi-
ton which you assume, even in that which i:
most absurd of any, and which we have just
demolished--and if even the bonds are not
the bonds of the State. still is she clearly bound
to refund the money advanced upon them
with interest. You admit that the money
was received by citizens Of Mississippi, and
we have already shown from Grotius, that the
law of reprisal extends even to debts due fron
the citizens or subjects of one nation to those
of another. The whole people of State are
considered as composing one body politic.-
Each individual is member of the body, and
the WHOLE are liable for the acts of EACH
You seem to have paid little attention TO in.
ternational law, but must have encountered
frequent recognitions of this principle in your
historical researches. 1t is true, that in case
of contract, it is rarely resorted to in practice
: but ours is a case in which the propfiety 0
4 evoking it from its dormant state would b
!, questioned by no one: for, we advanced oul
money upon bonds having the great seal o
I. the State attached to them, and which wer'
: believed by us and all men to be State Securi
$ ties If you will examine and reflect on The
principle it will go far to relieve you from you
3 constitutional scruples. To assist your High
e ness, and in requital of your kindness in for
Q warding to us the journals of lS4O and al
c we herewith transmit Ito the care Of our agen
: in New York; copy of Grotius, one of Vattel
n and one of Puffendorf
o You state that "those bonds were not sol
: in accordance with the constitution and law