The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1847-11-13
Subject to the decision Of the Wing National Convention


Mexico, now for the first time made public
on the Fremont trial, our attention has been
arrested by the extreme anxiety to make
those commanders understand all the rela-
tons between two nations which are at war
with each other These instructions abound
in the most elementary dispositions upon
public law, and did we not know that the
President and his Cabinet are not trustworthy
statesmen themselves, we should laugh OUT
right at these exhibitions of school-room
learning, as we have no doubt Kearny and
Stockton and Shubrick and Biddle actually
did But since the Administration had so
little confidence in their own knowledge and
Judgment, as to undertake to instruct these
gentlemen in what, if they ever went to
school at all, they must have been familiar
with ere they left their forms, it may not be
amiss to revert to the old and acknowledged
masters of public law for defnitions-to
those publicists whose names will live so long
as truth and Justice shall be sought after and
be loved by men. We think we shall be do
ing service to the Administration ITSELF
for their multifarious duties, we have no
doubt, must prevent their examining for
themselves--to devote few moments TO the
productions of definitions so essential to the
right understanding of the great subject
which now engages not only their but the
whole public mind also. And as there APP
pears to be .great error prevailing elsewhere
than in the Administration, respecting the
nature and the rights of war, we hope that
our labor will be duly appreciated in those
quarters too
WAR, WHAT IT is" War is contention
" by force. When war is said to be con-
tention, the word is not to be understood in
6 so restrained sense as to mean by it, on
ely the act of contending Nations are
"said to be at war with one another, not on
ely when their armies are engaged, so as to
" be in the very act of contending; but, like
"wise, when they have any matter of con-
troversy or dispute subsisting between
+" them, which they are determined to decide
" by the use of force, and have declared, by
words, or shown by certain actions, that
"they are so determined to decide it. War,
therefore, in the common sense of the
"word, signifies, not only an act, but state
or condition. And upon this account, the
word contention, in this definition Of war,
lis to be understood to signify the state or
condition of those, who, though they are
not actually making use Of force, have
"some matter Of dispute subsisting between
them, which can be decided by no other
:" means, and who are, therefore, determined
'tto take every fair opportunity of using
+" these means for the decision of it."
! WAR is NATURALLY LAWFUL" The
"right of recovering reparation for damages
done, and the right Of INJECTING punish
ment, will serve to show that an injury
evil Justify men in making use of force, both
"before and after it is committed An in
stjury justi6es the use of force, before it is
| 8! committed, in order to guard against it;
I" and it justi6es like use of force, after it
Z" is committed, in order, either to recover
"what is lost by it, or to hinder him who has
" done it, from doing the like again. Now
" the use of force is war; and, consequently,
" the law of nature, since it allows the use
" force for any of these purposes, allows Of
"war"
PUBLIC WAR, WHAT is IT." Public war
dis the war of public persons; that is, of CT
evil societies and consequently there can
"be no such war, where there is no civil
Hunion But civil societies act in their in
tercourse with one another by their respec-
C. tive supreme authorities; whether it is the
friendly intercourse of leagues and conven-
I" tons, or the hostile intercourse of war. A
"war, therefore, will be public one, though
it is no otherwise the act of those civil So
"cieties that are the contendng parties in
: :" it, than as it is the act of their respective
I" supreme authorities All wars of nation
against its external enemies, are not pub
lie wars. To make war a public one,
:" both the contending parties must be public
: persons; that is, It must be war Of
Gone nation against another; and conse-
"quently, it must begin and be carried on by
ct the power of the supreme authority or
, both sides"
SOLEMN WAR, WHAT AND WHY CALLEr
JUST WAR;" Public war is divided into
, "perfect and imperfect The former sort
+" is more usually called solemn, according te
, the law of nations, and the latter unsolemr
war. Unsolemn or imperfect wars be.
{ tween nations, that is, such wars as ma
E C tons carry on against one another, with
: out declaring or proclaiming them, though
|
"wars at all; they are more usually known
"by the name of reprisals or Of acts Of hos.
tility. To make war solemn one, &C.
Il " cording to the law Of nations, two things
: :" are required; first, it must be publ,
: "war, that is, the contendng parties mus
=" be two nations acting respectively unde
. "the direction Of their supreme authorities
"and secondly, it must be proclaimed, mott.
g fed, or declared Reprisals, though they
C " are contentious by force between two ma
r (" tons, and may, therefore, be called public
I "wars, are not solemn wars, because they
: " are not preceded by any express and oper
9 declaration of war. The design of dec
i " laration Of war, by which the war becomes
e ga solemn one, is to bring it up to the high
1t $ est notion Of public war, or to make tper
ii " fectly public, 1t is this legal perfection
a whence such wars have the appellation o
, "just ones. BY calling them just wars, j
els only meant that they are perfect one
according to the laws Of nations -