The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-07-10

10 Sl0vcIys
In preceding article under the
above title, it was shown by quotations
from Vattel that it is the duty, land OF
course, the right,) of our Government
and military commanders to emanci-
pate the slaves of all rebels whenever
conquest affords opportunity and it
can be done with safety to all entitled
to be protected. One of the passages
quoted explicitly declares us to be
"obligcd in conscience and by the laws
of equity" whenever victorious to res
cue and restore to freedom, "people
whom our enemy had unjustly op-
pressed" and "spoied of their liberty"
and $50 to use our victory as not merely
to give them a new master, but to
break their chains"
Have the conservatives" lin other
words, the conservators of Szavery,)
amongst our high civil and military
agents, ever read Vattel? 1t may be
found in almost every lawyers library !;
and all lawyers and all statesmen know
or ought to know that it is throughout
the civilized world, received as an aceu-
rate and accredited textbook of the
Common Law of Nations; that it
is the standard authority upon the
subjects of which it treats, occupying
the same rank in respect to the COM
mon law of the civilized nations of the
earth, which Blackstone's Commenta.
ries do to the Common Law of Eng
land. 1t is time our Hallecks and
Nc Clellans and McDowells and some
of our civil agents too, were informed
of its contents.
Do they claim, as semi traitorous
organs in our midst are claiming, that
the Federal Constitution bars such en-.
forcement of national law? Then let
them learn what every legal scholar in
the civilized world can teach them,
that the Law of Nations is in respect
to all its subject matters, paramount to
the Constitution, paramount to the
highest law of any one nation be it
the most powerful of the earth; that
it is the "Higher" and the highest of
all merely human law. The pretence
that the Federal Constitution or any
other merely municipal law can over
ride any provision Of the Law of Ma
tions, comes of pitiable ignorance or
an utter depravity.
There is abundant other answer to
the pretence The Federal Constitu-
ton no where prohibits the emancipa-
ton of slaves. 1t is true it does not
expressly confer any power of such
emancipation. But at does confer at as
a part Of the aoar making poaoer, and
thereby makes at the duty Of the Co..
era,nent to exercise it not only in re-
spect to the slaves of the enemy, but
in respect to the slaves of loyal citizens
even, whenever their emancipation can
be made auxiliary to the NARROWER.
Every man at all informed of Consti-
tutional law, knows that the omission
of an erpress grant of power in the
constitution, is no proof whatever that
such power is not fully conferred. In
deed, most of the powers conferred by
that instrument, are conferred by inapti-
cation. And some are thus conferred
as incidents of the war-power, which
are expressly prohibited in peace
Thus, the Constitution not only omits to
expressly confer, but expressly prohi6
its the power to ''abridge the freedom
of speech or the press" to infringe
the right of the people to keep and
bear arms )" to "deprive of life, liberty
or property without due process of
law" Ii. e. written warrant issued upon
oath, Indictment, trial by jury, &c.
And yet during war, foreign or civil,
the Federal Government can constitu-
tionally exercise, as it is now exercising
all of those pow ers; for the prohibitions
were intended for peri IDS of peace only.
This is evident from the fact that the
Constitution gives the Federal Govern
ment the full, general power to wage
war offensive as well as defensive, and
against domestic as well as foreign ene-
mics. 1t thus gives it the war power
without any restriction or limitation
and, of course, empowers it in waging
Il war, to carry it on by the exercise of
all the powers in detail authorized by
the Law of Nations.
1t is an axiom of jurisprudence that
the grant of right to do a thing, is
grant of the right to employ all the
appropriate means necessary to do that
thing. Thus, the right of an officer to
take cnlprit's body, is right to kill
the culprit if he resist and killinghim he
necessary to the capture of his body.
SO the right to carry on war, is the right
20 deprive the enemy of property, liberty
and life; to deprive him of all the instru-
mentalilies, the arms, munitions, vessels,
money, muscular power, and men,
whether free or enslaved, by which he
carries on the war on his part; in short,
to weaken and defeat him by all the
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