The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1869-11-15


State Departments Of the Government,
tina: this was civil war. Almost the
FIRST act Of the Government was to make
/ it so On the 18th of April. 1861, a
blockade was proclaimed hy the President;
and. on the 9th Of the same month, the
raid blockade was declared to apply to
Virginia and North Carolina, bringing q:
that time the whole coast Of the Southern
States under Tic blockade. 4 blockade
Is an act Of war. !, cannot be sustained
as to neutrals, otherwise than as bcl;is.
ercut measure.
know that i; hNs been urged, that the
Figh; to declare the blockade referred to.
existed as pacific Tight-as right at
tschlng aud belonging to a sovereign.
No such power is conferred, as q pacific
right, upon the President alone, without
an act Of Congress. This was done By
the President, clearly as Commander-iu-
Chief, OF the army and navy 1t mag be
true that sovereign may interdict trade
with foreigners, when he has dominion
and exercises sovereign powers over the
coast, ana tic small part Of the sea deemed
to be within the civil jurisdiction Of the
sovereign, because it can be commanded
from the coast. 1t therefore folio IS, that,
I whensthe sovereign has not the command
of the coast, be cannot enforce any inter-
diet to.t-ndc with foreigners, as a mere
municipal or sovereign right. but can only
assert such interdict asa beliigcrent right
I.of blocknde-as a right Of public or civil
war, and not as a municipal right to close
the ports. If the right existed as SOW
crcigu right. it would not be necessary to
make the blockade cGectiyc-a here in
teFdict would answer the purpose Of a
I blockade.
During the revolution and revolt in
Spanish america, Spain claimed this SOW
escign right, aud Mr.. Monroe, the Sccre-
tary Of State, in note to the Spanish
Minister, asserted the principle l have
here stated.
In dispatch of Lord Russell to Lord
Lyons, in 1861, be stated that tie exist
encc ofciTil war gave to both parties the
rights Of war against each other, and tina:
his Government could not admit the righs
OF The United States, at one and the same
time, to exercise the bclligereut right Of
blockade, and the municipal right Of clos
ing the ports Of the South, but admitted
the right Of blockade to ports in posses
! sion Of the Confcderates, but an assumed
right to close any ports in the bands Of
insurgents. would imply the right to stop
vessels on the high seas without institut-
ing an affective blockade" aad ne de-
clared further that re would consider
mere decree closing the ports N posscs-
sion Of the insurgents as null and void"
Judge Dunlap, of tho United States
District Court for the District Of Column
bia, held, IN The case Of the Tropic Wind.
The said blockade $50 be q bclligerent
right, and could only have place in state
of war;" and that the proclamation Of the
President declaring blockade. was ''ar
executive demonstration that civil war ex-
istcd.'
lie further states: ~ do not End, on
examination Of the writers GU public law.
any difference as to belligcrcnt rights in
civil or foreign war. TIE blockade being
one ofthe rights ofwar, ana the President
having in substance asserted civil war to
exist, l am Of opinion that the blockade
was lawfully proclaimed"
| In note in Lawrencc's Wheaton, the
aunotatory says The fact set out IN the
proc!amat;ons of thc President Of the
18th and 9th of April, 1861. with the
assertion of the right Of blockade, amounts
to a declaration that civil Var exists
Under this blockade it became poccssc.
! rs to establish the blockade to be lawful,
and the right to make prizes under it. not
by the sovereign right to interdict CON-
mercc IS a municipal right, but as right
yjNrs IcHi; otherwise the seizures and
| prizes under it could not be held.
! This very question has been decided
DUNG the late war in mary cases Of yes.
sells belonging to the English, Mcxicans,
and other neutralS, and to persons residing
w!!&in the Confederate lines, and citizens
Of the United States residing in the
Northern States, and decided by the in
ferior and Supreme Courts o. tue United
Sta es to have been lawful blockade,
and that it was a civil war, and that the
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