Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-06-16

NV NC 'itldN e l.
have already said that our treaty
with China should be abrugated,
aud nave indicated the general prln-
cipis through which that result nav
be directly reached. But this should
not be dismissed with a paragraph.
and its close and minute examination
! should not be forbOrne. The na-
tiOnal conscience and The national
dignity demand that in an Interna-
tlpnai controversy, our people should
show Is clear cause IA would, IN
Inc case OF IN individual, call for a
/ favorable verdict in n court nf equity.
/ What, then, are the legal and edui,
table conditions involved in the
remedy Of the present and the pre-
ventIon Of the impending evil i?
! WHAT are the methods IN Ter the
FN"'N' ~ lr'v - tc"""lirr - nrn.
: t.-'ienfI es abllsnr,l as iu4t between
atoms, Hv when the DOlIcv nf The
government NAV by reversed aud
! the immunity Of oar people from
l1ILtlc INVASION be secured T.
snswer tins I1rrv, requires an IN.
. E+s'.9 alton Ot tl!r nature Of treaties,
and tDeir scope ana Iimi atoms as
concerns their binding force; Of the
cpur,e pursued by otter pa,ions in
similar but less mOmentous exigen-
les; Of the precepts OF our own
! political Jurl, pru lence; and of our
| treaty relations with China sInce and
including the first convention en-
! tered into, thirty-slX years ago. In
other words. we are now ed to a
consideration of the law of nations
80 FAR Us it relates to the matter be-
! lore us.
A treaty is not, as pro.Chinese
advocates apparently believe, IA con-
tract chanseIess as the law of the
Medes and Persians, and binding
for all time, no matter what ruin it
may entqil. 1t is an agreement
entered into by two powers for their
mutual advantage; and, like con-
tract between man and man, depends
for its pernanenca validity upon
equity and good conscience. Al
though some treaties, for example
those relating to boundaries, are in
I manner permanent, as they revive
after war unless modified by subse-
quent conventions, yet most, in the
very nature of things, are transltory.
The conditions under which they are
made change or disappear, and what
1t first was equitable, or believed to
be SO, is proven by the lapse of time
to be productive of harm. Thus it
s that while some treaties have been
u degree enduring, and have es-
tabitshed certain principles of pub
lie comfy, by far the greater num-
Der have been modified from time to
time, TO bring their provisions into
closer concord with newly developed
IDEAS of national safety or interna-
tional justice.
This fact lies at the very founda-
| ton of the law of nations; without it,
future generations might be chained
and mortsaged by their predeces-
sors, and have no recourse. With
out it, people might be ruined by
the mistakes Of vain dlplomatist,
The treason of a crafty ruler, or the
thoughtless outburst of a popular
enthusiasm. It is not to be permit
ted that the liberties, the prosperity,
the evolution and development of
nations should be arrested by the
iron weight of unchanging aud un-
changeable treaties which, under
verbal forms, might place the indus
'ries and the social and political
interests of country in Jeopardy,
IS those of this country are jepoard-
ICED by China at the present time.
Hence, a treaty which tends to the
lrremediable injury of one of the
contracting parties is absolutely void;
1t has no place IN the law of nations.
This is aud has been held by jurists
since the code of nations was first
formulated as the highest expression
Of human law. In the words of
Vattei, whose works, during hun
bred and twenty years, have been
tie guide of statesmen aud diplO-
matlsts: " A treaty pernicious to the
State is null, and not at all obliga-
tory, as no conductor of nation has
| the power to enter into engagements
TO do such things as are capable of
destroying the State for whose sake
the Government is intrusted to him.
And, further, not only may no
treaty making power ALLEVIATE the
welfare of its people, but it is con-
trary to the order of nature and the
we'll being of humanity, that ma
ton should be held to conditions
that tend to its overthrow. Says the
same writer: The nation itself be-
ing necessarily obliged to perform
everything required for its preserva-
ton and safety, cannot enter into
engagements contrary to its indis-
pensable obligations. In like man
ner Wheaton, the American public
ist, whose treaties has been an au-
thority for more than forty years and
which, it may be remarked, was
translated into the Chinese language
sixteen years ago for the use of the
Chancellerie, expressly holds that
"a total change of circumstances"
renders a treaty " mo longer obliga-
tory" And the venerable DR..
Woolsey, whose volume is the text
book of American colleges, uses on
this head language stronger even
than that of Vsttel. " A treaty." he
says, in which the treaty making
power hagitiously sacrifices the in
terests of the nation which it rep
resents, has no binding force. In
this case the treachsrous act of the
government cannot be justly re-
garded as the act of the nation, and
, the forms ought to give way to the
reality of things"