Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-02-14
ENEMY PROPERTY AT SEA
TOPIC OF LECTURE BY DIR. E. NJ.
GALLAUDET.
Address Before School of Compare
tive Jurisprudence and Diplomacy
of Columbian University.

y
of Columbian University on 1.-The treatment
of Enemy Property on the Sea- Inc
speaker was greeted by large audience
and great interest was manifested in the
address, the subject being one to which
most of the Presidents of the United States,
and especially Mr.. Mckinley, have given
much thought
DIR. Gallaudet said, I'm part:
In discussing the question before us this
evening must consider for few mo-
ments the time when war was the rule
among and peace was the exception.
In the days when the Wanted civilization
of Greece and Rome was at its best, war
was truly barbarous trade. Capt1Ves
from the battlefield were led in triumph as
the slaves of their conquerors. All the sub
jects of a belligerent state. Even women
and children We're considered the active
enemies of the other belligerents, and treat
ed as such. Quarter often refused.
Pllage of all sorts was the rule. Towns
and villages were burned, and the entire
allowed and many other cruel practices jus
titled Private property of all sorts was
regarded the lawful prize of the victor,
ana confiscation was general. Hospitals
and ambulanceS were unknown, and the
surgery most reSOrted to insured quick dis
patch to the wounded on the field of bat
tie"
After referring to the advances made in
DR.. Gallaudet said: 1T Is curious that when
all these amelorations of the seventies of
war have been conceded. the medlaeVal
even barbarous, practice of Selling private
property the sea should still have the
sanction of the law of nations.
During the last century. and in the early
part of the present century, neutral yes
sells and cargoes We're frequently captured
by English cruisers and condemned by En-
gliSh courts for being engaged in the coast
ing or colonial traffic of a state hostile to
England. The posisition taken by Great
Britain was combated by Benjamin Frank
lin early 1850, and i'll 1901 President
jefferson handled the whole question eX-
haustively in dispatch to Mr. Livingstone,
then our minister to France. jefferson was
not afraid to demand, at the behest of
sound philosophy and national morality, a
radical change. amounting to a revolution
in the policy and practice of nations in this
matter.
Disclosures I'm state Papers.
THE state papers of jefferson, Madison
Monroe and of John Quincy Adams, minis
ter to England and again when Secretary
of State, give evidence of the steady and
earnest advocacy on the part of the gov
eminent of the United States of the most
liberal and humane policy possible as to
the treatment of private property ON the
sea. and Secretary Marcy's dispatches and
letters two years before the notable treaty
of 1856 are full of suggestions enforcing
the precep.s that We're embodied in that
agreement.
The inspiration of a number of dis
patches from Mr.. Marcy to the leading
American ministers at the European courts
Is found in = message of President Pierce
to Congress in December, 1854, in which
the following paragraph occurs: AT the
commencement of the existing war in Eu-
rope Great Britain and France announced
their purpose of observing the principle of
fee ships, free goods, for the present, not.
however. recognized international
right, but as mere concession for the time
being. The cooperation, however of these
two powerful maritime nations in the in
terest of neutral rights appeared to me to
afford an occasion inviting and justifying
on the part of the United States a re-
newed effort to make the doctrine in ques-
ton a principle of International law, by
means of special conventions between the
several powers of Europe and America.
Accordingly 4 proposition, embra cling not
only the rule that free ships make free
goods except contraband articles. but also
the less contested one that neutral property
other than contraband, though on board
enemy : ships, shall be exempt from con-
fiscation. has been submitted by this gov
eminent to those of Europe
Declaration of Paris.
Russia was the only nation that formal
~ agreed to the proposal of our govern
ment, but there is good reason to believe
that the active interest shown by the
United States exerted small influence
in securing the famous declaration of
Paris from the congress which assembled
in that city In 1886 to restore peace to
Europe at the close of the Crimean war, an
assemblage that Calpo says deserves TO
rank with the congress of Westphalia in
1G4S. which gave liberty of conscience to
the word. and the congress of Vienna, in
JS1J, which decreed the abolition of the
slave trade and effected the free navigation
OF rivers.
The estimation in which the men who
composed that congress were held through
out the world did quite as much, no doubt,
10 secure the general acceptance of the pro-
visions of their treaty as the inherent jus
tice of the declarations themselves, which
We're on four points as follows:
l. Privateering is and remains abolished.
= The neutral flag covers enemy's goods,
except contraband of war
s. Neutral goods cannot be taken even
under the enemy'S flag.
l. Blockades are not to be respected I'M
less effective.
these principles by forty-one independent
powers in Europe and America secured
advance on the line of the proposed reform
more important than any effected up to
that time. and had Spain. Mexico and the
United States Joined in this agreement it
is probable that long before the present
time the absolute immunity of private prop
erty the would have been assured.
But these three nations had reasons which
seemed good at the time for the position
they took.
in 1871 Secretary Of State Fish had the
satisfaction of doing something toward the
realization of his wish on the subject by
negotiating treaty with Italy, which pro-
vided that in the event of war between the
two powers, private property of the citizens
and subjects of each should be exempt
from seizure at sea, unless it We're contra
band Of war.
American-Spanfsh War.
THE occurrence of war between the Unit
ed States and Spain in 1895 raised questions
of great interest concerning the treatment
OF enemy property in the sea and led to
efforts In several directions to advance the
cause our government had been champion
ing for so many years. On the 25th of April,
the very day that war was declared, Mr.
f. II. Gillett of Massachusetts introduced
resolution in the House of Representa-
tives to the effect that during the war with
Spain merchant ships and their cargoes
should be exempt from capture as prizes
unless they We're carrying contraband of
war or were trying to violate a blockade.
Many public men were N favor of hav-
ing our government take this stand without
waiting to secure Spain's agreement to the
policy. But more were governed by doubts
as to what course Spain might pursue, and
the advanced step was not taken. President