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CHARGE TO GRAND JURY. 481 Nations are, in respect to each other, in the same situation as independent individuals in a state of nature. Suppose twenty families should be cast on an island and after dividing it between them conclude to remain unconnected with each other by any kind of government, would it thence follow that there are no laws to direct their conduct towards one another ? Certainly not. Would not the laws of reason and morality direct them to behave to each other with respect, with justice, with benevolence, with good faith—would not those laws direct them to abstain from violence, to abstain from interfering in -their respective domestic government and arrangements, to abstain from causing quarrels and dissensions in each other's families ? If they made treaties, would they not be bound to observe them ? Or if by consent. expressed or implied they gave occasion to usages mutually convenient, would not those usages grow into conventional laws ? The answer is obvious. In like manner the nations throughout the world are like so many great families placed by Providence on the earth, who having divided it between them, remain perfectly distinct from and independent of each other. Between them there is no judge but the great Judge of all. They have a perfect right to establish such governments and build such houses as they prefer, and their neighbors have no right to pull down either because not fashioned according to their ideas of perfection ; in a word, one has no right to Vol. Ill—31
Title | The correspondence and public papers of John Jay - 3 |
Creator | Jay, John |
Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons |
Place of Publication | New York, London |
Date | [1890-93] |
Language | eng |
Type | Books/Pamphlets |
Title | 00000516 |
Type | Books/Pamphlets |
Transcript | CHARGE TO GRAND JURY. 481 Nations are, in respect to each other, in the same situation as independent individuals in a state of nature. Suppose twenty families should be cast on an island and after dividing it between them conclude to remain unconnected with each other by any kind of government, would it thence follow that there are no laws to direct their conduct towards one another ? Certainly not. Would not the laws of reason and morality direct them to behave to each other with respect, with justice, with benevolence, with good faith—would not those laws direct them to abstain from violence, to abstain from interfering in -their respective domestic government and arrangements, to abstain from causing quarrels and dissensions in each other's families ? If they made treaties, would they not be bound to observe them ? Or if by consent. expressed or implied they gave occasion to usages mutually convenient, would not those usages grow into conventional laws ? The answer is obvious. In like manner the nations throughout the world are like so many great families placed by Providence on the earth, who having divided it between them, remain perfectly distinct from and independent of each other. Between them there is no judge but the great Judge of all. They have a perfect right to establish such governments and build such houses as they prefer, and their neighbors have no right to pull down either because not fashioned according to their ideas of perfection ; in a word, one has no right to Vol. Ill—31 |
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