1842.
Adams Lecture on the War with China
2755
How far this reproach of a French writer upon the freedom of the seas, (Ray. neval) is justified by the facts which he alleges in its support, is not now my pur. pose, nor have we time to inquire. It behooves us however to remember that the English language is now the mother tongue, not of one, but of many nations, and that whatever portion of them believe that the fountain of all human legislation is the omnipotence of the British parliament, we as one of those nations acknow. ledge no such supremacy. We think, with the great jurist of our mother country, that the omnipotence of the British parliament is a figure of speech rather too bold, and the first declaration of the act of our existence as a separate nation, was, self-evident, inalienable rights of all men by the laws of nature and of nature's God. This is the only omnipotence to which we bow the knee, as the only source, direct or indirect of all human legislation, and that thus the laws of nations are identical with the rights of men associated in independent communities.
The practical organization of our social system is not altogether consistent with our theory of the law of nature and of nature's God, which has given to all men the inalienable right to liberty. The existence of slavery is incompatible with that law of nature.
But we speak the English language, and what the men of other tongues call the right of nations, we call the law of nations. What then are the laws of nature by the rules of which the right and wrong of the present contest between Great Britain and China are to be ascertained? And here we are to remember, that by the laws of nations are to be understood not one code of lawa, binding alike upon all the nations of the earth, but a system of rules, varying according to the character and condition of the parties concerned. The general law of nations is derived from four distinct sources, denominated by Vattel the necessary, voluntary, conventional, and customary, laws of nations. The necessary law is the applica. tion of the law of nature to the intercourse between independent communities, and this itself can be enforced only between nations who recognize the principle that the state of nature in a state of peace. It is a religious principle of the Moham medan nations, that it is their duty to propagate their religion by the sword. Time was, when their cruel, absurd, and unnatural principle was inscribed on the holy banners of the meek and lowly Jesus. The vision of Constantine himself who seated Christianity upon the throne of the Cæsars-the vision by which he pretended to have been converted to the faith of the blessed Gospel, falsified all its commands, and perverted its nature. The cross of Christ was exhibited before his eyes, and the words inscribed upon it were, "By this conquer"-conquer, perse. cute, enslave, destroy, kindle the fires of the holy fraternities, burn the heretic at the stake, tear his nerves to atoms by the rack, hunt him with blood-hounds, pluck out his vitals and slap them in his face-all for the salvation of his soul- by this conquer!
By the law of nations between those communities, subscribers to this creed, the bishop of Rome, the self-styled servant of servants, by the seal of the fisherman's ring, was for many ages invested with authority to distribute all the kingdoms of the earth, out of the pale of Christianity, to whomsoever he pleased. And ac. cordingly in January, 1445, his holiness, Nicholas V. did, of his own proper mo. tion, without petition from any one, by his mere liberality and certain knowledge, after full deliberation and in the plenitude of apostolic power, give, grant, and con. the whole kingdom of Guinea, and all its negro inhabitants, to Alphonso, king Gi Portugal, and his son, the infanta, Don Henry, and their heirs and successors
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