Page:Hawkins v. Filkins 01.pdf/24

RhTERM, 1866.] factions, and both sides take up arms—this is called a civil war." Vattel, 424. "And though one of the parties may have been to blame in breaking the unity of the state, and resisting lawful authority, they are not the less divided in fact." Id. 425.

"Where the party in rebellion occupy and hold, in a hostile manner, a certain portion of territory; have declared their independence; have cast off their allegiance; have organized armies; have engaged in hostilities against their former sovereign, the world acknowledges them as belligerents, and the contest a war." ''2 Black Sup. Court Rep., 666. "When the regular course of justice is interrupted by revolt, rebellion, or insurrection; so that the courts of justice cannot be kept open, civil war exists, and hostilities may be prosecuted on the same footing as if those opposing the government were foreign enemies invading the land," id. 667. "It is not the less a civil war with belligerent parties in hostile array, because it may be called an 'insurrection' by one side, and the insurgents be considered as rebels, or traitors. It is not necessary that the independence of the revolted province, or state be acknowledged, in order to constitute it a party belligerent in a war, according to the law of nations," id. 669. "Under the very peculiar constitution of this government, although the citizens owe supreme allegiance to the federal government, they owe also, a qualified allegiance to the state in which they are domiciled. Hence, in organizing this rebellion, they have acted as states,'' claiming to be sovereign over all persons within their respective limits, and asserting a right to absolve their citizens from their allegiance to the federal government." ''Id. page 673.''

The late war with the United States, then, being a civil war, all of the rights of the citizens within the territory where it existed, may well be claimed. But the fact that it is a civil war does not, necessarily, give to the victors all of the rights of conquest as between foreign nations. In a domestic war between different portions of the same government, so far as regards the suppression of armed resistance, it may be complete, but the rules of conquest over foreign territory do not apply to their full