Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/357

 LIFE OP HENRY.

��then at variance. He states the custom to exist for the advantage of commerce, and that a departure from it would injure the pubhc faith. Public faith is in this case out of the question. The public faith was not pledged — it could not therefore be injured. I have already read to your honours from the 11th page of the preliminary discourse of Vattel, ' that the custommij laiv of nations is only binding on those who have adopted it, and that it is not universal, any more than conventional laws.^ It is evident we could not be bound by any convention or treaty to which we our- selves were not a party: and from this authority it is equally obvious, that we could not be bound by any customary law to which we were not parties. I think therefore, with great submission to the court, that the right for which f contended, that is, that in common wars between independent nations, either of the contending parties has a right to confiscate or remit debts due by its people to the enemy, is not shaken by the customary law of nations, as far as it regards us, because the cus- tom could not affect us. But gentlemen say we were not completely independent till the year 1 783! To take them on their own ground, their arguments will fail them. There is a customary law which will operate pretty strongly on our side of the question. What were the inducements of the debtor? On what did the American debtor rely? Sir, he relied for protection, on that system of common and statute law on which the creditors depended. Was he deceived in that reli- ance? That he was most miserably deceived, I beheve will not admit of a doubt. The customary law of na- tions will only apply to distinct nations, mutually con- senting thereto. When tyranny attempted to rivet her chains upon us, and we boldly broke them asunder, we

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