Melville Fuller

“ The word 'people,' as here used, is merely descriptive of the power in whose service the vessel was intended to be employed; and it is one of the denominations applied by the act of congress to a foreign power. The words are 'in the service of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people.' The application of the word 'people' is rendered sufficiently certain by what follows under the videlicet, 'that is to say, the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata.' This particularizes that which by the word 'people' is left too general. ”

“ And the word 'people,' when not used as the equivalent of 'state' or 'nation,' must apply to a body of persons less than a state or nation; and this meaning would be satisfied by considering it as applicable to any consolidated political body. ”

“ We regard these observations as entirely apposite, and while the word 'people' may mean the entire body of the inhabitants of a state, or the state or nation collectively in its political capacity, or the ruling power of the country, its meaning in this branch of the section, taken in connection with the words 'colony' and 'district,' covers, in our judgment, any insurgent or insurrectionary 'body of people acting together, undertaking and conducting hostilities,' although its belligerency has not been recognized. ”

“ But there is nothing in all this to indicate that the words 'colony, district, or people' had reference solely to communities whose belligerency had been recognized, and the history of the times (an interesting review of which has been furnished us by the industry of counsel) does not sustain the view that insurgent districts or bodies, unrecognized as belligerents, were not intended to be embraced. ”

“ Belligerency is recognized when a political struggle has attained a certain magnitude, and affects the interests of the recognizing power; and, in the instance of maritime operations, recognition may be compelled, or the vessels of the insurgents, if molesting third parties, may be pursued as pirates. ”

“ And, as mere matter of municipal administration, no nation can permit unauthorized acts of war within its territory in infraction of its sovereignty, while good faith towards friendly nations requires their prevention. ”

“ Justice Iredell, and Judge Peters, on the trial of Henfield in July of that year (Id. 66, 84) , to be capable of being enforced in the courts of the United States criminally, as well as civilly, without further legislation, yet it was deemed advisable to pass the act in view of controversy over that position, and, moreover, in order to provide a comprehensive code in prevention of acts by individuals within our jurisdiction inconsistent with our own authority, as well as hostile to friendly powers. ”

“ The performance of this duty should not be made more difficult by a disregard on the part of our citizens of the obligations growing out of their allegiance to their country, which should restrain them from violating as individuals the neutrality which the nation of which they are members is bound to observe in its relations to friendly sovereign states. ”

“ Cas. No. 13,550, the same eminent judge, in making a similar ruling, said: 'That, where the claimant voluntarily accepts a delivery on bail, it is an estoppel of his right to contest the validity of the security.'
But in section 941 of the Revised Statutes the exception was introduced of 'cases of seizure for forfeiture under any law of the United States'; and it seems obvious that the release on bond of a vessel charged with liability to forfeiture under section 5283, before answer or hearing, and against the objection of the United States, could not have been contemplated. ”

“ It was in evidence that the United Provinces of Rio de ia Plata had been regularly acknowledged as an independent nation by the executive department of the government of the United States, before the year 1827; and therefore it is argued that the word 'people' is not properly applicable to that nation or power. ”

“ An insurrection, in some respects more active than the last preceding revolt, which continued from 1868 to 1878, now exists in a large part of the eastern interior of the island, menacing even some populations on the coast. ”

“ Justice Story referred to an invariable practice, in all proper cases of seizure, to take bonds for the property whenever application was made by the claimant for the purpose, but that was a case where the claimant had been allowed to give bond without objection, and was attempting to avoid payment by alleging its irregularity ”

“ And every such vessel, her tackle, apparel and furniture, together with all materials, arms, ammunition and stores, which may have been procured for the building and equipment thereof, shall be forfeited; one-half to the use of the informer and the other half to the use of the United States.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105) . ”