“ To attack an enemy, or to take his property, if either can be done without violating the sovereignty of a friend, is of the very essence of war. None can be offended at the exercise of this right, who may not be offended at the declaration of war itself. ”

“ The late war between the United States and Great Britain was declared at a time when all Europe, including our enemy, was engaged in a war with which ours had no connexion, and in which we professed to take no interest. The allies of our enemy, engaged with him in a common war, the most tremendous and the most vitally interesting to the parties that has ever desolated the earth, were our friends. ”

“ There is a tacit compact that the hostile act of the individual shall not be ascribed to his government; and that in turn, the government will not protect the individual from being treated as an enemy. But if the government adopts the act of the individual, and supports it by force, the government itself may be rightfully treated as hostile. Thus contraband of war, though belonging to a neutral, is condemned as the property of an enemy, and his government takes no offence at it ”

“ The injury which the allies of our enemy, in a war common to them, (but in which we are not engaged,) sustain, by this occasional interruption, is incidental, while, on our part, it is the exercise of a direct and essential right. But when we attack a friend who is carrying on military operations conjointly with our enemy, but not against us, we are not making direct war, but are using those incidental rights which war gives us, against those direct rights which are exercised by a belligerant not our enemy, and which constitute war itself. ”

“ That a neutral is friendly to our enemy, and continues to interchange good offices with him, can furnish no subject of complaint; for, then, all commerce with one belligerant would be deemed hostile by the other. The effect of commerce is to augment his resources, and enable him the longer to prosecute the war; but this augmentation is produced by an act entirely innocent on the part of the neutral, and manifesting no hostility to the opposing belligerant. ”

“ That force is always hostile to us, be it where it may be. To-day it may act against France, to-morrow, against us; and the better its commissary department is supplied, the more life and activity is communicated to all its motions. It is not, therefore, in our view, material whether there be another distinct war in which our enemy is engaged, or not; it is sufficient that his armies are everywhere our enemies, and every assistance offered to them must, directly, or indirectly, operate to our injury. ”

“ The rule, that the neutral carrier of enemy's property is entitled to freight, is a mitigated rule, and Bynkershoek argues with much force against its reasonableness.b But the master, in the present case, is not entitled to the benefit of it, having, by his conduct, made himself an enemy, pro hac vice. The principle, as to the nature of the Spanish war, was settled when the court determined that to carry goods to Lisbon, under a British license, was cause of confiscation. Can a party in a similar predicament be entitled to freight? Can a neutral stand on any better ground than a citizen? ”

“ In removing forces from distant settlements, there may be no intention of immediate action, but still the general importance of having troops conveyed to places where it is convenient that they should be collected, either for present or future use, is what constitutes the object and employment of transport vessels.' It is obvious that the learned judge did not deem it material to what places the stores might be destined; and it must be equally immaterial what is the immediate occupation of the enemy's military force. ”

“ If it could not, then any supplies furnished by the government of Sweden, promoting the operations of their common war, whether intended for the British or any other division of the allied armies, had a right to pass unmolested by American cruisers. It is not believed that any act which, if performed by the government, would not be deemed an act of hostility, is to be so deemed if performed by an individual. Had the provisions then on board the Commercen been Swedish property, the result of this reasoning is that it would not have been confiscated as prize of war. ”

“ That a trade, such as the coasting or colonial trade, which, by the permanent policy of a nation, is reserved for its own vessels, if opened to neutrals during war, must be opened under the pressure of the arms of the enemy, and in order to obtain relief from that pressure. ”

“ The mere shifting of draughts in detachments, and the conveyance of stores from one place to another, is an ordinary employment of a transport vessel, and it is a distinction totally unimportant whether this or that case may be connected with the immediate active service of the enemy. ”

“ The neutral who interposes to relieve the belligerant under such circumstances, rescues him from the condition to which the arms of his enemy has reduced him, restores to him those resources which have been wrested from him by the arms of his adversary, and deprives that adversary of the advantages which successful war has given him. ”

“ Neither did the neutral employed in it engage in a trade then, or at any time, reserved for British vessels, and, therefore, did not identify himself with them. He was not performing functions exclusively appertaining to the enemy, and, consequently, in performing them did not assume that character.
The second point presents a question of much more difficulty. That a neutral carrying supplies to the army of the enemy does, under the mildest interpretation of international law, expose himself to the loss of freight, is a proposition too well settled to be controverted. ”

“ While this is conceded, it is deemed equally true that those acts which will justify the condemnation of a neutral as an enemy, would also justify the treating his nation as an enemy, if they were performed or defended by the nation. ”

“ They meet-they check-they limit each other. The precise line which neither can pass, but to which each may advance, is not easily to be found and marked; yet such a line must exist, whatever may be the difficulty of discerning it. ”

“ In answer to arguments of this tendency, made at the bar, it was said that nations are governed by political considerations, and may choose rather to overlook conduct at which they might justly take offence, than unnecessarily to increase the number of their enemies, or provoke increased hostility ”

“ And articles, the growth of the neutral exporting country, are not contraband, though carried in the vessels of another country. 4 Rob. 161. The Appollo. And the benefit of the principle is extended to maritime countries exporting the produce of neighbouring interior districts, whose produce those countries are usually employed in exporting, in the ordinary course of their trade. Ib. 354. The Evert. But the law of France and Spain does not consider provisions as contraband. Ordonnance de la Marine, l. 3. tit. 9. des Prises, art. 11. ”