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of fostering an interest in favour of which it has no power directly to interfere; it is insisted, on the other, that Congress does possess Constitutional power to encourage and protect manufactures, by appropriate regulations of Commerce.

555. The terms of the Constitution, in relation to this power, in connection with the power of laying and collecting duties, are supposed to be sufficiently large to embrace the protection of domestic industry; and both powers have been applied in practice to the encouragement of manufactures as well as of agriculture, from the commencement of the Go

vernment.

556. If Congress does not possess the power to encourage domestic manufactures, by regulations of Commerce, that power must, as has appeared, be annihilated for the whole Union; but as the People of the several States have made a voluntary surrender of the means essential to the exercise of that power, it seems more reasonable to conclude that the power exists in the National Government, than that it does not exist at all.

557. The Power of prohibiting the importation of Slaves into the United States after the year 1808, and of imposing an intermediate duty on their importation, is included in the power to regulate Commerce, as the restriction which postponed its exercise, arose from an express exception in the grant of the general power.

558. This power was fully exercised by Congress as soon as the limitation permitted, and in time to afford the first example of the abolition of a species of traffic which had long been the opprobrium of modern policy; and the interdiction has been fol

lowed up, by declaring the Slave trade piracy, and rendering it punishable with death when pursued by citizens of the United States.

559. The Power to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the Law of Nations, is substantively and separately vested in Congress; although, as to the former objects, it seems unavoidably incident to the power to regulate foreign Commerce; and as to the latter object, it might be implied from the authority of the National Government to declare war and make Treaties.

560. The power to define, as well as punish, seems rather applicable to felonies and offences against the Law of Nations, than to piracies; as piracy is well defined by the Law of Nations to be robbery, or a forcible depredation on the high seas, without lawful authority; and by the high seas is understood not only the ocean out of sight of land, but waters on the seacoast beyond the boundary of low water mark.

561. The term Felony, in relation to offences on the high seas, is necessarily indeterminate, as it is a term of rather loose signification in the Common Law, from which it is derived; nor is it used in the criminal jurisdiction of the Admiralty Courts in the same technical sense it bears at Common Law.

562. Offences against the Law of Nations are not completely ascertained and defined by any particular code recognized by the common consent of Nations; so that with respect to them, as well as to felonies, there was a peculiar fitness in granting to Congress the power to define, as well as to punish.

563. In executing the power to define piracy, it

was not necessary for Congress to insert in the Statute a definition of the crime in terms; but it was sufficient to refer for its definition to the Law of Nations, as it is there defined with reasonable certainty, and does not depend on the particular provisions of any municipal code, either for its definition or punish

ment.

564. Pirates have been regarded by all civilized nations as enemies of the human race, and the most atrocious violators of the universal law of society; and they are accordingly every where punished with death.

565. Every Nation has a right to attack and exterminate pirates without a declaration of war; for although they may form a loose and temporary association amongst themselves, and re-establish in some degree those laws of justice which they have violated with the rest of the world; yet they are not considered as a National body, or entitled to the laws of war as belonging to the community of Nations.

566. Pirates acquire no rights by Conquest or the Law of Nations; and the municipal Laws of every country authorize the true owner to reclaim his property taken by pirates, wheresoever it can be found; for those Laws do not recognize any title to be derived from an act of piracy.

567. Congress has the right to pass laws to punish pirates, though they be foreigners, and may have committed no particular offence against the United States; and for the purpose of giving jurisdiction, it is of no importance on whom, or where, a piratical offence has been committed.

568. In executing the Power of providing for the

punishment of piracy, as defined by the Law of Nations, Congress, in conformity with that Law, has declared that it shall be death; and has, moreover, enacted that if any person concerned in any particular enterprize, or belonging to any particular crew, shall land and commit robbery on shore, such offender shall be adjudged a pirate; in which respect the Statute seems also, to be merely declaratory of the Law of Nations.

569. Piracy under the Law of Nations, is an offence against all Nations, and punishable by all; and a pirate, who is such by that law, may be punished in any country where he may be found; but the municipal Laws of any country may declare any offence committed on board its own vessels to be piracy, and it will be punishable exclusively by the Nation which passes such Statute.

570. The Act of Congress, by which certain offences are declared to be piracy, which are not so by the Law of Nations, was intended to punish them as offences against the United States, and not as offences against the human race; and such an offence, committed by a person not a citizen of the United States, on board of a vessel belonging exclusively to subjects of a foreign State, is not piracy under the Statute, or punishable in the Courts of the United States.

571. The offence in such cases must be left to be punished by the Nation under whose flag the vessel sails, and whose particular jurisdiction extends to all on board; for it is a clear and settled principle, that the jurisdiction of every Nation extends to its own citizens, on board of its own public and private vessels at sea.

572. But murder or robbery committed on the

high seas, by persons on board of a vessel not at the time belonging to any foreign power, but in possession of a crew acting in defiance of all law, and acknowledging obedience to no Government, is within the act of Congress, and punishable in the Courts of the United States.

573. For although the Statute does not apply to offences committed against the particular sovereignty of a foreign power, and on board of a vessel belonging at the time, in fact as well as of right, to a subject of a foreign State, and in virtue of such property subject to his control; yet it extends to all offences committed against all Nations, by persons who, by common consent, are equally amenable to the Laws of all Nations.

574. In pursuance of this principle, the moment a vessel assumes a piratical character, she loses all claim to National character, whatever it may have been; and the crew, whether citizens or foreigners, are equally punishable under the Statute for acts declared by it to be piracy.

575. The Laws of Congress declare those acts piracy in citizen of the United States when committed on a citizen, which would only be belligerent acts if committed on a foreigner; and a citizen of the United States, who offends against the Government or its citizens, under colour of a foreign commission, is punishable in the same manner as if he had no commission.

576. The acts of an alien, under the sanction of a national commission, may be hostile, and his Government responsible for them, but they are not regarded as piratical; and this rule extends to the Barbary Powers, who are now regarded as lawful Powers, and not as pirates.

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