Powers discovering this continent, and accepted by them as a right necessary to be extinguished either by purchase or conquest, and that the United States, as a nation, has also from the beginning recognized, accepted, and acted upon this theory, it is next in order to inquire whether the United States has dealt honorably or dishonorably by the Indians in this matter of their recognized “right of occupancy.”
In regard to the actions of individuals there is rarely much room for discussion whether they be honorable or dishonorable, the standard of honor in men’s conduct being, among the civilized, uniform, well understood, and undisputed. Stealing, for instance, is everywhere held to be dishonorable, as well as impolitic; lying, also, in all its forms; breaking of promises and betrayals of trust are scorned even among the most ignorant people. But when it comes to the discussion of the acts of nations, there seems to be less clearness of conception, less uniformity of standard of right and wrong, honor and dishonor. It is necessary, therefore, in charging a government or nation with dishonorable conduct, to show that its moral standard ought in nowise to differ from the moral standard of an individual; that what is cowardly, cruel, base in a man, is cowardly, cruel, base in a government or nation. To do this, it is only needful to look into the history of the accepted “Law of Nations,” from the days of the Emperor Justinian until now.
The Roman jurisconsults employed as synonymous, says Wheaton, “the two expressions, ‘jus gentium,’ that law which is found among all the known nations of the earth, and ‘jus naturale,’ founded on the general nature of mankind; nevertheless, of these two forms of the same idea, the first ought to be considered as predominant, since it as well as the ‘jus civile’ was a positive law, the origin and development of which must be sought for in history.”
Nations being simply, as Vattel defines them, “societies of
