Such a course is dictated by the eternal and omnipotent principles of justice; and therefore no law of nations, which is a rule created or supposed by man, can resist them. Even that law which civilians call the voluntary law of nations, cannot, in relation to this subject, exonerate a government from those obligations which result from the social compact; because the question is grounded in the very germ of civil society; and the welfare of the whole community of nations, so far from requiring in this case an adherence to this law, renders it, upon its own principles, entirely inoperative.
{26} The internal law of nations does not militate with the above principles, because it requires only what is fair and conscientious. The customary law of nations must yield to those older and better rules which are dictated by justice. And as to the conventional law of nations, it rests upon the terms of contracts in subordination to previously existing and indispensable duties.
On the 12th of February I passed through Guelderland, Princeton, Schoharie, and Carlisle; and on the following day through Sharon, Cherry Valley, and Warren.[12] Schoharie is one of the wealthiest inland farming towns in the state of N. York.
The weather still continued remarkably severe; but my dress was so comfortable, that I had no occasion for a fire.
