to intercept the merchant vessels of the other on
the high seas. Again, in the case of a beleaguered fortress, the
besiegers would never dream of allowing a convoy of food or of munitions
of war--or for the matter of that of merchandise of any kind--to enter
the fortress. They would intercept it as a matter of course, and if
necessary they would appropriate it to their own use. The upshot of it
all is that even in war on land the transit of all commerce, albeit the
private property of some one, is practically suspended within the area
of the territory occupied, and very seriously impeded throughout the
whole country subject to invasion. It is not, therefore, true to say
without many qualifications that in war private property is respected on
land and not respected at sea. The only difference that I can discern is
that by the law and custom of nations private property cannot be
appropriated on land, whereas at sea it can. But this difference is not
really essential. The essential thing in both cases is that the wealth
of the enemy is diminished and the credit of his traders destroyed--a
far more important matter in these days than the destruction of this or
that cargo of his goods--by the suspension of that interchange of
commodities with other nations which is the chief element of national
prosperity, and may be, as in the case of England, the indispensable
condition of national existence. Indeed, although private property on
land is exempt from capture, and at sea it is not, yet there are many
nations which would suffer far more from the interruption of their
mercantile communications which war on land entails than they would from
the destruction of their commerce at sea.

For these reasons I hold that the proposed exemption of private property
from capture or molestation at sea is a chimerical one. War is
essentially an act of violence. It operates by the destruction of human
life as well as by all other agencies which are likely to subdue the
enemy's will. Among these agencies the capture or destruction of
commerce afloat is by far the most humane since it entails the least
sacrifice of life, limb, or liberty, and at the same time its coercive
pressure may in some cases, though not in all, be the most effective
instrument for compelling the enemy's submission. Moreover, it is not
proposed to exempt from capture or destruction such merchant vessels of
the enemy--or even of a neutral for that matter--as attempt to break