European states and colonies. But we have a different law of nations
regulating our intercourse with the Indian tribes on this continent;
another, between us and the woolly-headed natives of Africa; another,
with the Barbary powers; another, with the flowery land, or Celestial
empire. This last is the nation with which Great Britain is now at war.
Then, reasoning on the rights of property, established by labor, by
occupancy, and by compact, he maintains that the right of exchange,
barter,--in other words, of commerce,--necessarily follows; that a state
of nature among men is a state of peace; the pursuit of happiness man's
natural right; that it is the duty of men to contribute as much as is in
their power to one another's happiness, and that there is no other way
by which they can so well contribute to the comfort and well-being of
one another as by commerce, or the mutual exchange of equivalents. These
views and principles he thus illustrates:

"The duty of commercial intercourse between nations is laid down in
terms sufficiently positive by Vattel, but he afterwards qualifies
it by a restriction, which, unless itself restricted, annuls it
altogether. He says that, although the general duty of commercial
intercourse is incumbent upon nations, yet every nation may exclude
any particular branch or article of trade which it may deem
injurious to its own interest. This cannot be denied. But, then, a
nation may multiply these particular exclusions, until they become
general, and equivalent to a total interdict of commerce; and this,
time out of mind, has been the inflexible policy of the Chinese
empire. So says Vattel, without affixing any note of censure upon
it. Yet it is manifestly incompatible with the position which he had
previously laid down, that commercial intercourse between nations is
a moral obligation incumbent upon them all.

"The empire of China is said to extend over three hundred millions
of human beings. It is said to cover a space of seven millions of
square miles--about four times larger than the surface of these
United States. The people are not Christians, nor can a Christian
nation appeal to the principles of a common faith to settle the
question of right and wrong between them. The moral obligation of
commercial intercourse between nations is founded entirely and
exclusively upon the Christian precept to love you