the law of nature and of nations as
declared in the Declaration of Independence.

How can such a theory endanger the Republic? It will require some new
institutions, no doubt, but they will be institutions in line with
republican ideas and ideals, for they will all be institutions for
discovering and applying the principles of the common law. We shall
only have to enlarge our conception of the common law, by adding to
the definition of Coke, and saying that it is "the perfection of
reason and revelation."

Out of this theory of a universal common law of nations have emerged
the science of the Law of the State, which deals with the internal
relations of states, and the science of International Law, which deals
with the temporary relations between independent States. Why out of
the same theory should there not emerge a science of the Law of
Connections and Unions of States, based on the proposition that free
statehood is the normal form of all community life and the right of
all communities within proper limits on the surface of the earth, and
which will deal with the permanent relations between free states,
whether independent or not,--a science which will occupy the wide
field of human relationships which lies between that now occupied by
the science of the Law of the State and that now occupied by the
science of International Law?

To those who regard all law as an aggregate of eternal and universal
principles inhering in the nature of things, which are discoverable by
man through revelation and reason, and who therefore regard all
governmental action as the ascertainment and application of these
principles, the conception of a common and universal Law of
Connections and Unions of Free States and that of a common and
universal International Law, are equally without difficulty. To those
who regard all law as an act of human will supported by force, the
conception of a common and universal Law of Connections and Unions of
Free States and that of a common and universal International Law, are
equally impossible; and indeed these persons are logically obliged to
deny the existence of any common law of any kind. To those who occupy
the middle ground and regard all law as in one aspect the
ascertainment and application of eternal principles, and in another
aspect an act of human will supported by force, the conception of a
common and universal Law of Connections and Unions of Free States is
less difficult than that of a c