CHAPTER XIII.

THE NATION IN ITS SOVEREIGNTY, IN RELATION TO OTHER NATIONS.

THE Sovereignty of the nation, is the manifestation of its power, in the historical life of the world. Its external sovereignty is apparent through its relations to other nations, and in its sphere in history. While its internal sovereignty appears in its government and order, and the assertion of its will, as the supreme law; in its external sovereignty it exists in its unity and independence in relation to other nations.

The recognition of a nation becomes thus one of the most impressive events in history. It rests on the consciousness, in each of those who act in it, of its sovereignty, as a power in history. It reflects the majesty of a power existent in its unity, in the moral order of the world. This recognition of one nation by another as thus existent with all the sovereign rights of a nation, can never be divested of historical solemnity. From the unformed life of men existing with no consciousness of political unity and order, and sustaining only some tribal relation, there emerges a new nation, to be recognized in its sovereignty by other nations and to enter its course in history. The appearing of a new planet in the wide fields of space, to be followed in all its circles in the physical order, is not so impressive as the appearance of a nation which is to exist as a power in history, and to act upon the destiny of man in that grander order, the order of a moral world. From the vacant centuries that have furnished no element of unity or freedom or fraternity, there rises a power which is

to hold a conscious moral aim, and to act as a conscious moral energy.

The sovereignty of the nation has thus its immediate external manifestation, in the recognition of nations. It is the moment in which there is a conscious realization of the historical power of a people, and each stands toward the other in a recognized sovereignty in the world. This recognition presumes in the power which is recognized the capacities which belong in its necessary being to a nation, and in which it is constituted as a nation. The nation recognizes in another, that which it is conscious of possessing in itself, in its own necessary being. It recognizes not a mere association of men in a certain locality, under a certain form of government, but a people as a nation. There can be no recognition which does not imply this.

This recognition presumes then respect toward the nation recognized as a nation. It must concede to it the rights, which in its own necessary existence it asserts for itself. There is the application here of the fundamental law of rights,be a person, and respect others as persons. This law is implied in the being of the nation as a moral person; it is the necessary postulate of rights and of duties. From this then proceeds the recognized right of a nation to determine its own political end; the right to establish its own political form; the right to exclusive legislation in its domain; the right to self-preservation, to independence, to property; the right to exist in a common relation to other nations. In the existence of the nation as a moral person, is the postulate of the sacredness of the principle of non-intervention. The recognition of it, in its sovereignty, necessarily presumes a deference for its self-determination and its freedom. It is to control its own order, and is to be respected in this, and no other nation is to intervene in its internal administration.

This recognition presumes that the nation which is thus recognized, shall itself respect the rights and powers of

other nations. There is the assumption of the formal obligations of a nation. It is to yield respect to others, as it asserts its own self-respect. The principle which is here also the ground of action, is the identity involved in the necessary being of nations.

The recognition of a nation is thus a continuous act, and so long as there is moral integrity of action, it is limited only by the formal existence of the nation itself. It is not therefore to be momentarily offered, nor to be arbitrarily withdrawn. It is the expression of the continuous relation of nations in their existence in history, and proceeds from the postulate of continuity in the nation.

While the recognition of one nation by another nation is one of the highest acts of external sovereignty, the right to recognition is a formal right and the demand for recognition can be only formal. A people may exist with a manifest unity and sovereignty, and with entire independence and freedom, and be in reality a nation, although it receive no recognition from other nations. Whether it be in reality a nation, is to be determined only by its content, that is, the internal sovereignty which is manifest in law and freedom, and the external sovereignty which is manifest in independence and self-subsistence, but its recognition depends only upon the determination, in the judgment of another, whether it be a nation.

This recognition of a nation is not simply the recognition of a certain succession in government, although it is necessarily through a government. It is the recognition of the nation, which in its sovereignty may determine its own government. The act is through the government which the nation ordains for itself, and the government thus constituted, whatever its form, is alone legitimate. It does not follow, therefore, in any event, after the recognition of a nation, that communication is to be opened with some transient power which, perhaps through the aid of a foreign imperialism, may be imposed upon a people from without.

The sovereignty of the nation in its external relations is indicative of the place and vocation of the nation in history. It is manifest through it as an integral power in the moral order, which is history. This is the premise of normal international relations, and the system of international laws. Since the nation has its vocation in a moral order, and its end in the realization of the destination of humanity in history, the nations exist in an international relation, which has for its condition a moral relation, and the system of international laws is definitive of the moral order in which these relations come forth. The nations,

in the attainment of their necessary end, are constituted in a moral order. They cannot therefore, in the development of national life, remain in isolation and indifference. While a collection of men has no consciousness of national life, it does not and cannot concern itself with other peoples which exist as nations, except as some fragmentary mass is concerned in the pursuance of some private interest; but if there be the development of national life it is brought into a relation to other nations. The formal definition of these relations is the office of international law. As these relations consist in the moral order of history, their ampler expression will come in the higher realization of the being of the nation in the moral order of history. But the merely formal character which the science of international law has in the work of its yet greatest master, bears the impress of his whole political conception, and of the formal political tendencies of his age.1

The science of international law has its foundation in the being of the nation as a moral person; this is the condi

1 "Grotius was not a generative thinker. If the difficult problems of the duties which one nation owes to another had been discussed in a Baconian spirit for the purpose of ascertaining what those laws are which bind voluntary agentsif it had been shown historically how these laws, though they may be broken by men with arms in their hands, nevertheless avenge themselves, something would have been gained. But mere maxims which define accurately and peremptorily what should and what should not be done, must be rather hindrances than helps

tion of the rights and obligations which it is to embrace and define. And as the nation advances in the realization of its being, the science which has for its province the definition of the law of international relations will become constantly the expression of a development in wider and more varied relations. It is regulative of relations deeper than those formed simply in the adjustment of controversies arising among nations out of a state of war, or those which are the dictate of a mere international courtesy, although the principle of rights presumes this courtesy. It is this conception of the nation as a moral being, which has given to the work of Wheaton an almost historical position; and however briefly defined, its clear apprehension of it has been the source of an influence which can attach to no mere manual of rules or collection of precedents, in a science which has no acknowledged tribunal. Wheaton says, "every state has certain sovereign rights to which it is entitled as a moral being; in other words, because it is a state;" and again, "every state as a distinct moral being, independent of every other, may freely exercise all its sovereign rights in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of other states;" and again, "all sovereign states are equal in the eye of international law, whatever may be their relative power." These propositions are constructive in the work of Wheaton.1

The progress in international law can come only in the clearer apprehension of the being of the nation, and the

to an actual moral science. Yet the value of the work," the writer adds, "is in its evidence that these relations have some moral ground; that they cannot be left to be determined by accident, nor commercial cupidity, nor a Macchiavellian policy." Maurice, History of Philosophy, vol. iv. p. 324.

1 Wheaton, International Law. Dana's ed. pp. 52, 89, 100.

R. von Mohl has criticized the work of Wheaton as unscientific, a confusion or miscellany of law, contemporary politics, and history; but whatever may be its defect of method, — and that certainly is obvious enough,—its moral spirit and conception has given it an historical influence and position beyond almost any modern work on the subject. - Literateur und Geschichte der Staatswissenschaften, vol. i. p. 399.