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by Ferdinand and Isabella with the captive Moorish King, making the kingdom of Granada tributary to them, is an example of a treaty void on account of coercion. Such was the treaty of Madrid of 1526, made by Francis the 1st, while a prisoner with the Emperor Charles the 5th. The transfer of the sovereignty of Spain to Napoleon by Charles the 4th and Ferdinand the 7th of Spain, were void for the same reason. They were in all these cases void for the further reason that they purported to grant away the sovereignty of Granada, Burgundy and other French territory and Spain, which resided in the Moorish, French and Spanish nations respectively, and not in their kings.

So a treaty obtained by bribing the executive or treaty-making power, would be void for the reason that corruption vitiates a contract. The secret treaty of King Charles the 2d, of England, to betray and oppress English liberty for French gold, is of this class.

A remarkable secret treaty of our day having an immoral object, and therefore not obligatory, is found in the treaty of Verona of November 22d, 1822, made and signed by the ministers of Russia, Austria, Prussia and France. The 1st Article stipulated for the suppression of representative governments in Europe as incompatible with the existence of monarchy, and that the allies would

employ their power to prevent for the future the establishment of free governments elsewhere, meaning America probably.

The 2d Article bound the allies to suppress in their own states and in Europe, the freedom of the press. The 3d Article enjoined a union of church and state with a view of teaching the people passive obedience to their sovereigns and of uniting the interests of priests and princes. The 4th Article referred to France the duty of putting down by arms the constitutional governments of Spain and Portugal, and the other allies pledged money and influence to aid in this work.

This treaty, viewed in all its aspects, is the most unprincipled and wicked one ever made in any age. All other immoral treaties have been limited in their object when compared with that of Verona. It proposed an armed intervention to destroy the liberty of the press and free governments in Europe and America, and to reduce mankind to slavery by force, and to perpetuate it by union of church and state. Every object of this treaty was base and immoral and stands condemned by the code of public law, as well as by the moral law of nations. This treaty was promptly resisted by Great Britain and the United States, and after it had destroyed the constitutional government of Spain and done other mischief, it

fell with Charles the 10th of France in 1830. This grand scheme for the conquest of the human mind and the entire abasement of mankind by arms, rivaling the proudest dreams of Napoleon, has passed away, and the fragments of these mighty monuments of universal dominion form a common ruin.

An example of unlawful object is found in the treaties for the partition of Poland by force, and in other like treaties. Napoleon and the Emperor Alexander, are said to have made at the treaty of Tilsit, a secret article for the conquest and partition of several kingdoms. This was an immoral and unlawful treaty of partition and void in foro concientiae. Any object of a treaty unlawful in itself, or malum in se, ought not to be performed. If things lawful and unlawful are intermingled, the lawful ones ought to be performed and the residue not. (See Vattel, b. 2d, ch. 12, s. 161.)

All rights under a treaty may be lost by a violation of it, by refusing to observe it, or withholding satisfaction for such violations. (See ib. b. 2, ch. 13, s. 200, 202.) Upon this principle our act of Congress of July 1798, declared that our treaties with France had ceased to be obligatory on us. This is right; as if one party refuses to observe a treaty, it discharges the other of necessity.

Upon sound moral principles a treaty must

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stipulations.

bind the parties to it to the fulfilment of all its As a necessary consequence if either of the contracting parties refuse or omit to perform any stipulation after demand, the defaulting state ought to lose the benefit of the whole treaty, in case the other party shall elect to annul it for such breach thereof, or the injured state may withhold performance of some stipulation on its part as an equivalent for the non-performance of the other, or it may omit to notice the violation of a treaty in any provision, according to its discretion.

The rule which ought to regulate nations in reference to treaties violated by one party was well laid down by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States, in a letter to Mr. Hammond, the British minister, dated May 29th, 1792, relating to the violations of the treaty of peace of 1783. The Secretary says: "On the breach of any article of a treaty by the one party, the other has his election to declare it dissolved in all its articles, or to compensate itself by withholding execution of equivalent articles; or to waive notice of the breach altogether."

Secret articles of a treaty we disallow, and this is the practice of our republic. A secret article of our treaty with the Porte was negotiated by our American envoy, but it was rejected by the Sen

ate.

Our treaties are part of the law of the land,

and must be published with the laws of Congress. Beside concealment in treaties is evidence of wrong, and the practice ought to be discontinued. We hold, therefore, that treaties, to be binding, must be freely consented to and have a lawful object. The treaty of Madrid between Francis 1st of France, and the Emperor Charles 5th, Napoleon's treaties with Prussia at Tilsit, with Austria after Napoleon's great victory over that power, and with the Spanish Princes at Bayonne, and all like treaties, are condemned by our rule. Such treaties are repudiated by the moral sense of mankind, and are never kept after the compelling force is removed. Such was the result in each of these There can be no sacred performance of an extorted treaty. There is in truth no obligation in foro conscientiae to observe such treaties.

cases.

SECTION FORTY-FOURTH.

FORMULA OF TREATIES.

In order to carry into practical effect the principles of peace, of national hospitality and justice, of reciprocal commerce and of free trade, it is respectfully suggested to our executive administration to negotiate treaties, when practicable, with the following standing general articles :

Article 1st. It is stipulated between the high contracting parties that the citizens of the republic of the United States of America and the subjects

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