The difference between articles of one or another description, is a
difference in degree only. No line between them can be drawn. Either
all intercourse must cease between neutrals and belligerents, or all be
permitted. Can the world hesitate to say which shall be the rule?
Shall two nations turning tigers, break up in one instant the peaceable
relations of the whole world? Reason and nature clearly pronounce that
the neutral is to go on in the enjoyment of all its rights, that its
commerce remains free, not subject to the jurisdiction of another,
nor consequently its vessels to search, or to inquiries whether their
contents are the property of an enemy, or are of those which have been
called contraband of war.
Nor does this doctrine contravene the right of preventing vessels from
entering a blockaded port. This right stands on other ground. When the
fleet of any nation actually beleaguers the port of its enemy, no other
has a right to enter their line, any more than their line of battle in
the open sea, or their lines of circumvallation, or of encampment, or
of battle-array on land. The space included within their lines in any
of those cases, is either the property of their enemy, or it is common
property assumed and possessed for the moment, which cannot be intruded
on, even by a neutral, without committing the very trespass we are now
considering, that of intruding into the lawful possession of a friend.
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