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the Invincible, and it is for the executive and legislative departments to impose such restrictions as they think fit upon the admission into our ports of armed Santissima vessels, public or private, with their prizes. In the case of the Exchange, which has been so often referred to, the Court in summing up its opinion says: "It seems, then, to be a principle of public law, that national ships of war, entering the ports of a friendly power open to their reception, are to be considered as exempted by the consent of that power from its jurisdiction." The ship herself being exempted from the local jurisdiction, she remains a part of the territory of her own country, and if she brings in with her prize ships, or prize goods, they are to be considered as in the possession of that country. That they are so, is apparent from the established doctrine of this Court, that prize ships or goods, though lying in a neutral territory, may be condemned in a competent Court of the belligerent state, by whose cruizers they were captured. Indeed, the writers on the law of nations expressly state the privilege of bringing in their prizes to be a part of the permission. But how can this be if the immunity does not extend to every thing on board? Here the goods were taken jure belli. Whether they are good prize depends upon the adjudication of the captor's Court, which is the only competent tribunal to determine that question. They are in his possession for the purpose of proceeding to adjudication,

a 1 Wheat. Rep. 238.

b Vattel, Droit des Gens, l. 3. c. 7.

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even while they are locally within the neutral territory. Either the condemnation at Buenos Ayres is Santissima a sufficient adjudication, or not. If it be so, then the appellant is entitled to the goods under it. If it be not, still he is entitled to the possession of the goods, in order that he may proceed against them in the most regular manner, which he has been hitherto prevented from doing by this very suit.

March 12th.

Mr. Justice STORY delivered the opinion of the the Court.

Upon the argument at the bar several questions. have arisen, which have been deliberately considered by the Court; and its judgment will now be pronounced. The first in the order, in which we think it most convenient to consider the cause, is, whether the Independencia is in point of fact a public ship, belonging to the government of Buenos Ayres. The history of this vessel, so far as is necessary for the disposal of this point, is briefly this: She was originally built and equipped at Baltimore as a privateer during the late war with Great Britain, and was then rigged as a schooner, and called the Mammoth, and cruized against the enemy. After the peace she was rigged as a brig, and sold by her original owners. In January, 1816, she was loaded with a cargo of munitions of war, by her new owners, (who are inhabitants of Baltimore, and being armed with twelve guns, constituting a part of her original armament, she was despatched from that port, under the command of the claimant, on a voyage, ostensibly to the Northwest Coast, but in reality to Buenos Ayres.

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By the written instructions given to the supercargo on this voyage, he was authorized to sell the vessel to the government of Buenos Ayres, if he could obtain Santissima a suitable price. She duly arrived at Buenos Ayres, having exercised no act of hostility, but sailed under the protection of the American flag, during the voyage. At Buenos Ayres the vessel was sold to Captain Chaytor and two other persons; and soon afterwards she assumed the flag and characterof a public ship, and was understood by the crew to have been sold to the government of Buenos Ayres; and Captain Chaytor made known these facts to the crew, and asserted that he had become a citizen of Buenos Ayres; and had received a commission to command the vessel as a national ship; and invited the crew to enlist in the service; and the greater part of them accordingly enlisted. From this period, which was in May, 1816, the public functionaries of our own and other foreign governments at that port, considered the vessel as a public ship of war, and such was her avowed character and reputation. No bill of sale of the vessel to the government of Buenos Ayres is produced, and a question has been made principally from this defect in the evidence, whether her character as a public ship is established. It is not understood that any doubt is expressed as to the genuineness of Captain Chaytor's commission, nor as to the competency of the other proofs in the cause introduced, to corroborate it. The only point is, whether supposing them true, they afford satisfactory evidence of her public character. We are of opinion that they do. In general the commission of a public ship, signed

The commisproof of the na

sion conclusive

tional character of a public

hip

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by the proper authorities of the nation to which she belongs, is complete proof of her national character. Santissima A bill of sale is not necessary to be produced. Nor

The

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will the Courts of a foreign country inquire into the means by which the title to the property has been acquired. It would be to exert the right of examining into the validity of the acts of the foreign sovereign, and to sit in judgment upon them in cases where he has not conceded the jurisdiction, and where it would be inconsistent with his own supremacy. The commission, therefore, of a public ship, when duly authenticated, so far at least as foreign courts are concerned, imports absolute verity, and the title is not examinable. The property must be ta· ken to be duly acquired, and cannot be controverted. This has been the settled practice between nations; and it is a rule founded in public convenience and policy, and cannot be broken in upon, without endangering the peace and repose, as well of neutral as of belligerent sovereigns. The commission in the present case is not expressed in the most unequivocal terms; but its fair purport and interpretation must be deemed to apply to a public ship of the government. If we add to this the corroborative testimony of our own and the British Consul at Buenos Ayres, as well as that of private citizens, to the notoriety of her claim of a public character; and her admission into our own ports as a public ship, with the immunities and privileges belonging to such a ship, with the express approbation of our own government, it does not seem too much to assert, whatever may be the private suspicion of a lurking American

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interest, that she must be judicially held to be a public ship of the country whose commission she bears. There is another objection urged against the ad- Santissima mission of this vessel to the privileges and immunities of a public ship, which may as well be disposed of in connexion with the question already considered. It is, that Buenos Ayres has not yet been acknowledged as a sovereign independent government by the executive or legislature of the United States, and, therefore, is not entitled to have her ships of war recognized by our Courts as national ships. We During the exhave, in former cases, had occasion to express our civil war be opinion on this point. The government of the Uni- and her coloted States has recognized the existence of a civil knowledgment war between Spain and her colonies, and has avow-dence of the lat ed a determination to remain neutral between the ted States, the

istence of the

tween Spain

nies, and pre

of the Indepen

ter by the Unicolonies were deemed by us

is,

tions, and enti

parties, and to allow to each the same rights of asylum and hospitality and intercourse. Each party therefore, deemed by us a belligerent nation, hay

ing, so far as concerns us, the sovereign rights of war, and entitled to be respected in the exercise of those rights. We cannot interfere to the prejudice of either belligerent without making ourselves a party to the contest, and departing from the posture of neutrality. All captures made by each must be considered as having the same validity, and all the immunities which may be claimed by public ships in our ports under the law of nations must be considered as equally the right of each; and as such must be recognized by our Courts of justice, until Congress shall prescribe a different rule. This is the

VOL. VII.

43

belligerent natled to all the of war against

sovereign rights

their enemy.

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