. Autobiography and personal reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler; Butler's book . ed by you, upon the jus post liminior that principle of the law of nations which rehabilitates the former ownerwith his property taken by an enemy, when such property is recovered bythe forces of his own country. Or, in other words, you claim that by the BUTLERS BOOK. 603 laws of nations and of war, when property of the subjects of one belliger-ent power captured by the forces of the other belligerent, is recapturedby the armies of the former owner, then the property is to be restoredto its prior posse
. Autobiography and personal reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler; Butler's book . ed by you, upon the jus post liminior that principle of the law of nations which rehabilitates the former ownerwith his property taken by an enemy, when such property is recovered bythe forces of his own country. Or, in other words, you claim that by the BUTLERS BOOK. 603 laws of nations and of war, when property of the subjects of one belliger-ent power captured by the forces of the other belligerent, is recapturedby the armies of the former owner, then the property is to be restoredto its prior possessor as if it had never been captured; and, therefore,under this principle, your authorities propose to restore to their mastersthe slaves which heretofore belonged to them which you may capturefrom us. But this postliminary right, under which you claim to act, as under-stood and defined by all writers on national law, is applicable simply toimmovable property, and that, too, only after the complete resubjugation ofthat portion of the country in which the property is situated, upon which. Libby Pkison. this right fastens itself. By the laws and customs of war, this right hasnever been applied to movable property. True it is, I believe, that the Romans attempted to apply it to the caseof slaves; but for two thousand years no other nation has attemptedto set up this right as ground for treating slaves differently from otherproperty. But the Romans ever refused to enslave men captured from opposingbelligerents in a civil war, such as ours unhappily is. Consistently, then, with any principle of the law of nations, treatingslaves as property merely, it would seem to be impossible for the Govern- 604 BUTLERS BOOK. ment of the United States to permit the negroes in their ranks to be re-en-slaved when captured, or treated otherwise than as prisoners of war. I have forborne, sir, in this discussion, to argue the question upon any-other or different grounds of right than those adopted by
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