Note 112 — PART III USAGES OF WAR AS REGARDS NEUTRAL STATES

In the negotiations in 1793, as to the neutrality of North America in the Anglo-French War, Jefferson declared: “The right of the citizens to fashion, sell, and export arms cannot be suspended by a foreign war, but American citizens pursue it on their own account and at their own risk.”—Bluntschli, sec. 425 (2). Similarly in the famous treaty between Prussia and the United States of September 10th, 1785, it was expressly fixed in Article 13 that if one of the two States was involved in war and the other State should remain neutral, the traders of the latter should not be prevented from selling arms and munitions to the enemy of the other. Thus the contraband articles were not to be confiscated, but the merchants were to be paid the value of their goods by the belligerent who had seized them. This arrangement was, however, not inserted in the newer treaties between Prussia and the Union in 1799 and 1828.