der the political organization known in the public municipal law of the United States as a State of the United States, may have, or be under, a local municipal law, while they are at the same time, also, like a State of the United States, under the national municipal law which, as private law, has equal extent throughout the whole dominion of the United States. And that local municipal law will be, like the local law of the organized States, divisible, according to the domicil or alienage of the persons to whom it may be applicable, into municipal (internal) and international law.

Whether those provisions of the national municipal law which have the effect or character of international or quasiinternational law (public and private) will also have the same effect in respect to the Territories, &c., which they have in respect to the organized States, will depend upon the proper construction of those provisions, and the proper interpretation of the terms in which that law may be expressed in the Constitution.

§ 398. The distinction of the laws of the United States into laws which are either national or local in their extent, which distinction is founded upon the political character and territorial jurisdiction of the sovereign power from which they proceed is, as has been shown,' the most obvious basis for an analytical distribution of the various laws which may affect the condition of private persons. Each of these two parts would then again be divisible, in respect to the character of the persons on whom it might operate, into municipal (internal) and international law. The two branches of international law which would thus be made, might each again be divided with reference to the specific character (in respect to domicil) of the alien persons to whom it applied, into that law which determines the relations of "domestic" aliens and that which determines the relations of "foreign" aliens, as those classes of persons have herein before been distinguished. But-from the mode in which a part of the private international law of any country is judicially ascer

· Ante, § 377.

Ante, § 384.

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tained, viz., by distinguishing certain principles of the municipal (internal) law as having or as not having universal personal extent or application, and from the fact that those rules which determine the international relations of the States, or their inhabitants, towards each other have also (in being the law of one country or nation) the character of municipal (internal) law-it will be more in accordance with the natural and historical development of the laws of the United States, not first thus to distinguish them, according to their political character or authority, into national and local; but, according to their kind, quality, or effect, and the character of the persons to whom they apply, into municipal (internal) and international law; and afterwards to subdivide each of these with reference to its various sources and territorial jurisdiction.

§ 399. With reference to the foregoing considerations of the operation of the public law of the United States, both in determining the sources of legislation and in having itself effect upon the relations of private persons, the private law of the United States may be classed according to its extent or jurisdiction over territory and persons as either municipal (internal) or international law.

§ 400. The private municipal (internal) law, may be divided, in respect to its source and extent over territory, into

1. National municipal (internal) law,-contained in the Constitution or proceeding from the general legislative powers of Congress, having national operation and effect throughout the dominion of the United States, whether States or Territories, &c.

2. Local municipal (internal) laws,-proceeding from the powers reserved to the States, or from the legislation of Congress over the Territories, &c., and having operation or effect therein only.

§ 401. The private international law of the United States may be divided according to the persons upon whom it operates, or in reference to whom it exists-as either:

1. International law applied to domestic aliens—those who, within the jurisdiction of a State, are alien to it, but not to the jurisdiction of the national Government: which part may, in

distinction from the other, be denominated the domestic international law of the United States.

2. International law applied to foreign aliens-those who are at the same time aliens to the jurisdiction of the national Government, and to that of any State in which they may enter.

§ 402. The first of the above named divisions of international law-domestic international law-may again be divided in reference to its source and authority into:

1. That law which, though international, by the character of the persons to whom it applies, is identified in its source and authority with the national municipal (internal) law, and which therefore, if acting on private persons, is law in the strict sense, independently of the will of the several States in which it operates; which division, in distinction from the second, may be properly denominated quasi-international law. This law is found either:

a. In the Constitution itself operating as private law; or, b. In the legislation of Congress under the Constitution.

2. That which, though international by the character of the persons to whom it applies, is identified in its authority with some local municipal (State) law; and which, if distinguished from the last in its origin, source, or authority, is not law in the strict sense of the word.

§ 403. The second of the above principal divisions of the international law, viz., that applying to foreign aliens, may also be subdivided into two parts, according to the jurisdiction of that municipal law in reference to which the person is considered an alien.

1. That law which determines the relations of foreign aliens in reference to the national municipal law. This, though international from the character of the persons to whom it applies, will be a law in the imperfect sense only for the power from which the national municipal law proceeds, and in legal authority is identified with that law.

2. That law which determines the relations of foreign aliens in reference to the local municipal laws of the several States. This again may be distinguished either as :

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a. Law resting on the source of the national municipal law, and therefore identified in authority with the first of these subdivisions.

b. Law resting on the source of that local municipal law in reference to which the relations of the foreign aliens are considered, and therefore identified with it in its authority, as law in the strict sense.

§ 404. Wherever sovereign national power is divided between different depositories, freedom or its opposites may be considered in reference to the action of each possessor of any portion of that power: because every exercise of power limits or extends freedom of action in some relation. When freedom and its opposites are considered as legal conditions, consisting in different degrees of liberty of action in various relations created by law, the whole of jurisprudence is nothing else than the definition of those conditions.

The further consideration of freedom and its opposites in the United States is to be made by tracing the effects of the laws, included under the division above made, in creating or sustaining rights and obligations incident to the condition or status of private persons.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE NATIONAL MUNICIPAL (INTERNAL) LAW OF THE UNITED

STATES ITS EFFECT UPON CONDITIONS OF FREEDOM AND ITS OPPOSITES.

§ 405. Since the freedom herein to be considered is only such legal freedom from the control of others and general liberty of social action as includes the possession of individual rights and legal capacity for the ordinary relative rights attributed to persons in a civil state, and bondage, or servitude is viewed as a condition consisting in a greater or less diminution of such possession or capacity, (whether including the idea of chattel condition or not,) the several divisions of the private law of the United States, given in the preceding chapter, will hereinafter be regarded in respect to its effect on the possession or enjoyment of these rights, or as forming a law of status or personal condition.

The first division of private municipal law in the preceding chapter, was that called national municipal law; which was defined to be that contained in the Constitution, or proceeding from the legislative power of the national Government, and having general extent and effect upon persons and things throughout the dominion of the United States, whether States or Territories.

§ 406. In the introductory analysis of the topics of the law, or of jurisprudence, it was shown that the first distinction known to the law is that between persons and things; and that, under any system of law wherein that distinction is attached to natural persons, the attribution of the legal character