Wation

A people, or aggregation of men, existing in the form of an organized jural society, inhabiting a distinet portion of the earth, speaking the same language, using the same customs, possessing historic continuity, and distinguished from other like groups by their raciai origin and characteristics, and generally, but not necessarily, living under the same government and sovereignty. Besides the element of autonomy or self-govern- Tent, that is, the independence of the community ag awhols from the interference of any foreign power in its affairs or any subjection to such power, itis further necessary to the constitution of a nation that it should be an organized jural society, respecting the rights and duties which attach to it as a constituent member of the family of nations. Such a society, says Vattel, has her affairs and her interests; she deliderates and takes resolutions in common; thus becoming a moral person, who pos- 88508 an understanding and will peculiar to herself, and is susceptible of obligations and rights.

Vattel, $$ 1,2.

The words “nation” and “people” are frequently used as synonyms, but there is a great difference between them. A nation is an aggregation of men speaking the same language, having the same customs, and endowed with certain moral qualities whieh distinguish them from other groups of a like nature. It would follow from this definition that a nation is destined to form only one site, and that it constitutes one indivisible whole. Nevertheless, the history of every age presents us with nations divided into several states. Thus, Italy was for centuries divided among several different governments. The people is the collection of all citizens without distinction of rauk or order. All men living under the same government compose the peapte of the state. In relation to the state, the citizens constitute the people; in relution to the buman race, they constitute the nation, A free nation is one not subject to a foreign government, whatever be the constitution of the state; a people is frea when all the citizens can participate iu acertain measure in the direction and in the examination of public affairs. The people is the political body brought into existence by community of laws, and the people may perish with these laws. The nation is the moral body, indepsndent of political revolutions, because it is constituted by inborn qualities which render it indissoluble. The stute is the people organized into a political body. Lalor, Pol. Ene. 8. v. In American constitutional law the word “state” is applied to the several members of the American Union, while the word “aation” is applied to the whole body of the people embraced within the jurisdiction of the federal government, Cooley, Const. Lim. 1, See 7 Wall. 720.