NATION

A people, or aggregation of men, existing in the form of an organized jural society, inhabiting a distinct portion of the earth, speaking the same language, using the same’customs, possessing historic continuity, and distinguished from other like groups by their racial origins and characteristics, and generally, but not necessarily, living under the same government and sovereignty. See Montoya v. TJ. S., 180 U. S. 261, 21 Sup. Ct 358, 45 L. Ed. 521; Worcester v. Georgia, 6 Pet 539, 8 L. Ed. 483; Republic of Honduras v. Soto, 112 N. Y. 310, 10 N. E. 845, 2 L. R. A. 042, 8 Am. St Rep. 744. Besides the element of autonomy or self-government, that is, the independence of the community as a whole from the interference of any foreign power in its affairs or any subjection to such power, it is further necessary to the constitution of a nation that it should be an organized jural society, that is, both governing its own members by regular laws, and defining and protecting their rights, and 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 deliberates and takes resolutions in common; thus becoming a moral person, who possesses 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 ifference between them. A nation is an aggregation of men speaking the same language, having the same customs, and endowed with certain moral qualities which distinguish them from other groups of a like nature. It would follow from this definition that a nation is destined to form only one state, 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 rank or order. All men living under the same government compose the people of the state. In relation to the state, the citisens constitute the people; in relation to the human 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 free when all the citisens can participate in a certain 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, independent of political revolutions, because it is constituted by inborn qualities which render it indissoluble. The state is the people organized into a political body. Lalor v. In American constitutional law the word “state” is applied to the several members of the American Union, while the word “nation” is applied to the whole body of the people embraced within the jurisdiction of the federal government. Cooley, Const. Llm. 1. See Texas v. White, 7 Wall. 720, 19 L. Ed. 227.