Edward Everett to Baron de Nagell, February 22, 1819

Mr. Everett to Baron de Nagell.

Eodem, No. 8, (a,) page 605.

It is regarded by the Government of the United States as a settled and unquestionable principle of public law, that the rights and obligations of nations are in no way affected by their internal revolutions in government. Political forms may be altered, different persons or families may be called to the administration, but under every change that occurs, the new government succeeds to all the obligations, as it does to all the duties, of the old one, or, in other words, the nation, though it has changed its rulers, continues to be bound by its own acts. If this were not the case, a nation by changing its rulers, or its form of government, could at any time release itself from all its engagements, a supposition too absurd to be refuted.

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No act of the nation can discharge it from this duty, except the fulfillment of it. These principles are recognized by the great writers on international law, &c.