EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix
The reader of this book will see, at almost every stage
in the questions of the last thirty years, traces of the labors
of.Mr. Wheaton, especially in the subjects of the abolition
and capitalizing of the Sound Dues and the Scheldt Dues
and the tolls on the Elbe, the extradition of criminals, and
the lines of distinction established as to the exemption of
naturalized citizens of the United States from certain claims
of their former sovereigns. But there was scarcely a topic
affecting the interests of his country, or the science of international and public law, or the political and social condition of his kind, in which he did not interest himself;
contributing pamphlets to the press, articles to the leading
journals of Europe and America, and maintaining a correspondence with the philosophical and literary societies on
both sides of the Atlantic, of which he was an honored
member. In 1831, he published his valuable History of the
Northmen, which was afterwards published in French at
Paris. In 1838 appeared the History of Scandinavia,- the
joint work of himself and Dr. Crichton.
In 1841, Mr. Wheaton wrote an essay for a prize offered
by the French Institute, on the subject, " L'Histoire du
Droit des Gens en Europe, depuis la Paix de Westphalie
jusqu'au Congres de Vienne." He afterwards enlarged it
into a treatise on the History of the Law of Nations in
Europe and America, from the earliest times to the treaty
of Washington in 1842. This was published in English, in
New York, in 1845, - the preface being dated at Paris
in 1843; and in French, in 1846, at Leipsic and Paris.
To his great work, the Elements of International Law,
Mr. Wheaton, in some form or other, gave the greater part
of his life after his twenty-fifth year. For the duties of a