The right then of conquest
extends only to the lives of those who joined in the war, not to
their estates, but only in order to make reparation for the
damages received, and the charges of the war, and that too with
reservation of the right of the innocent wife and children.
Sec. 183. Let the conqueror have as much justice on his
side, as could be supposed, he has no right to seize more than
the vanquished could forfeit: his life is at the victor's mercy;
and his service and goods he may appropriate, to make himself
reparation; but he cannot take the goods of his wife and
children; they too had a title to the goods he enjoyed, and their
shares in the estate he possessed: for example, I in the state of
nature (and all commonwealths are in the state of nature one with
another) have injured another man, and refusing to give
satisfaction, it comes to a state of war, wherein my defending by
force what I had gotten unjustly, makes me the aggressor. I am
conquered: my life, it is true, as forfeit, is at mercy, but not
my wife's and children's. They made not the war, nor assisted in
it. I could not forfeit their lives; they were not mine to
forfeit. My wife had a share in my estate; that neither could I
forfeit. And my children also, being born of me, had a right to
be maintained out of my labour or substance.
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