He’s talking about expatriation there,Yes, Vattel believed that the citizen belongs to the all-powerful State and that it is proper for the State to prevent citizens from attempting to escape to another country if the State believes that the citizen's labor is useful to the State.
And, then there's this:
Vattel on Taxes
From Each According to His Abilities . . .§ 240. Taxes.
If the income of the public property, or of the domain, is not sufficient for the public wants, the state supplies the deficiency by taxes. These ought to be regulated in such a manner, that the citizens may pay their quota in proportion to their abilities, and the advantages they reap from society. . . ." - Vattel, The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law,Book 1, Chapter 20, § 240
So, where did you think Marx got some of his ideas for communism? To Vattel, citizens were nothing more than useful tools for the State.
Americans will never adopt Vattel's crackpot ideas about citizenship or anything else. Americans believe that, by the grace of God, citizens are free!
I think you are in way over your head in this discussion. Even the FogBow people admit that Jefferson used Vattel as the BASIS of our Declaration of Independence, His notes on the Declaration are all over his copy of "Droit des Gens" and the ideas which were eventually adopted as American Principles show up no where else than Vattel's "Law of Nations."
As I mentioned, it is no wonder that the American Republic would have been based on the writings of a SWISS philosopher. Switzerland was the ONLY NATION IN THE WORLD which had overthrown a Monarchy and established a Republic.
It was the only thing remotely similar to what the American Colonies were attempting to create. I see it as natural that they would look at the organization of the Swiss government and the writings of Swiss Jurists, because no other facsimile of what they wanted to create existed elsewhere in the world, or in History.
