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Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Edition (1856)

NATIONS. Nations or states are independent bodies politic; societies of men
united together for the purpose of promoting their mutual safety and
advantage by the joint efforts of their combined strength.
2. But every combination of men who govern themselves, independently of
all others, will not be considered a nation; a body of pirates, for example,
who govern themselves, are not a nation. To constitute a nation another
ingredient is required. The body thus formed must respect other nations in
general, and each of their members in particular. Such a society 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,
Prelim. Sec. 1, 2; 5 Pet. S. C. R. 52.
3. It belongs to the government to declare whether they will consider a
colony which has thrown off the yoke of the mother country as an independent
state; and until the government have decided on the question, courts of
justice are bound to consider the ancient state of things as remaining
unchanged. 1 Johns. Ch. R. 543; 13 John. 141, 561; see 5 Pet. S. C. R. 1; 1
Kent, Com 21; and Body Politic; State.