You ignore the fact that most, if not all, of the Founders read and spoke French, the language in which the Law of Nations was written. French was, and still is, the Diplomatic language of the world. (All documents in the United Nations are written in English AND IN FRENCH.)
The Founders were not uneducated. By today’s standards, they were highly “educated.” Take two for example: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Franklin secured the aid of Louis XVI in our Revolution. France was the first country to recognize our new country. Jefferson helped Lafayette write France’s 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens which preceded our Bill of Rights. Our Founding Fathers were imminently qualified to decide the future of the country they had created.
Far too many people think English Law was the basis of our legal structure. I would remind them that English Law spoke to SUBJECTS of the CROWN. America rejected the CROWN and its servants, its subjects. America is founded on the individual rights of its citizens.....a new concept at its origin and one which many nations still cannot understand. “WE THE POPLE” rules our land, not “WE THE KING.”
There are numerous references to a copy of the Law of Nations being sent to Benjamin Franklin by its publisher. Letters and documents such as have been supplied by the Library in Philadelphia show that George Washington borrowed a copy which he never returned. Congress ordered a copy....etc.
The Law of Nations was written in French by the outstanding AUTHORITY of the time on INTERNATIONAL LAW, the Swiss, Emerich de Vattel.
The Law of Nations is cited in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution which refers to the duties and powers of Congress. “To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations.”
There is a mountain of evidence that the Founders used the Law of Nations when writing the Constitution. One simply has to look for it.
With good reason. It's hard to say that the Magna Carta, Locke and English common law didn't have a major influence.
“To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations.”
You really think Article I Section 8 is referring to Vattel's book?