(Page 164): A State has evidently the right to constitute itself without the ratification of another State. This would be the case when emigrants, for example, found a State upon an uninhabited island, as did the Norwegians in Iceland in the middle ages. A number of new States of North America were founded by individuals; it was only later that they were recognised by England, and to this day they proceed in the same manner in the United States. If new states can in this way constitute themselves, by still stronger reasoning analogous extensions of territory already existing should be recognised.
ANOTHER MANNER OF ACQUIRING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF A FREE COUNTRY
(From Vattel, Le droit des gens, vol. i., page 489, par. 206.)
If free families, scattered over an independent country, unite to form themselves into a nation or a State, they acquire the sovereignty over the whole State which they inhabit, for they possess already the domain; and since they wish to form a political society and to establish a public authority to which all will owe obedience, it is quite manifest that their intention is to confer upon this public authority the right of sovereignty of the whole country.
(From Heffter, Le droit international publique de l’Europe.)
(Pages 32 and 33): The existence of a state supposes the following conditions, to wit:
I. A society capable of existing by itself and independently.
II. A collective will regularly organised, or a public authority charged with the direction of society for the end which we have just indicated.
III. A permanent status of society, the natural base of a free and permanent development, and which depends essentially on the fixity of the tenure of real estate and the intellectual and moral tendencies of its members.
We regard as idle the questions discussed by the schools, such as, What is the number of persons necessary to form a state? or, If one or three persons are sufficient? The distinctive characteristics of a state which we have just indicated sufficiently answer these questions.