§ 15. A victorious army, by the martial power inherent in the same, may suspend, change, disacknowledge, or abolish, as far as the martial power extends, the relations which arise from the services due, according to the existing laws of the invaded country, from one citizen, subject, or native of the same to another.
The commander of the army must leave it to the ultimate treaty of peace to settle the permanency of this change.
§ 16. As a general rule, the property belonging to churches, to hospitals, or other establishments of an exclusively charitable or eleemosynary character, to establishments of education, or foundations for the promotion of knowledge, whether public schools, universities, academies of learning or observatories, museums of the fine arts, or of a scientific character—such property shall not be considered by the armies of the United States, public property in the sense of paragraph 14.
In exceptional cases, such as richly endowed churches or convents, their property may be taxed with military contributions.
§ 17. Classical works of art, noble fabrics, libraries, scientific collections, or precious instruments, such as astronomic telescopes, as well as hospitals, must be tenderly secured in the name of common humanity and civilization, against all avoidable injury, even when they are contained in fortified places, whilst besieged or bombarded.
§ 18. If such, works of art, libraries, collections, or instruments belonging to the hostile nation or government, can be removed without injury, the ruler of the conquering state or nation may order them to be seized and removed for the benefit of the said nation. The ultimate ownership is to be settled by the ensuing treaty of peace.
In no case ought they to be sold or given away by the captor or the victorious government during the war, still less ought they ever to be privately appropriated, or wantonly destroyed or injured.
§ 19. The United States acknowledge and protect, in hostile countries occupied by them, religion and morality; unmixed private property—that is to say, property in which neither private and public property, nor the ideas of property and humanity, or person, are mixed;—the persons of the inhabitants, especially those of women; and the sacredness of domestic relations. Offences to the contrary are to be rigorously punished.
This rule does not interfere with the right of the victorious invader to tax the people or their property, to levy forced loans, to billet soldiers, or to appropriate property especially houses, land, boats, or ships, and churches, for temporary and military uses.
§ 20. Private property, unless forfeited by crimes or by offences of the owner against the safety of the army or the dignity of the United States, and after due conviction of the owner by court-martial, can be seized only by way of military necessity, for the support or other benefit of the army or of the United States.