This Government would be glad to see an international consideration of the subject which shall discriminate between such cases and the simple nonperformance of a contract with a private person, and a resolution in favor of reliance upon peaceful means in cases of the latter class.
"Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present"
Various
7 The performance or nonperformance of an act may be the object of a stipulation no less than the delivery of property, though where this is the case, it will be best to connect the nonperformance of the act to be performed, or the performance of the act to be omitted, with a pecuniary penalty to be paid in default, lest there be doubt as to the value of the act or omission, which will make it necessary for the plaintiff to prove to what damages he is entitled.
"The Institutes of Justinian"
Caesar Flavius Justinian
The nonperformance may be treated as a breach of warranty.
"Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman"
Albert Sidney Bolles