In Respublica v. De Longchamps (1784) 1 U.S. 111, 1 Dall. 111, a private citizen threatened and assaulted the French Consul General in Pennsylvania. The Court, in condemning the act, called the incident an "atrocious violation of the law of nations" and referred throughout the opinion to the fact that the assault on an ambassador, by a private individual, was a violation of the law of nations. (Id. at 117.) The U.S. Supreme Court recognized, from the earliest times of our country as a basis for this principle, that "the person of a public minister is sacred and inviolable. Whoever offers any violence to him, not only affronts the Sovereign he represents, but also hurts the common safety and well-being of nations; he is guilty of a crime against the whole world." Respublica v. De Longchamps, 1 U.S. 111, 116, 1 Dall. 111, 1 L.Ed. 59, 62 (1784). The Court held that Though no great bodily pain is suffered by a blow on the palm of the hand, or the skirt of the coat, yet these are clearly within the legal definition of Assault and Battery ...