No Angry
Clamors Of The Press, No Declamations Of Orators, No Voices From The
People, No Studied Criticisms From The Learned Few, Or Unstudied
Censures From Society At Large, Can Have Any Fair Weight On Such A
Creation Or Do Aught Toward Justifying A National Quarrel.
They
cannot form a casus belli.
Those two Latin words, which we all
understand, explain this with the utmost accuracy. Were it not so,
the peace of the world would indeed rest upon sand. Causes of
national difference will arise - for governments will be unjust as
are individuals. And causes of difference will arise because
governments are too blind to distinguish the just from the unjust.
But in such cases the government acts on some ground which it
declares. It either shows or pretends to show some casus belli.
But in this matter of threatened war between the States and England
it is declared openly that such war is to take place because the
English have abused the Americans, and because consequently the
Americans hate the English. There seems to exist an impression that
no other ostensible ground for fighting need be shown, although such
an event as that of war between the two nations would, as all men
acknowledge, be terrible in its results. "Your newspapers insulted
us when we were in our difficulties. Your writers said evil things
of us. Your legislators spoke of us with scorn. You exacted from
us a disagreeable duty of retribution just when the performance of
such a duty was most odious to us.
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