Man has a higher destiny than nations. Can nations be less
amenable to the supreme moral law? Each individual is an atom of the
mass. Must not the mass, in its conscience, be like the individuals of
which it is composed? Shall the mass, in relation with other masses, do
what individuals in relation with each other may not do? As in the
physical creation, so in the moral, there is but one rule for the
individual and the mass. It was the lofty discovery of Newton, that the
simple law which determines the fall of an apple prevails everywhere
throughout the universe, reaching from earth to heaven, and controlling
the infinite motions of the spheres. So, with equal scope, another
simple law, the law of right, which binds the individual, binds also two
or three when gathered together, binds conventions and congregations of
men, binds villages, towns, and cities, binds states, nations, and
races, clasps the whole human family in its embrace, and binds in
self-imposed bonds, a just and omnipotent God.
Stripped of all delusive apology and tried by that comprehensive law
under which nations are set to the bar like common men, war falls from
glory into barbarous guilt, taking its place among bloody
transgressions, while its flaming honors are turned into shame.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326