[252] The text of this address is reproduced exactly as it was
delivered, December 17, 1910, only a few notes and references being
added.
[253] On this he is very insistent. He speaks of "cette disposition à la
pitié que l'égalité inspire." According to him, "les passions guerrières
deviendront plus rares et moins vives, à mesure que les conditions seront
plus égales," and elsewhere: "Lorsque le principe de l'égalité ne se
développe pas seulement chez une nation, mais en même temps chez plusieurs
peuples voisins ... ils conçoivent pour la paix un même amour ... et
finissent par considérer la guerre comme une calamité presque aussi grande
pour le vainqueur que pour le vaincu." But this goal has not yet been
reached, and in the meantime, "quel que soit le goût que ces nations aient
pour la paix, il faut bien qu'elles se tiennent prêtes à repousser la
guerre ou, en d'autres termes, qu'elles aient une armée." _Démocratie en
Amérique_, 14th ed., 1865, III, 444, 445, 473, 474.
[254] _Les six livres de la République de Jean Bodin, Angevin_, Paris,
1576; innumerable editions, so great was the success. The work is
expressly written in opposition to that of Machiavelli, "this procurer
of tyrants." Kings may be a necessity, yet the thing of the state is not
theirs, but is the common property of the citizens, _res publica_. No
one on board the ship can play the part of an onlooker, especially in
stormy weather; all on board must bestir themselves and bring such help
as they can: "Depuis que l'orage impétueux a tourmenté le vaisseau de
nostre République avec telle violence que le Patron mesme et les pilotes
sont comme las et recreus (worn out) d'un travail continuel, il faut
bien que les passagers y prestent la main, qui aux voiles, qui aux
cordages, qui à l'ancre, et ceux à qui la force manquera, qu'ils donnent
quelque bon advertissement, ou qu'ils présentent leurs voeux et prières
à Celuy qui peut commander aux vents et appaiser les tempestes, puisque
tous ensemble courent un mesme danger." (Preface, to the magistrate and
poet, the friend of Ronsard, Guy du Faur de Pibrac.) For Bodin, peace is
the ideal; yet "war must be waged to repel violence, in case of
necessity.... The frontier of a well-ordered republic is justice, and
not the point of the lance." ("La frontière d'une république bien
ordonnée est la justice ... et non pas la pointe de la lance.") Such is
the ideal, but since it has not been reached yet, the keeping up of a
permanent military force is a necessity, "and to bestow on it a third of
the revenue is not too much," especially when you have warlike
neighbors, which is the case of "peoples living in fertile and temperate
regions, like France." Bk. V, chap. 5.
[255] _De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri III_, Paris, 1625.
[256] _Projet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe_, 1713-17, 3
vols. The abbé dreamed of a league of all governments in favor of peace;
any of them breaking the pledge, to be attacked by the others.
Differences between states should be arbitrated. A French predecessor of
the abbé had been Emeric Crucé, whose _Nouveau Cynée ou Discours d'Estat
représentant les occasions et moyens d'establir une paix générale et la
liberté du commerce par tout le monde_, was published in Paris, 1623
(modern edition, with an English translation by T.W. Balch,
Philadelphia, 1909). Crucé was in favor of the establishment at Venice
of a Supreme Court of Arbitration, in which every sovereign would have
had his representative: "If any one rebelled against the decree of so
notable a company, he would receive the disgrace of all other princes,
who would find means to bring him to reason" (Balch's ed., p. 104)--a
plan which, in fact, is still under discussion.
In connection with the works of these theorists should be read, _e.g._,
Alberico Gentili's _De Jure Belli_, 1588-98.
[257] First (and only) treaty of alliance, 1778; first treaty of amity
and commerce, 1778; first consular convention, 1788; first treaty for
the aggrandizement of the territory of the United States, 1803. The only
example lacking, and for good reasons, is that of a treaty of peace
following a war.
[258] "Thoughe they do daylie practise and exercise themselves in the
discipline of warre, and not onelie the men but also the women upon
certen appointed daies, lest they should be to seke (_inhabiles_ in the
Latin) in the feate of armes, if nede should require, yet they never go
to battell, but either in defence of their owne countrey, or to drive
out of their frendes lande the enemies that have invaded it, or by their
power to deliver from the yocke and bondage of tirannye some people,
that be therewith oppressed. Which thing they do of meere pitie and
compassion." Ralph Robinson's translation, 1st ed., 1551; ed. Arber, p.
132.
[259] Most of them much less. In this, however, as in so many other
respects, the present war, declared by Germany against Russia, August 1,
1914 (five days before Austria could be persuaded to act likewise),
against France the 3d, against Belgium the 4th, which was tantamount to
declaring it on England too, is an exception.
[260] In connection with Washington's views, those of Franklin
concerning amicable relations between great countries may appropriately
be quoted. He wrote from Passy, on October 16, 1783, to his friend David
Hartley, one of the British plenipotentiaries for the peace: "What would
you think of a proposition, if I sh'd make it of a family compact
between England, France, and America? America would be as happy as the
Sabine girls if she could be the means of uniting in perpetual peace her
father and her husband. What repeated follies are those repeated wars!
You do not want to conquer and govern one another. Why, then, should you
continually be employed in injuring and destroying one another? How many
excellent things might have been done to promote the internal welfare of
each country; what bridges, roads, canals, and other public works and
institutions tending to the common felicity, might have been made and
established with the money and men foolishly spent during the last seven
centuries by our mad wars in doing one another mischief!" _Works_, ed.
Smythe, IX, 107.
[261] "Notwithstanding the support given to the Russian proposition by
France, one of the most martial of the nations, and by various other
governments, the objections voiced by the German delegates were too
serious to be overcome." John W. Foster, _Arbitration and The Hague
Court_, Boston, 1904, p. 32.
[262] Text, _e.g._, in the _Temps_, May 12, 1913.
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