Vain are lessons of the past or texts of prudence against that
spirit of War which finds sanction and regulation in International
Law. So long as the war system continues, men will fight. While I
speak, the two champions still stand front to front, Germany
exulting in victory, but France in no respect submissive. The duel
still rages, although one of the champions is pressed to earth, as
in that early combat where the Chevalier Bayard, so eminent in
chivalry, thrust his dagger into the nostrils of his fallen foe,
and then dragged his dead body off the field. History now repeats
itself, and we witness in Germany the very conduct condemned in
the famous French knight.
The French Emperor was the aggressor. He began this fatal duel.
Let him fall,--but not the people of France. Cruelly already have
they expiated their offence in accepting such a ruler. Not always
should they suffer. Enough of waste, enough of sacrifice, enough
of slaughter have they undergone. Enough have they felt the
accursed hoof of War.
It is easy to see now, that, after the capitulation at Sedan,
there was a double mistake: first, on the part of Germany, which,
as magnanimous conqueror, should have proposed peace, thus
conquering in character as in arms; and, secondly, on the part of
the Republic, which should have declined to wage a war of
Imperialism, against which the Republican leaders had so earnestly
protested. With the capitulation of the Emperor the dynastic
question was closed. There was no longer pretension or pretext,
nor was there occasion for war. The two parties should have come
to an understanding. Why continue this terrible homicidal,
fratricidal, suicidal combat, fraught with mutual death and
sacrifice? Why march on Paris? Why beleaguer Paris? Why bombard
Paris? To what end? If for the humiliation of France, then must it
be condemned.