“The invitation of one party to a civil war can afford no
right of foreign interference, as against the other party. The
same reasoning holds good with respect to armed intervention,
whether between belligerent states or between belligerent
parties in the same state.”[77]
Armed Intervention, or, as I would say, Belligerent Intervention, is
thus defined by Halleck:--
“Armed intervention consists _in threatened or actual force_,
employed or to be employed by one state in regulating or
determining the conduct or affairs of another. Such an
employment of force is virtually _a war_, and must be justified
or condemned upon the same general principles as other
wars.”[78]
Applying these principles to existing facts already set forth, it is
easy to see that the belligerent intervention of the United States
in the internal affairs of Dominica, maintaining the usurper Baez
in power, especially against Cabral, was contrary to acknowledged
principles of International Law, and that the belligerent intervention
between Dominica and Hayti was of the same character. Imagine our Navy
playing the fantastic tricks on the coast of France which it played on
the coasts of San Domingo, and then, still further, imagine it entering
the ports of France as it entered the ports of Hayti, and you will see
how utterly indefensible was its conduct. In the capital of Hayti it
committed an act of war hardly less flagrant than that of England at
the bombardment of Copenhagen. Happily blood was not shed, but there
was an act of war. Here I refer to the authorities already cited, and
challenge contradiction.
To vindicate these things, whether in Dominica or in Hayti, you must
discard all acknowledged principles of International Law, and join
those who, regardless of rights, rely upon arms. Grotius reminds us of
Achilles, as described by Horace:--
“Rights he spurns
As things not made for him, claims all by arms”;
and he quotes Lucan also, who shows a soldier exclaiming:--
“Now, Peace and Law, I bid you both farewell.”
The old Antigonus, who, when besieging a city, laughed at a man who
brought him a dissertation on Justice, and Pompey, who exclaimed, “Am
I, when in arms, to think of the laws?”[79]--these seem to be the
models for our Government on the coasts of San Domingo.