Lyman Abbott

“ But after a little the conquering nation saw that it could do something better than flay its prisoners alive: it could make slaves of them and set them to work. So slavery came as the product of war. It was found better to make man work for you than to flay him alive. Later it was discovered that a community could enrich itself more by not making its captives slaves, but by bringing them into the community and making them free men ”

“ As soon as the nation begins to get a corporate intelligence it must have a court; as soon as it begins to get a corporate will it must have a legislature. We have already organized an organ of international intelligence in the Hague Tribunal. Our next step is to bring to this corporate intelligence the problems of justice that perplex us, and settle them, not by our pride, not by our selfishness, but by our brains. ”

“ One way is to build up armies and navies and get ready for the worst war the world has ever seen. The other way is for China, Japan, Europe, and America to organize a common intelligence through an international court, a common will through an interparliamentary union, and under their guidance select a common chief of the police, call him what you will—that is the other way. It is the sane way. It is the righteous way. It is the way in which lies peace. The world is moving very fast—very fast. ”

“ In our own time I do not think it is too much to say that the Supreme Court of the United States has done as much to guide the Nation in the new channels and the new life on which it is entering as Congress has done. The court is the intelligence of the community applied to the problem of rightly adjusting its customs, its habits, its State or National life. But the State has not only an intelligence to understand, it also has a will by which it can vary its customs. This will is expressed through the legislature. ”

“ He who would run ahead of God’s chariot must gird up his loins and run rapidly. What we want to-day is not merely a court to settle international difficulties—that we have already; not merely a body of men to consult together on international matters, though we are going to have that; what we want is a common international consciousness and a common international life. ”

“ Just as long as we have this conception that England must have her armies and navies to protect her interests, America her army and navy to protect her interests, France her army and navy to protect her interests, Germany her army and navy to protect her interests, so long we shall have more or less of competition between the contending nations, each determined at least to be strong enough to resist its neighbor if it is attacked. ”

“ This is because at first the people have no organic intelligence and no organic will; there are a great many different wills and a great many different opinions, but no organized intelligence, no organized will. Therefore they are subject to the intelligence and the will of the imperial dictator, the Napoleon, the Cæsar, the Czar. But just as soon as the nation comes to possess a national consciousness, as soon as it comes to possess a national will, it demands a legislature. ”

“ To-day Europe is pretending to dread the yellow peril, without reason, and China is dreading the white peril, and with very good reason. How shall we of the West avoid the yellow peril, and they of the East avoid the white peril? ”

“ What does the development of law, first in the individual, then in the community, indicate respecting the future development of law which we are to hope for among the nations of the earth?
Every act oft repeated becomes a habit; habit long continued becomes a second nature. Thus we as individuals grow into a subjection to the laws of our own nature which we have ourselves helped to make. ”

“ I suppose there is not a mother in this room who has not had the experience of a child organizing in himself a duma, and she has been just as much puzzled to know what to do with the child with a duma as the Czar of Russia is puzzled what to do with a nation with a duma. ”

“ I mean this—that if the State is to act as an organism, it must have an organized thought—that is, a court or courts—to think for it; and if the civilized world is to act as an organism, it must have an organized international thought—that is, an international court ”

“ The next step to be taken is the organization of the will of the civilized world. It is true that in the history of nations the executive has generally preceded the legislative, because despotism preceded liberty. ”

“ But, having this organized thought, and having agreed to submit our questions to it, we must take the next step in world organization; we must have an organized will. We must have some organ by which, as the community acts as a community, the nations of the world can also act as a community ”