Renunciation under such circumstances would have been equivalent in International Law to abandonment, and that would have been equivalent to anarchy and a race for seizure among the nations that could get there quickest.
Reid warns that renouncing sovereignty without a clear plan could lead to chaos and international conflict.
Share
More from Whitelaw Reid
They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.
It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.
In this way they will surely overcome unjust hostility, and convince even the most prejudiced that the denial to them of any right which citizens may properly exercise is equally unwise and wrong.
Our national experience has demonstrated that public order reposes most securely on the broad base of universal suffrage.