Before considering the treaty or any question of acquisition, we must at least put ourselves right as a nation; nor do I see how this can be done without retracing our steps, and consenting to act in subordination to International Law and the Constitution of the United States.
Sumner insists that the nation must align itself with international law and the Constitution before discussing treaty matters.
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According to recent calculations, its annual cost is not less than a thousand millions of dollars.
They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
Nay, more,--if it would be criminal in these several clusters of States to reëstablish the Institution of War as Arbiter of Justice, then is it criminal in the Commonwealth of Nations to continue it.
Again I repeat, so long as the War System prevails under the sanction of International Law, these painful incongruities will be apparent.
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