But in these cases We still have judgment here,--that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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And what instruction more bloody than the bombardment of a city, which now returns to plague the French people?
Thus is history something more even than philosophy teaching by example; it is sermon with argument and exhortation.
The simple record of nations preaches; and whether you regard reason or the affections, it is the same.
If nations were wise or humane, they would not fight.
Vain are lessons of the past or texts of prudence against that spirit of War which finds sanction and regulation in International Law.
Enough of waste, enough of sacrifice, enough of slaughter have they undergone.
Enough have they felt the accursed hoof of War.
Why continue this terrible homicidal, fratricidal, suicidal combat, fraught with mutual death and sacrifice?
If for the humiliation of France, then must it be condemned.
The third postulate, demanded alike by justice and humanity, is the establishment of some rule or precedent by which the recurrence of such a barbarous duel shall be prevented.
It will not be enough to obtain a guaranty for Germany; there must be a guaranty for Civilization itself.
Security for the Future was all that our nation required, and this was found in provisions of Law and Constitution establishing Equal Rights.
The practical question will be, Can one nation do wrong to another without paying for the damage, whatever it may be, direct or indirect,--always provided it be susceptible of estimate?
Vast as may be the claim of indemnity, it opens no question so calculated to touch the sensibilities of France as the claim of guaranty already announced by Germany.
But the madcap menace of the French Empire cannot be the measure of German justice.
It is for Germany to show, that, notwithstanding this wildness, she knows how to be just.
There is another consideration, not only of justice, but of public law, which cannot be overcome.
France cannot sell or transfer them against their consent.
Nor can it be forgotten how inconsistent is the guaranty of Dismemberment with that heroic passion for national unity which is the glory of Germany.
But in these coveted provinces it is the love for France, and not for Germany, which prevails.
The Guaranty of Dismemberment, when brought to the touchstone of the three essential conditions, is found wanting.
Dismissing it as unsatisfactory, I come to that other guaranty where these conditions are all fulfilled, and we find security for Germany without offence to the just sentiments of France, and also a new safeguard to civilization.
Against the Guaranty of Dismemberment I oppose the Guaranty of Disarmament.
For Germany there would be on the side of France absolute repose, so that Count Bismarck need not fear another invasion,--while France, saved from intolerable humiliation, would herself be free to profit by the new civilization.
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