Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1898 — THE RIGHT OF MIGHT. [ARTICLE]

THE RIGHT OF MIGHT.

War in All Ito Horror Has Been with Us Since the Birth of Time. War has been defined as murder glorified. The scaffold replaced by a triumphal arch would perhaps be more figurative. A condition of things qualified as extra-legal would be more exact. War is the paradox of jurisprudence. It sanctions that which it has forbidden; honors that which it punishes, and rewards that which It reproves. Its criterion is the result There is no question of justice or of injustice. There is a question merely of victory or defeat. The Romans, who, whatever their faults may have been, were not casuists, summed it up in a sentence—vae victis—woe to the vanquished. War and humanity are congenital. They appeared on earth together. In the Old Testament the most ancient chronicle is a tale of murder. There two brothers are fact to face. Their ideas conflict. One kills the other. The brothers are succeeded by families, the latter by clans. There are tents and passions. There are races, nations, empires. But always the conflict of ideas, always the battle which ensues. History has the monotony of the infernal regions. It is made up of groans. The lesson which disengages from it is the right of might. There never has been any other, The early warriors had the whirlwind for ally. The moon was their servant. To aid them the sun stood 'fetill, The terror of Sinai gleamed from tblf SwMtpUtM, Sha wnt

their faces and live. They encroached and conquered. On the rock-bound hill they founded a line of kings. Presently Vengeance incarnate talked Assyrian. They were swept into chains and remained there until it occurred to Cyrus to change the Euphrates’ course. With Alexander, who chased kings hither and thither, came more might. When the Roman eagles pounced upon their prey there was more. There was always more. In history there is little else. Of justice or injustice never a word. Spain knows it. It is might that made her. But might is not eternal. Even Hercules is dead.