Beadle's Dime National Speaker, Embodying Gems of Oratory and Wit, Particularly Adapted to American Schools and Firesides: Speaker Series Number 2, Revised and Enlarged Edition
General
Beadle's Dime National Speaker, Embodying Gems of Oratory and Wit, Particularly Adapted to American Schools and Firesides: Speaker Series Number 2, Revised and Enlarged Edition
Recitations
Why has this association of American women been formed? For the
purpose of purchasing, preserving, reclaiming and protecting that
spot we have just left, so sacred in our historic annals and in the
nation's memory. It is because the man who lies there buried is not
the mere hero of a novel--not the mere hero of to-day--not the mere
soldier who achieved with his own sword his own fortune--not your
Sultan Mohammed or Emperor Napoleon, who, with bloody ambition,
created an empire on the Bosphorus or a dynasty on the Seine. The
career of these heroes of the battle-field is as yonder blood-red
moon, just risen above the Potomac, compared with the bright
effulgence of the noonday sun, which shines with no borrowed light, as
an auriole around the memory of George Washington. He can be addressed
at this day, when he is so canonized in our hearts, only in the
language of that poetry which has likened him to the brightest imagery
which the material universe can furnish. He has been spoken of as the
illustrious but lost Pleiad in our American constellation.
AMERICA vs. ENGLAND.--_David Dudley Field._
It has been said that if a new dictionary were now to be published
in England, another definition of neutrality would have to be
given. Certain it is that much of what has taken place on the other
side of the ocean during this unhappy war comports little with our
previous understanding of the duties of neutrals. And yet strict
neutrality between belligerents is enjoined as much by philanthropy
as by national honor; for while it protects national independence it
restricts the limits of war. It is thus a rule alike of justice and
of prudence. It springs from principles which lie at the foundation
of international law; that is to say, the independence and the
equality of nations. But there is another rule which springs from
the same principles, and which is as old and as strong as that of
neutrality, and is sometimes confounded with it--that is, the duty
of every nation to abstain from any interference with the internal
concerns of another. To be neutral between two belligerents is to
help neither; to make, or help to make, two belligerents out of the
same nation is to interfere in its internal relations. If it be said
that this is but to recognize and declare a fact, I answer that the
nation itself, as it is equal and independent, is the sole judge of
the fact. The relation of the different parts with each other is
a domestic concern. To assume to recognize and declare relations
which it does not first recognize and declare, is, equally with the
violation of neutrality, a departure from that courtesy and deference
which are due from one nation to another. Both depend upon that public
law of the world which is as old as governments and as eternal as
equity. No nation is so ancient or mighty as to be above it; none so
young or weak as to be below it. Each, as it takes its place in the
family of nations, assumes it in all its plenitude. These rules the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account