The Duel Between France and GermanySumner, Charles
History
The Duel Between France and Germany
Sumner, Charles
Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871
The greatest minds in Germany have dealt with this problem, and
given to its solution the exactness of science. No greater have
been applied to any question. Foremost in this list, in time and
in fame, is Leibnitz, that marvel of human intelligence, second,
perhaps, to none in history, who, on reading the "Project of
Perpetual Peace" by the Abbe de Saint-Pierre, pronounced this
judgment: "I have read it with attention, and am persuaded that
such a project is on the whole feasible, and that its execution
would be one of the most useful things in the world." [Footnote:
Observations sur le Projet d'une Paix Perpetuelle de M. l'Abbe de
Saint-Pierre: Opera, ed. Dutens, (Genevae, 1768,) Tom. V. p. 56.]
Thus did Leibnitz affirm its feasibility and its immense
usefulness. Other minds followed, in no apparent concert, but in
unison. I may be pardoned, if, without being too bibliographical,
I name some of these witnesses.
At Goettingen, renowned for its University, the question was
opened, at the close of the Seven Years' War in 1763, in a work by
Totze, whose character appears in its title, "Permanent and
Universal Peace in Europe, according to the Plan of Henry IV."
[Footnote: Der ewige und allgemeine Friede in Europa, nach dem
Entwurf Heinrichs IV.] At Leipsic, also the seat of a University,
the subject was presented in 1767 by Lilienfeld, in a treatise of
much completeness, under the name of "New Constitution for
States," [Footnote: 2 Neues Staatsgebaeude.] where, after exposing
the wretched chances of the battlefield and the expense of
armaments in time of peace, the author urges submission to
Arbitrators, unless a Supreme Tribunal is established to
administer International Law and to judge between nations. In 1804
appeared another work, of singular clearness and force, by Karl
Schwab, entitled "Of Unavoidable Injustice," [Footnote: Ueber das
unvermeidliche Unrecht.] where the author describes what he calls
the Universal State, in which nations will be to each other as
citizens in the Municipal State. He is not so visionary as to
imagine that justice will always be inviolate between nations in
the Universal State, for it is not always so between citizens in
the Municipal State; but he confidently looks to the establishment
between nations of the rules which now subsist between citizens,
whose differences are settled peaceably by judicial tribunals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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