The State is a much more tremendous entity than it is to Englishmen or
Americans; it is the supreme power, with a sort of mystic sanctity--a
power conceived of, as it were, self-created; a force altogether
distinct from and superior to the persons who compose it. But a State
is, after all, only so many individuals organized under a Government. It
is no wiser, no more righteous than the human beings of whom at
consists, and whom it sets up to govern it. If it is right for persons
united as citizens into a State to rob and murder for their collective
advantage by their collective power, why should it be wicked for
citizens, as individuals, to do so? Does their moral responsibility
cease when and because they act together? Most legal systems hold that
there are acts which one man may lawfully do which become unlawful if
done by a number of men conspiring together; but now it would seem that
what would be a crime in persons as individuals, is high policy for
those persons united in a State. Has the State, then, no morality, no
responsibility? Is there no such thing as a common humanity? Are there
no duties owed to it? Is there none of that "decent respect to the
opinions of mankind," which the framers of the Declaration of
Independence recognized? No sense that even the greatest States are
amenable to the sentiment of the civilized world?
How Weaker States Are Affected.
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