But no one asks or expects anything more than an
equality of rights. Mankind is looking now for freedom of life, not for
equipoises of power.
And there is a deeper thing involved than even equality of right among
organized nations. No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not
recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their
just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere
exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they
were property. I take it for granted, for instance, if I may venture
upon a single example, that statesmen everywhere are agreed that there
should be a united, independent, and autonomous Poland, and that
henceforth inviolable security of life, of worship, and of industrial
and social development should be guaranteed to all peoples who have
lived hitherto under the power of governments devoted to a faith and
purpose hostile to their own.
I speak of this, not because of any desire to exalt an abstract
political principle which has always been held very dear by those who
have sought to build up liberty in America, but for the same reason that
I have spoken of the other conditions of peace which seem to me clearly
indispensable,--because I wish frankly to uncover realities.
Pages:
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323