Any peace
which does not recognize and accept this principle will inevitably be
upset. It will not rest upon the affections or the convictions of
mankind. The ferment of spirit of whole populations will fight subtly
and constantly against it, and all the world will sympathize. The world
can be at peace only if its life is stable, and there can be no
stability where the will is in rebellion, where there is not
tranquillity of spirit and a sense of justice, of freedom, and of right.
So far as practicable, moreover, every great people now struggling
towards a full development of its resources and of its powers should be
assured a direct outlet to the great highways of the sea. Where this
cannot be done by the cession of territory, it can no doubt be done by
the neutralization of direct rights of way under the general guarantee
which will assure the peace itself. With a right comity of arrangement
no nation need be shut away from free access to the open paths of the
world's commerce.
And the paths of the sea must alike in law and in fact be free. The
freedom of the seas is the _sine qua non_ of peace, equality, and
cooeperation.
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