What Shall We Do with Our Dependencies Author:Moorfield Storey Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Foundation Of Each Theory. Let us ask ourselves, in the first place, What principles underlie these opposing theories ? Disguise it as we will, the claim ... more »of one people that it is superior to and therefore entitled to rule another rests upon no better moral foundation than the heathen maxim, '' Might makes right.'' The ancient traveller Mandeville stated a universal truth when he said, " For fro what partie of the erthe that men duellen, other aboven or beneathen, it semethe alweys to hem that duellen that thei gon more righte than any other folke." History contains no instance of a people admitting its inferiority and yielding on that account to a foreign ruler. Rome conquered Greece, Alaric overran Italy and captured Rome, Constantinople fell before the Turks. The Christian powers of Europe could not wrest the Holy Land from the infidel. Each conqueror felt himself superior to his vanquished foe; but can it be said that the superior civilization triumphed ? Switzerland is perhaps the most highly civilized nation in Europe, but its claim to govern any other country on that account would be preposterous. As well look to see the triumphant prize-fighter obey the gentle admonitions of the next clergyman as expect a people to acknowledge itself inferior, and on that account surrender its liberty. The nation that conquers may govern another; but it prevails by its might, not by its right. On the other hand, the theory that every people has an equal right to govern itself rests upon justice, the only secure foundation for any human institution. A nation which adopts this principle concedes to every other the same rights that it claims for itself. It may advise and help, but not force its advice and help upon an unwilling neighbor by fire and sword. The sun, not the wind, made ...« less