"Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor
citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as
when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang":
Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, 14 March 1785 (B 11:16-7)
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"It has been for some time a generally received opinion, that a military man
is not to inquire whether a war be just or unjust; he is to execute his
orders. All princes who are disposed to become tyrants must probably approve
of this opinion, and be willing to establish it; but is it not a dangerous
one, since, on that principle, if the tyrant commands his army to attack and
destroy, not only an unoffending neighbor nation, but even his own subjects,
the army is bound to obey? A negro slave, in our colonies, being commanded
by his master to rob or murder a neighbor, or do any other immoral act, may
refuse, and the magistrate will protect him in his refusal. The slavery then
of a soldier is worse than that of a negro!" Benjamin Franklin to
Benjamin Vaughan, 14 March 1785 (B 11:18-9)
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God grant, that not only the love of liberty, but a thorough knowledge of
the rights of man, may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a
philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface, and say, "This is my
country." Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 4 December 1789 (S
10:72)
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