Theism :: :: University of Virginia Library

When solemn inquest is made against a deed of crime,
And judges are gathered under oaths to sacred Right;
If the accused have due notice and rightful hearing,
And all forms be observed as by those who seek for Justice,
And there be no suspicion of malice or levity;
Then, if a grave verdict be announced, with sentence of law,
Man's Conscience is satisfied, and the sentence is held sacred,
Though it deal with the high question of human life;
And the officers of law may carry out the sentence,
Receiving it at second hand, without scruple or hesitation:
Else must the executors of every act re-judge the judgment,
Nor could Justice be enforced at all, if that were needed.
He who obeys lawful power in its ostensibly moral action,
Does not abdicate Conscience or become a tool of evil,
But is a rightful co-operator to a sacred purpose.

But if no forms whatever were used in aid of Justice,
If the accused were not summoned nor his defence heard,
If no effort were made for an impartial tribunal,
If no oath or pledge to Justice were taken by the judges,
If by pleas wholly extraneous a verdict were solicited,
If the judges professed to decide from special interest,
Not on grounds of general justice appropriate to the case;
Or if rage and haste and popular frenzy prevailed;
If appeal to law were rejected in favour of Party:—
Surely we could not then justify the executors of the sentence,
If it enacted injustice or extravagant revenge:
But they would abdicate Conscience, wrongfully and wickedly,
Becoming accomplices and tools in robbery or murder.

So also if a State has quarrel with another State,
And seeks a verdict from an arbitrating tribunal,
Or, where arbitration cannot be, yet aims to be impartial,
And calls an assembly, and pleads for even Justice,
And for Justice' sake desires both sides to be heard

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With publicity and gravity and caution and mature thought,
Avoiding cupidity and ambition and party-spirit;—
If this solemn assembly, pledged by oath to decide upon the Just,
Pronounce verdict against the other State, to be enforced even by War;
Then, should war be decreed, the war ostensibly is lawful:
And though by human infirmity it may still be unjust,
Yet we should exculpate the army which executes the sentence;
Nor might we condemn it as guilty of abdicating Conscience,
When it yields obedience and seeks not to judge the case.

But when the rulers of one State have quarrel with another,
And desire no arbitration nor impartial verdict,
Nor form a Court of Justice and exact oaths of Justice,
But shun public discussion and defining of the Right;
And if they call a Cabinet or a Council or a Parliament,
Plead “reasons of State” and of national Interest,
Invite deliberation on the Expedient, not upon even Right,
But talk of Patriotism as before Justice,
And explode pleas for the Just as unpatriotic,
Or as untruth to one's Party and inconvenient to those in power;
While no judicial forms and oaths or pledges are enforced:—
Then assuredly the war which is decreed under such auspices,
(As that which is decreed secretly by personal will,)
Has no ostensible marks of being righteous and sacred,
Nor can the public vote discharge private conscience.
But the army which executes a war thus decreed,
(If its grounds be unjust or its measures extreme),
Is but a band of murderers and direful robbers,
Tools of tyranny under solemn pretences.
Never will high success make their obedience lawful,
Nor can any declaration of the war lessen its wickedness.
War which is not Sacred, is execrable crime,
Piracy, murder, robbery on huge and horrible scale.