non-interference in foreign
matters has been bequeathed to the people of the United States by your
great Washington as a doctrine and as a constitutional principle.
Firstly, Washington never even recommended to you non-interference in
the sense of _indifference_ to the fate of other nations. He only
recommended _neutrality_. And there is a mighty diversity between
these two ideas. Neutrality has reference to a state of war between two
belligerent powers, and it is this case which Washington contemplated,
when he, in his Farewell Address, advised the people of the United
States not to enter into entangling alliances. Let quarrelling powers,
let quarrelling nations go to war--but do you consider your own
concerns; leave foreign powers to quarrel about ambitious topics, or
narrow partial interests. Neutrality is a matter of convenience--not of
principle. But while neutrality has reference to a state of war between
belligerent powers, the principle of non-interference, on the contrary,
lays down the sovereign right of nations to arrange their own domestic
concerns. Therefore these two ideas of neutrality and non-interference
are entirely different, having reference to two entirely different
matters. The sovereign right of every nation to rule over itself, to
alter its own institutions, to change the form of its own government, is
a common public law of nations, common to all, and, _therefore, put
under the common guarantee of all_. This sovereign right of every
nation to dispose of itself, you, the people of the United States must
recognize; for it is the common law of mankind, in which, because it is
such, every nation is equally interested. You must recognize it,
secondly, because the very existence of your great republic, as also the
independence of every nation, rests upon this ground. If that sovereign
right of nations were no common public law of mankind, then your own
independence would be no matter of right, but only a matter of fact,
which might be subject, for all future time, to all sorts of chances
from foreign conspiracy and violence. And where is the citizen of the
United States who would not revolt at the idea that this great republic
is not a righteous nor a lawful existence, but only a mere accident--a
mere matter of fact? If it were so, you were not entitled to invoke the
protection of God for your great country; for the protection of God
cannot, without sacrilege, be invoked but in behalf of justice and
ri