HILL— WORLD ORGANIZATION. 327 



better organization of the world. The right of superior aggressive 

 force once admitted, no matter how noble and elevated its aims may 

 be, imperialism has triumphed; and, if imperialism is to triumph, 

 it will create its own rules of action in defiance of international law. 



The Antagonism of the Constitutional and the Imperial 



Ideals. 



As the basis of any practicable scheme of world organization, it 

 is necessary to lay down the postulate, that every free community of 

 men may form a government for the protection of their inherent 

 rights. But this fundamental political right, which we call by the 

 ambiguous name " sovereignty," is by no means an unlimited right. 

 It is necessarily limited by the similar right of other coexistent com- 

 munities; and, from the constitutional point of view, it is further 

 limited by the fact that there are inherent personal rights, which no 

 government may justly take away. 



I am aware that a contrary view is held, which maintains the 

 unlimited right of majorities to determine what the law may be; 

 but, upon this principle, it is evident that the greater Powers, simply 

 by the preponderant weight of numbers, might wholly extinguish 

 the smaller nations. That is the theory of imperialism, which claims 

 an unlimited right of national expansion, restrained only by the 

 measure of power to carry it into execution. Its motto is " Might 

 makes right." 



Constitutionalism, on the contrary, proceeds upon the principle 

 that local liberty should be secured by general law. It is opposed 

 to forcible aggression, and resorts to force only in its own defense. 

 It accords to a neighbor the same rights that are claimed by itself. 

 It proposes a gradual substitution of law for force in the regulation 

 of the world. 



The Outlawry of Violence. 



Being itself a product of a long process of social evolution, and 

 dependent for its very existence upon those growths of mind and 

 character that qualify men for self-government, constitutionalism 

 cannot expect an immediate or an easy triumph. It must patiently 

 abide its time, until the nations shall have acquired the wisdom to 



