But that any one can
have a moveable thing on the soil of another as his own is only
possible by contract. Finally, there is the question: "May one of
two neighbouring nations or tribes resist another when attempting to
impose upon them a certain mode of using a particular soil; as, for
instance, a tribe of hunters making such an attempt in relation to a
pastoral people, or the latter to agriculturists and such like?"
Certainly. For the mode in which such peoples or tribes may settle
themselves upon the surface of the earth, provided they keep within
their own boundaries, is a matter of mere pleasure and choice on their
own part (res merae facultatis).
As a further question, it may be asked whether, when neither
nature nor chance, but merely our own will, brings us into the
neighbourhood of a people that gives no promise of a prospect of
entering into civil union with us, we are to be considered entitled in
any case to proceed with force in the intention of founding such a
union, and bringing into a juridical state such men as the savage
American Indians, the Hottentots,and the New Hollanders; or- and the
case is not much better- whether we may establish colonies by
deceptive purchase, and so become owners of their soil, and, in
general, without regard to their first possession, make use at will of
our superiority in relation to them? Further, may it not be held
that Nature herself, as abhorring a vacuum, seems to demand such a
procedure, and that large regions in other continents, that are now
magnificently peopled, would otherwise have remained unpossessed by
civilized inhabitants and might have for ever remained thus, so that
the end of creation would have so far been frustrated? It is almost
unnecessary to answer; for it is easy to see through all this flimsy
veil of injustice, which just amounts to the Jesuitism of making a
good end justify any means.
Pages:
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68