Hence, as it can be said
of vegetable growths, such as potatoes, as well as of domesticated
animals, that because the abundance in which they are found is a
product of human labour, they may be used, destroyed, and consumed
by man; so it seems that it may be said of the sovereign, as the
supreme power in the state, that he has the right to lead his
subjects, as being for the most part productions of his own, to war,
as if it were to the chase, and even to march them to the field of
battle, as if it were on a pleasure excursion.
This principle of right may be supposed to float dimly before the
mind of the monarch, and it certainly holds true at least of the lower
animals which may become the property of man. But such a principle
will not at all apply to men, especially when viewed as citizens who
must be regarded as members of the state, with a share in the
legislation, and not merely as means for others but as ends in
themselves. As such they must give their free consent, through their
representatives, not only to the carrying on of war generally, but
to every separate declaration of war; and it is only under this
limiting condition that the state has a right to demand their services
in undertakings so full of danger.
We would therefore deduce this right rather from the duty of the
sovereign to the people than conversely.
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