Page:Ernest Belfort Bax - A Short History of the Paris Commune (1895).djvu/94



following are reprints of two pamphlets which were issued by the General Council of the International Working-Men's Association during the progress of the War of 1870 and on the Communal rising in the spring of 1871.

the inaugural Address of the of November, 1864, we said:—"If the emancipation of the working-classes requires their fraternal concurrence, how are they to fulfil that great mission with a foreign policy in pursuit of criminal designs, playing upon national prejudices and squandering in piratical wars the people's blood and treasure?" We defined the foreign policy aimed at by the International in these words:—"Vindicate the simple laws of morals and justice, which ought to govern the relations of private individuals, as the laws paramount of the intercourse of nations."

No wonder that Louis Bonaparte, who usurped his power by exploiting the war of classes in France, aid perpetuated it by periodical wars abroad, should from the first have treated the International as a dangerous foe. On the eve of the plebiscite he