Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/484

464 4^4 HARVARD LAW REVIEW, OUR NEW POSSESSIONS.^ ON the part of many who are dealing with the important ques- tions now agitating the country there is to be observed, in the newspapers and elsewhere, a great deal of two things, which may be called, in homely phrase, crying over spilled milk, and jump- ing before you reach the stile ; a great deal also of bad constitu- tional law, bad political theory, and ill-understood history. When we elect persons to office they have the power of commit- ting us to courses of conduct and to policies which may be very unacceptable to us. Perhaps war may be made, when we person- ally abhor it ; perhaps peace may be made on terms very repugnant to us; perhaps the whole traditional policy of the country may be reversed, contrary to our wishes ; schemes may be forwarded which we have always opposed as fraught with the utmost danger. Whether we like it or not, the accomplishment of such results is often fully in the power of our public servants. It is we ourselves that have given them the power; they hold our commission, and we are bound by their acts. When such results have actually been accomplished, what are we to do? We may abandon the country and go elsewhere. We may sit down and cry over the calamity. We may quarrel with the facts, and refuse to recognize them. I think it is better to face them, however unwelcome, and seek to shape the future as best we may. Let me make a preliminary application of these remarks, so as to leave entirely clear my own point of view on one subject, and to get it behind us, in this discussion. Doubtless this Spanish war has brought about a great benefit to mankind, by ending the misrule of Spain in her American colonies, and almost ending it in her Asiatic ones. That these regions will themselves be much better off under any probable government that now awaits them, ^ This paper was prepared for a non-professional audience, to wiiich it was read on January 9 last. The writer has hesitated about submitting to the learned readers o£ this Review a paper somewhat too slight, perhaps, for their consideration, and in danger, moreover, of becoming antiquated before it can be published. In assenting to this use of it he is influenced by the important nature of some of the suggestions here made, — as they appear to him, — and by the fact that he cannot undertake to remodel it.