The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-07-28
INDEPENDENCE

The latest American note is a de-
liberate and aggressive statement of
the rights of the people of this coun-
try, and a refusal onNthe part Of this
free people to barter their rights up
on the open seas for any promised
concessions on the part of a govern
ment which recognizes no law, and
no right, except the law and right of
might. The government, which
without cause and without excuse in
vaded and laid waste the fields of
Belgium, has received a warning that
this country will not surrender its
rights under international law at the
behest of fifty years of preparation
for war, and that the American peo-
pie will spill their blood in defense
of the open seas, rather than compro-
mise and surrender the principles
recognized by all nations in time of
war, except Germany.
The German people have the same
right to warn passengers about to
embark on ships for passage on the
open seas of the danger of being
murdered, and then to murder
them, that a bandit has to warn a
citizen of this town not to walk the
streets of his own home city, then
to murder him for so doing, and ex-
pect to escape his just punishment
as a manslayer. The rights Of
the American people upon the
open sea- cannot be taken away
by the mere warning from Germany
that if these rights are attempted to
be enjoyed, a crime will be com
mitted against the law of nations.
The German government does not
deny, it admits, that American citi-
zens have a right to passage upon
enemy passenger ships on the open
seas and that such ships cannot under
international law be attacked and
destroyed until the ships have first
been searched, and all passengers re-
moved to places Of safety. Con-
ceding this right, on what principle
of law, morals or right can any man
assume to say that American citizens
cannot enjoy these rights, and that
if they are murdered in, the attempt,
the German government is not to be
held accountable for the crime? May
a man escape murder because he
warns another man Tin the assertion
of his own rights that he is about
to be killed?
The American government refuses
the preposterous proposition put
forward in the latest German note
that this government surrender. its
rights upon the open seas, and that
passengers from this country take
passage upon certain ships desig-
mated by the German government,
of the passage Of which the German
Government shall be duly informed.
This is a great concession to a free
people, enjoying rights under inter-
national law, guaranteed by all ma
lions in time of peace, even Germany
itself. The reply is a rebuke to
the presumption of German states.
men, as it is likewise to those disci-
pies of ex~pediency on this side of the
water, who led by one William Jen-
nings Bryan, would escape a con-
hict in the assertion of cur rights,
at any cost.
If the submarine cannot on &C.
count of its construction and its op-
Grafton be utilized as an instrument
of warfare consonant with the es-
tablished law of nations, should the
law give way? or shall the subma-
rine go? A coward with a pistol in
his pocket may with as much reason,
say that the law of murder must be
disregarded, in order to allow the
man-killer to do his work, as the
German government may say that
international law must be disregard.
ed because the German submarines
cannot be utilized in the war in &C.
cordance with the customs of the
nations.