slaves of the first man of superior military rank they met, and be absolutely ready to kill whomsoever they were ordered to kill; to kill men of oppressed nationalities, and their own working men standing up for their rights, and even their own fathers and brothers,—as was publicly proclaimed by that most barefaced of potentates, William ii.
That horrible measure, outraging all many best feelings in the grossest manner, was, under the influence of patriotism, acquiesced in without murmur by the people of Germany. It resulted in their victory over the French. That victory yet further excited the patriotism of Germany, and afterwards of France, Russia, and the other Powers; and all the men of the continental countries unresistingly submitted to the introduction of general military service, i.e. to a state of slavery, involving a degree of humiliation and submission incomparably worse than any slavery of the ancient world. After this servile submission of the masses to the calls of patriotism, the audacity, cruelty, and insanity of the governments knew no bounds. A competition in the usurpation of other people's lands in Asia, Africa, and America began,—evoked partly by whim, partly by vanity, and partly by covetousness,—and was accompanied by ever greater and greater distrust and enmity between the governments.
The destruction of the people on the lands seized, was accepted as a quite natural
