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But while the majority make the laws, the consciences and convictions of the minority are not changed thereby.
Each man's conscience must be a final law unto himself.
It is well for it to be so. I only enlarge upon this for a moment to show that on all moral questions every intelligent man must in a meas-
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A discovery.
Act I. |
ure make his own law, having Conscience as a guide.
The view which the average soldier took was, as already intimated, in harmony with the international law quoted.
This view was, in substance, that the people of the
South were in a state of rebellion against the government, notwithstanding that they had been duly
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A discovery.
Act II. |
warned to desist from war and return to their allegiance; that they had therefore forfeited all claim to whatever property the soldier chose to appropriate; that this was one of the risks they assumed when they raised the banner of secession; that for this and perhaps other reasons,